Joe's Movie Reviews

Friday, July 25, 2008

Ghost Town

There's nothing wrong with a movie that aspires to nothing more than to simply be pleasant and entertaining... I've enjoyed my share of those. But when there are movies to see that are pleasant and entertaining as well as creative, well-written, acted & directed, and are genuinely original and unpredictable, is there any real reason to settle for less? Well, apparently there are a lot of people who think so... I keep seeing evidence that there are vast segments of the moviegoing population who love predictability and WANT to be able to tell what's going to happen in the entire rest of the movie after the first ten minutes. That's, I think, what accounts for movies like "What Happens In Vegas" (which didn't even have the virtue of good acting and writing... or even being pleasant or very entertaining) making so much money. All of this is to lead in to a few brief comments on "Ghost Town", which is indeed pleasant and entertaining, fairly well made, and certainly well acted (at least in a couple of cases), but still feels like the movie equivalent of junk food, and is something you'll probably forget about minutes after you've seen it.

The story deals with a curmudgeonly dentist (played by Ricky Gervais) who goes into the hospital for a routine minor surgical procedure, has a reaction to the anaesthetic, and dies on the table... but only for a few minutes, after which he's revived. He then finds that his brief experience of death has given him the ability to see ghosts (yes, "I see dead people"), and all of those ghosts have unfinished business that they insist HE take care of for them before they can pass on. One of them is especially insistant... a businessman played by Greg Kinnear, whose ex-wife is about to get married to a jerk, Kinnear insisting that Gervais help to break off the engagement.

Does this sound more like a movie premise, or the premise of a typically "wacky" network sitcom to you? It sure sounds like the latter to me, and the movie plays out exactly the same way. Most of the cast perform in exaggerated, mugging-and-then-waiting-for-the-laugh sitcom style, especially Kinnear, whose smug expressions and over-the-top delivery are genuinely irritating (I've liked him in other films, so it's not as if he CAN'T deliver a good, restrained performance). Just like your average sitcom, you also get music and even sound effects that keep telling you what to feel (in case you're too stupid to figure it out for yourself), multiple storylines whose problems all wind up getting resolved within a few minutes near the very end, and unlikable characters who learn the importance of being a good person (actually, there are more lessons learned in this movie than in your average school).

For all of this, the movie is by no means aggressively bad (like "Made Of Honor", for instance, or the previously referenced "What Happens In Vegas"). There are some good, funny gags, some interesting characters, and in particular, a couple of very good performances. The storyline between Kinnear's ex-wife (played by Tea Leoni) and Gervais may be predictable in the extreme (when Gervais starts getting to know Leoni better in order to figure out how to best break up her engagement, is there any audience member who has ever seen a single romantic comedy who will not be able to figure out how the two of them will wind up?), but they both avoid the usual sitcom/romantic comedy performances and create authentic characters in a way that helps you to care about them in spite of the predictability. Gervais in particular is a marvel... practically everything he says or does is hysterical. The man is a comic wonder, and his sarcastic, bitter character is a genuine stich. So there are certainly good points to this movie.

However... and I'm sure you knew there would be a "however"... that's not enough. At least, not enough for me. I suppose it could just be because I've seen so many movies that I know all the tricks and prefer movies that avoid them... and actually LIKE movies that surprise me now and then... but "Ghost Town" doesn't quite do it for me. If you're a regular viewer of "Two And A Half Men" and shows of that sort, it might be more your style. In fact, here's a little test. Do you go into hysterics at the thought of a character (Gervais) whose last name is "Pinkus" constantly being referred to by a supposedly sophisticated, upper-class type (Kinnear) as "Pink Ass" almost all the way through an entire movie? If so, then you should probably rush out to see "Ghost Town" when it finally opens on September 19th. You should probably hurry, though, and not take too long. I have the feeling it might not be around for much longer after that.

2 Comments:

  • Yours is a truly enviable style -- witty and concise, and I feel that you get to the crux of the matter. Definitely one of the best on-line reviewers out there. Surely you must also write for a major metropolitan newspaper? If not, it would be to the detriment of the movie-going public. Keep up the good work, Jose!

    By Blogger Unknown, at 10:01 AM  

  • Thanks, Kelsey. I've often wondered if there is actually anyone else reading these things, so it's always good to know I'm not just writing for an audience of myself. Since I started this blog in December of 2004, I've tried to write the best reviews I can, but also not take the writing or myself too seriously. I guess I'm doing alright in that department, at least I hope so. This sort of thing is enough to make me try to keep up with new posts on this blog more often.

    By Blogger Joe Bunce, at 8:48 AM  

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