Ghost Town (2008)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Simply A Masterpiece

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Ghost Town (2008): Dir: David Koepp / Cast: Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Tea Leoni, Billy Campbell, Kristen Wiig: Hilarious comedy about a shallow existence. Ricky Gervais plays a dentist whom has an operation where he was pronounced dead for seven minutes. Now he is able to see images of deceased people whom request his help in solving issues that prevent them from peace. Directed by David Koepp who previously made such supernatural thrillers as Stir of Echoes and Secret Window. This marks his first supernatural comedy and it is one of his best. Gervais is excellent as the harassed dentist whom avoids social interaction but ultimately learns compassion. Greg Kinnear plays a ghost whom requests his help in preventing his wife, played by Tea Leoni, from marrying another man, who may or may not be as thought. The great thing about Kinnear's role is it is someone who fails to view his own flaws. Leoni begins as a subject of rejection and rudeness by Gervais but she will ultimately discover herself as well as find peace with herself, Kinnear and the economy. Billy Campbell as her fiancé is a more predictable role but works especially in a scene involving laughing gas. Kristen Wiig plays a surgeon who is self involved and ends up working on Gervais. The results in a very funny film with a strong theme regarding one's unit within society. Score: 9 / 10

In Ghost Town, Ricky Gervais plays Bertram Pincus a rude, arrogant and unsympathetic dentist who has a near death experience in hospital.As he was medically dead for seven minutes he has the ability to see dead people. One of them being Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear) who was killed in an accident at the beginning of the film and wants Pincus to stop his widow marrying a human rights lawyer who he thinks is the wrong man for her.Pincus agrees in exchange that Herlihy would leave him alone but discovers the lawyer is a good man and falls for the widow himself but his selfishness backfires on him and his fellow dentist advises him that life would be better if he thought about others and helped people.Gervais has cultivated a persona of the Basil Fawlty kind and here he is making sure that he does not overstretch himself. He plays grouchy very well leaving Tea Leoni, Greg Kinnear and others to be moving and emotional.The film is a cross between Groundhog Day and The Sixth Sense, its not bad, easy going but is nothing more than a time waster.

I can't understand how I missed it. Written and directed by David Koepp, the man who wrote "Apartment Zero" and "Death Becomes Her" with Martin Donovan, a personal hero of mine. Not to mention some of the biggest moneymakers of the last two decades. "Ghost Town" strives for something else, it pinpoints the goodness hidden in the heart of someone who, perhaps, never knew was there. A comedy of personal discovery no less. I was moved and delighted. Ricky Gervais goes through it, stumbling over himself with an innocence that is as real as it is mysterious. I connected with him half way through and it took me by surprise. I was loving a character that at the beginning I thought was funny but despicable. That for me means I've learned something. Thank you.

Yet another quasi-comedy that caters to the formula-happy originality-hating female audiences. (Women, teens, and very daft males: is that all there is when it comes to target audiences these days?) The premise: a stereotypical "a-hole" makes the noble transition to "good guy" with the unexpected aid of some supernatural interference; hardly original. It is certainly more than just a little reminiscent of Phil/Murray from "The Groundhog Day", which also started out funny but then became mediocre and boring as soon as Phil made that very Hollywood-like "noble transition". The difference being that "Groundhog Day" is a brilliant comedy which starts disintegrating only once Phil completes his transition into goody-two-shoes average Joe Shmoe dullard, whereas GT starts falling apart as soon as the movie makes the less-than-noble transition from comedy to romantic soppy quarter-comedy, which occurs far too early – and totally needlessly (aside from the financial gain the producers were hoping to achieve).The premise itself is good, and Gervais is as fun as the average script allows him to be, but this is yet another run-of-the-mill U.S. comedy that eventually (and inescapably) drifts into romantic-arena baloney i.e. runs out of comedic material and replaces gags with hanky-filling moments. It is all-too evident that Gervais had little or nothing to do with the script, because I doubt he would have been happy with cheesy schmaltz dominating more than half the movie. This is a very American movie.The other problem is that the plot-devices utilized to advance the story are flawed. 1) Gervais agrees to help Kinnear because the latter promises to "get rid off the other" ghosts. His explanation regarding how he means to achieve this near-impossible feat? "I am good at convincing people". A feeble explanation at best. These ghosts are: a) persistent, b) desperate, and c) there are a lot of them. How the hell is Kinnear supposed to get them all to leave Gervais alone? Gervais is meant to be an intelligent man; it makes no sense he doesn't question Kinnear's ability to deliver on this absurdly optimistic promise (the way I'm questioning it now here).2) Gervais, who is given to us as a totally solitary misanthrope, suddenly – and without any explanation - shows interest in Leoni. Sillier still, she'd been living in the same building as Gervais, and yet he never even noticed her. So Leoni's speech about a Mummy's dentures suddenly sparked a sexual interest in Gervais? Absurd; inconsistent with the character.3) Kinnear agreeing with Gervais's ridiculous I-will-woo-her plan: quite ridiculous itself. There was a multitude of – much better - ways in which Kinnear could have used Gervais to accomplish his goal, and yet this stubborn, persistent man so quickly agrees with Gervais's far-fetched, silly plan.4) Conveniently enough (for the lazy or clueless screenwriter) the other ghosts do leave Gervais alone, at least for a while. They come and go. (Why aren't they ALWAYS harassing him?) Precisely what Kinnear said to all those frustrated, one-track-mind ghosts to achieve this mysterious success in getting rid of them (for a while at least) is never even hinted at: this part of the script simply wasn't written, because the writer couldn't think of anything. I did say Kinnear's promise was absurd, didn't I? 5) Leoni actually ASKS Gervais to meet up – only a minute after she'd been called "an idiot" by him in the elevator. Not only is he supposed to be out of her league (which is in itself a dubious request for the viewers to accept, seeing as how mediocre this actress looks), but she is already going out with a man whom she's engaged with! Not to mention that she'd been called an idiot by the same man who'd been so rude to her in their previous encounters. This makes absolutely zero sense. 6) They couldn't think of a better way for Gervais to get killed than by being run over by a bus? It's not funny because it made no sense for him to stand in the middle of the road like that – without Leoni saying something like "get away from the road".Just because you're writing a supernatural comedy doesn't mean you don't have to adhere to basic rules of logic or at least base the script on some fundamental common sense regarding human behaviour. In (formulaic) comedies, humour usually only works when there is an underlying realism used as a foundation. Otherwise it gets annoying and/or stupid hence dull in a jiffy.Romantic comedies are so much easier to write (because you only need a few gags), and women drag their husbands/boyfriends into cinemas to see them so the movies make far more profit (than standard i.e. real comedies). Everyone wins, right? The writer wins, for not having to try so hard, and for being allowed to be lazy. The female audiences win, for having yet another dull, predictable hankie-grabbing piece of crap to indulge in. The movie's saving grace is that Gervais is in it; otherwise GT would have most probably been only half as good – which is to say utter crap. Still, movies aren't his forte; Gervais is at his best when doing stand-up comedy and when he horses around with Karl Pilkington. ("The Ricky Gervais Show" and "An Idiot Abroad" are two of the best TV shows/programs in recent years.) The other silver lining is that at least this wasn't a fluffy romantic comedy in which J-Lo gets to parade her boxer's nose or in which Clooney gets to grin like the moron that he is.