Ghost Team One (2013)

Pretty Good

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I was lured in by the movie cover/poster and with the enticement of this being a comedy with a supernatural twist. However, I had not heard about the movie prior to finding it and picking it up. But still, a horror comedy with a ghostly element, what is there not to like?Right, well I must start off by saying that "Ghost Team One" is as such not an overly bad movie. It just didn't turn out to be what I had expected. Sure, there are some good moments and some good enough laughs to be found here and there. But the movie as a whole just didn't turn out to be all that impressive or interesting.What worked in favor of the movie was the characters and the acting talents recruited to portray these characters. Sure, the characters were generic to the core, but there was just still something lovable and funny about them. I will say that it was Carlos Santos who carried most of the movie singlehandedly.The story in "Ghost Team One" was probably what killed the enjoyment for me, because it didn't turn out to be a rather interesting or captivating storyline. So writers Andrew Knauer and Arthur Pielli hardly gave directors Ben Peyser and Scott Rutherford all that much to work with. And that also transcended onto the acting talents, because they had little to work with in terms of a fulfilling script."Ghost Team One" is hardly an effects movie, and makes use of very few effects actually. But then again, it is not the type of movie that has to rely on special effects.Now, there were the occasional hilarious scene here and there, but they were not enough to levitate the movie out of the mediocre fast lane.I managed to sit through the entire movie, although I was pressed at times in terms of focusing on the movie and concentrating on the movie. Once you have seen "Ghost Team One" the first time, chances are slim to none that you will return to watch it again.

Silly found footage paranormal spoof has two twenty-something nincompoops, who live together in a former brothel (unknown to them) that is haunted by the "demonic sexual spirit" of the Madam that ran it long ago (an Asian named Lady Azalea). Their highly unstable roommate, Chuck, on a year-long sobriety that has turned him into a profane, mad-eyed, verbally abusive prick, has become possessed by Azalea much to the horror and dismay of geeky, virginal Sergio (Carlos Santos) and obnoxious, amoral Brad (JR Villareal). Sergio is smitten with a paranormal enthusiast, Fernanda (Fernanda Romero) while Brad simply wants to shag her as he does a long line of girls that has entered their orbit. Plying themselves with mini-cameras, Ouija board, camera operator, and a desire to communicate with Azalea, the trio gets in over their head. Even worse, Fernanda has an ulterior motive behind why she is so interested in finding a spirit in the dudes' house. The non-stop dialogue of sex and duel for Fernanda's affections take center stage while the paranormal found footage effects are lacking in any thrills whatsoever. Chuck's barrage of antagonistic threats and manic facial expressions are way, way over-the-top and desperate for laughs that aren't there unless you just find the endless excess of roid rage type behavior and litany of curse words funny. Sergio is such a weakling and Brad such a louse, that any endearing qualities that might come from a team of friends in search of ghost(s) is lost in translation. The movie tries every which way and loose to gain giggles from the viewer, but it all comes off as unsuccessful due to the absence of anything really clever or witty. Watching Brad "molested" by a ghost, Chuck in a kimono and wearing kabuki makeup, and Sergio puking beer from a funnel while wearing a helmet cam might be up your alley, but I felt my time was rather wasted. Nothing creepy whatsoever is offered here but Fernanda is a babe, so perhaps that might garner a little interest. Meghan Falcone, as Brad's easy-piece, bimbo Becky, and James Babson as this "authority in the history of the brothel" (and a real sleaze) make up the remaining cast. After a while I was hoping something really bad would happen to both Brad and Chuck, but, alas, that would not be the case here...they are *that* annoying.

I was lured by the IMDb User Rating 5.0/10 from 834 Users. If you have the brain of an amoeba, you may like this movie and find it funny or entertaining. There is a chance and probably this is the profile of the users that voted and granted this high User Rating. "Ghost Team One" does not worth neither the power to keep on the TV, the Blu-Ray player and the home theater. And is too noisy and brainless, so it is good neither for sleeping nor too see. If you have the DVD, the photographic cover is cool, but will make you recall this movie so you can throw it in the garbage and use the case in another DVD. Maybe this is the only utility for this movie on DVD. My vote is one (awful).Title (Brazil): "Equipe Caça Fantasmas" ("Ghostbusters Team")

This wasn't a horrible movie. The biggest problem that this comedy had was it's identity, it was as if it didn't know what it wanted to be. I watched it thinking "When are the laughs going to happen?". One scene had an overly long monologue with a woman in tears talking to the camera about the loss of her mother, and for a comedy it seemed completely out of place, and it is not the only scene that will have you scratching your head and wondering whether you're watching a comedy or not. Characters that should be comic relief, like the constantly angry roommate or the rightly paranoid girlfriend, provide little to no laughs, it's as if their characters are in the wrong movie. Opportunities for comedy come and go without anybody taking them. This is not a comedy spoof movie in the same comedy sub genre as Naked Gun, A Haunted House, Devil Baby, Scary Movie etc. It's filmed in the style of A Haunted House, a character carries a film camera the entire movie with angled shots provided by various video cameras that the characters have set up around the house, but it has absolutely none of the sight gags, one liners, or off the wall humor that those kind of spoof movies rely upon. This tries to poke fun at ghost movies the same way that Dale & Tucker vs Evil did to hillbilly slasher flicks, but unfortunately it just falls flat on it's face.Some of the acting, or overacting, isn't the best. Carlos Santos is the standout actor, he is likable and seems to be one of those people who is gifted with being naturally funny without really having to do anything, I'd expect to see him being cast in supporting roles in larger comedies in the future and I would watch those comedies because of him. But really it's not the actors fault that this movie didn't succeed, you could of had a comedic genius like Leslie Nielsen in it and the horribly unfunny script would of swallowed him whole.Maybe it will appeal to some peoples sense of humor. For reference I like comedies like Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Community, Louis, Judd Apatow movies, New Girl, most things with Seth Rogen in them, Blackadder, IT Crowd (or anything written by Graham Linehan), Monty Python, Arrested Development, to name just a few. I also enjoyed the original Naked Gun movies as well as the first couple of Scary Movie outings. This movie made me laugh out loud once and chuckle inwardly maybe 4 or 5 times. 5 stars out of 10 because as the first line of this review says "this is not a horrible movie", it's just not a very funny movie.