Funny but familiar, Koepp's comedy feels like a multiplex reincarnation -- we've seen this film before and back then we must have stepped on someone's toes
Comment
09/19/08
Ghost Town (2008)
85
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:171
Fresh:145
Rotten:26
Average Rating:6.9/10
Consensus: Ricky Gervais' consistently sharp performance and beautifully dry execution transform this otherwise mainstream comedy into an endearing, funny, and altogether snappy romantic comedy. With ghosts.
Theatrical Release:24-10-2008
Synopsis: Director and screenwriter David Koepp (STIR OF ECHOES, SECRET WINDOW) brings Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, and Téa Leoni together for a romantic comedy with a twist of the supernatural. Dr. Bertram... [More]
Starring: Ricky Gervais, Téa Leoni, Greg Kinnear, Billy Campbell
Director: David Koepp
Reviews for Ghost Town
Koepp strangely captures the cheeky charm and chippy imagination of Ghost Town that could have been deemed just another faceless formulaic fantasy.
09/19/08
That pervasive sense of the humanistic, along with judicious use of, but not overreliance on, special effects and some exceptionally clever staging of actors...should earn Ghost Town some fast and furious word of mouth.
09/19/08
Ghost Town is a non-horror ghost movie dressed up as a comedy...Instead of seeing people hacked to death in formula fashion, they're bored to death in the same style.
09/19/08
Ghost Town is a fantasy charmer, from its tight cast and excellent soundtrack to its complex characters and soulful climax.
09/19/08
Naturally, Koepp makes it his business to redeem this unpleasant character and recast him as an acceptable stand-in for a romantic lead. But cynics should not despair; it's not a complete makeover.
09/19/08
Top CriticIt's enlivened by the performance of Ricky Gervais as Bertram Pincus, a latter-day Scrooge for whom the living are no less annoying than the dead.
09/19/08
Ghost Town has plenty of the kind of supernatural hijinks that you'd expect from a plot about the haunting, needy dead, but it also has something to say about how to live.
09/19/08
The best part of the movie is watching Gervais and Leoni delight in each other in scenes that burst with spontaneity and genuine warmth.
09/19/08
Sure, it's a light comedy, but it effectively achieves what it sets out to do: amuse us and tug on our heartstrings. And best of all, it's written, directed and acted with intelligence and wit.
09/19/08
The film works as a showcase for Gervais, who plays an oddly likable jerk with surprising subtlety.
09/19/08
Through it all there always shone this subtle, gleeful naughty schoolboy charm, not quite a full-on wink at the audience, but a tacit acknowledgement that sometimes even total jerks can exhibit an endearing charm.
09/19/08
Ghost Town isn't terrible; if it were on TV, I'd watch it. But it's a couple of steps away from being good, and many more steps away from being as good as the movies and plays it swipes from.
09/19/08
Fans of Gervais' awkward, caustic brand of humor should be pleased to see him in a big Hollywood movie that'll make him more of a household name.
09/19/08
Ghost Town, a romantic comedy about the living and the dead coming to terms with each other, is both very funny and a bit of a tearjerker, with an on-the-money performance from Ricky Gervais and a nice feeling for New York in fall.
09/19/08
Leoni and Gervais are wonderful together, as much for the ways in which they wobble against each other as for the ways they ultimately mesh.
09/19/08
Leoni seems genuinely delighted by Gervais, cracking up with a gusto that never seems rehearsed.
09/19/08
The terrific thing in this romantic comedy is the way Hollywood's best and brightest lift their games to match the formidable Gervais in witty exchanges.
09/19/08
It is the chemistry between Leoni and Gervais that makes this film the great romantic comedy that it is.
09/19/08
'Ghost Town'may turn out to be the feel good movie of the year.
09/19/08
Latest News for Ghost Town
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November 14, 2008:
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November 13, 2008:
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We continue our series of extended interviews by spending an hour in the company of Britain's funniest man. With a new chapter every day this week, today Gervais discusses the... More...
November 12, 2008:
Ricky Gervais - RT's Dinner and the Movies Interview - Chapter 3
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