The camerawork is frenetic and confusing, and the big confrontations are as likely to provoke unintentional laughter as edge-of-the-seat excitement.
The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:44
Fresh:23
Rotten:21
Average Rating:5.5/10
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: Based on a true story, THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS takes place in Africa during the late 1890s and concerns two ferocious lions who killed 130 railroad construction workers in only two months. A... Based on a true story, THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS takes place in Africa during the late 1890s and concerns two ferocious lions who killed 130 railroad construction workers in only two months. A pair of courageous men, no-nonsense engineer John Patterson (Val Kilmer) and rugged hunter Charles Remington (Michael Douglas), set out to shoot the creatures, known as the Ghost and the Darkness. Making their task even harder is the two animals un-lionlike behavior--they kill in tandem, attack in the daylight, and show no fear of anything. Soon the hunters become the hunted.... [More]
Starring: Val Kilmer, Michael Douglas, John Kani, Om Puri
Starring: Val Kilmer, Michael Douglas, John Kani, Om Puri, Tom Wilkinson, Bernard Hill, Brian McCardie, Emily Mortimer, Henry Cele
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Screenwriter: William Goldman
Composer: Jerry Goldsmith
Producer: Gale Anne Hurd, A. Kitman Ho, Paul B. Radin
Reviews for The Ghost and the Darkness
What Jaws did for sharks, The Ghost and the Darkness may do for lions.
A partially thrilling adventure tale that needed to go through the rewrite machine at least one more time.
For all its noble intent, Hopkins' film falls flat halfway through, mired in bad philosophizing and too-beautiful killing fields, neither bark nor bite mean much here.
The Ghost and the Darkness isn't bad as a matinee distraction, but goodness knows it isn't good, either.
It lacks even the usual charm of being so bad it's funny. It's just bad.
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