DVD Review - Ghost Town

Starring: Ricky Gervais, Tea Leoni, Greg Kinnear
Director: David Koepp
Rating:  PG-13

“He sees dead people… and they annoy him.” Sadly they annoyed me too; Ghost Town starring the incomparable Ricky Gervais was a pleasantly numbing movie to watch. I will admit that there were moments of absolute comic genius, primarily supplied by Gervais as Bertram Pincus:  with special acknowledgment to Kristen Wiig for her wonderfully understated role as the incompetent surgeon. But as I alluded to before these two comedians are the only bright spot in an otherwise blandly pleasant movie.

In the movie Gervais plays a dentist that is out of touch with the rest of the human race. But due to a slight glitch in an otherwise normal surgery, he is left with the ability to see ghosts and to converse with them. This is where the plot goes thin, because for some reason, it never explained how one ghost, Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear), is able to control all the other ghosts, so that Pincus agrees to help Frank get rid of his former wife’s (Gwen, Téa Leoni) fiancé. And then heartwarming story ensues.

What annoyed me about the movie most was that at the end of the movie the ghosts have apparently abandoned Pincus with out a reason to do so. Most of the ghosts are as annoying as the tag line suggests, but they all listen to Frank. Pincus will do some good deeds and break out of his self centered world, but I still felt that I was ripped off. I didn’t like the character any more at the end of the movie than I did at the beginning. Actually I kind of liked him better as a grump…it was far funnier.