Ghost Town DVD / Blu-ray Review
DreamWorks Home Entertainment
| The Movie |
The Extras |
Reviewed by |
| 6.5/10 |
6.5/10 |
Liam |
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"Ghost Town" stars Ricky Gervais as Bertram Pincus, a guy who, after going under the knife for a little routine surgery, dies for a few minutes and wakes up with the ability to see dead people. One of those dead people is Greg Kinnear who enlists Pincus to stop the forthcoming re-marriage of his wife Gwen (Tea Leoni). Pincus is reluctant to help (because as a general rule he hates people -- both living and dead) but he eventually relents if only to get Kinnear to leave him alone. Things take a turn when Pincus falls for Gwen.
That's the basic story of "Ghost Town". I saw this movie earlier this year at the Toronto Film Festival and came to pretty much the same conclusion watching it a 2nd time on Blu-ray disc. "Ghost Town" is a rip off of several other movies you've already seen. The obvious connection is "The Sixth Sense" -- and "Ghost Town" makes no secret of hiding this. (The tagline on the Blu-ray cover even reads "He sees dead people... and they annoy him", a take on the famous "I see dead people" line from the Bruce Willis/Haley Joel Osment thriller.) The other movie that comes to mind is "Ghost" where Patrick Swayze plays a ghost who enlists somebody's help to communicate with his wife. The big difference here is that "Ghost Town" is played for laughs. The problem? In the end, it just isn't very funny.
Extras offered on this Blu-ray disc include a commentary by director/co-writer David Koepp and star Ricky Gervais, your standard behind-the-scenes featurette titled "Making Ghost Town", a brief "Ghostly Effects" video showing some of the computer trickery used to achieve the effects used in the movie, and a gag reel titled "Some People and Do It".
It's not that "Ghost Town" was a bad movie, because it wasn't. It's just that, as much as I like Ricky Gervais, the movie didn't do the best job of showcasing his considerable talents. Which makes me wonder how much better the movie could have been.
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Features
Commentary by David Koepp and Ricky Gervais
Making Ghost Town
Some People Can Do It
Ghostly Effects
Video
Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio
English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD
French 5.1 Doldy Digital
Spanish 5.1 Doldy Digital
Subtitles
English
English SDH
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Release Date
December 27, 2008
Rating
PG-13
Length
102 mins.
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