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Ghost Town
DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount)


7.9

based on 30 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 36 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some strong language, sexual humor and drug references

Starring Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Kristen Wiig, Tea Leoni, and Billy Campbell

Bertram Pincus is a man whose skills leave much to be desired. When Pincus dies unexpectedly, but miraculously revived after seven minutes, he wakes up to discover that he now has the annoying ability to see ghosts. Even worse, they all want something from him, particutarly Frank Herlihy who pesters him into breaking up the impending marriage of his widow Gwen. That puts Pincus squarely in the middle of a triangle with spirited results. (Paramount Pictures/Dreamworks Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Fantasy \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	David Koepp John Kamps
DIRECTED BY:	David Koepp
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 23, 2008 Theatrical: September 19, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	102 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

Both very funny and a bit of a tearjerker, with an on-the-money performance from Ricky Gervais.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

A winning mix of sharp comedy and touching bits that keeps the laughter -- a few tears -- flowing.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

A misanthropic dentist, a roguish ghost and a zany Egyptologist: as these unlikely companions scamper around Manhattan in the buoyant comedy Ghost Town, they resurrect the spirits of classic movie curmudgeons like W. C. Fields and such romantic comedians as Cary Grant and Carole Lombard in Woody Allen territory.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

A welcome surprise: a supernatural romantic comedy that works, graced with a cast just off-center enough to make it distinctive.

New York Post Kyle Smith

The twists are executed superbly, right up to a climax that fits the David Mamet definition of what makes for a perfect ending: It is both surprising and inevitable.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The astonishingly versatile Kinnear proves note-perfect as a huckster who slowly rids himself of slime.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A sweet and hilarious romantic comedy featuring a breakout performance by British comic genius Ricky Gervais, inspires viewers to pause, reflect and praise one of the most rare and wondrous occurrences in contemporary cinema: the Good Movie.

Variety John Anderson

Smartly supernatural, and featuring sensational performances by Ricky Gervais and Tea Leoni, Ghost Town is a "Topper" for our times.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Leoni and Kinnear are charming, and Koepp keeps the mood appropriately light. But really, this would be just another disposable comedy if it weren't for our unassuming star.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Ghost Town is a rarity, a contemporary romantic comedy that honors the traditions of the genre without checking them off some plasticized list. The picture is breathing, and alive, every minute.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

It sounds sappy, and sometimes it is, but director Koepp and co-writer John Kamps stay alert to the humor and pathos of Bertram's isolation.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A lightweight rom-com elevated by its performances. It is a reminder that the funniest people are often not comedians, but actors playing straight in funny roles.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Though the plot contrives to throw Gervais and Leoni together and then pull them apart, the two leads stay consistently in sync through it all, laughing at each other's jokes and generally sharing the kind of normal adult communication that's often missing from movies about people falling in love.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

An innovative romantic comedy that is a mixture of British spice and American sugar.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Predictable but amusing. The painfully awkward, stubby Gervais as romantic lead is a funny enough concept, but the actor's ongoing banter with Kinnear is engaging, and their styles mesh entertainingly.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A good-natured and engaging fantasy/romantic comedy in the tradition of "Heaven Can Wait" or even "Topper."

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

It's a smooth journey across familiar territory to a safe emotional harbor, always professional and occasionally delightful.

Slate Dana Stevens

Once Leoni's Gwen comes on the scene, the movie starts to bubble along nicely. Not just because Leoni is a screwball heroine worth, er, screwballing--at 42, she's more attractive than ever--but because her character is given a weight and texture that's rare in a movie of this type.

Los Angeles Times Jan Stuart

Audiences who feel battered by Hollywood's usual hard-sell approach to farce may be disarmed by Koepp's soft touch and inclined to credit blandness as understatement.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

In this comedy by David Koepp, Gervais handles the big, crowd-pleasing gags with aplomb.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Diverting enough, but it's also the kind of high-concept studio concoction Ricky Gervais might have ridiculed in his great backstage-showbiz sitcom "Extras."

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

But by the time this imperfect little film wends its way to one of the most winning exit lines I've heard in a long time, it's turned into something, well, perfectly lovely.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Ghost Town reworks "Ghost" as a romantic comedy with a miserable hero who sees dead people and is really annoyed by them.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Someone once said about W.C. Fields that he had the rare ability to despise amusingly. I can imagine no greater compliment than to say that Ricky Gervais seems, at his best, like a young Fields.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

One of those romantic comedies that never quite clicks. At times, its humor is effective, provoking chuckles and laughs. At other times, the comedy feels forced and awkward.

TV Guide Ken Fox

In Koepp's comedic variation on a similar theme, the dead are not just unhappy -- they're irritatingly needy.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Eventually, though, Ghost Town buckles beneath the weight of contrivance -- so many ghosts to dispel, so many lessons to learn.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Feels downright ancient.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

If it sounds all so pale and predictable, it is.

Empire Helen O'Hara

If you like Gervais' usual schtick, you might be prepared to overlook the hackneyed plot for the jokes and strong cast.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 36 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jane D. gave it a5:
It was okay, but not worth $10. Wait until it comes out on DVD.

Ed M. gave it a9:
Very funny and original. The trailers do not do this movie justice.

Chad S. gave it an8:
Dead man calling on a dead Blackberry; no minutes for a smartphone in purgatory, but its purgatorial owner still insists on trying to get through. To who, though: Gwen(Tea Leoni), his wife, or the other woman? As seen in the trailers for "Ghost Town", Bertram Pincus(Ricky Gervais) feels nothing but disdain for humankind: colleagues, patients, and strangers alike, in equal measure. And when he meets the ghosts, they're not spared the impetus of his utter contempt for their undead corporeality either. But Frank Herlihy(Greg Kinnear) matches the dentist's old-fashioned misanthropy with his own technologically-advanced misanthropy. While Bertram stares at people with open contempt whenever somebody makes an overture towards friendship, a one-on-one connection, Frank uses a hand-held device to keep people at bay. The Verizon guy who says, "Can you hear me now?" in the popular ad campaign for the American broadband and telecommunications company, works as a subtext in "Ghost Town", which finds perfect form in the ghosts that haunt the unsmiling oral surgeon. It's Bertram's comeuppance that he's forced to recognize the dead, in lieu of not acknowledging the living on a daily basis. And then there's Frank, a cell-phone user, who walks and talks in self-absorbed oblivion to the people who sidle up beside him during the course of a typical conversation, a typical day of communion with technology. Barely cognizant of other people's existences, in essence, he and other serial cell-phone abusers render these background ciphers as ghosts. "Can you see me now?" Even with a defunct Blackberry, the tuxedo-cladded man seems more interested in his phone than his unearthly comrades. Frank needs Bertram because he can't reach Gwen by phone. It's an irony he can't talk to his wife face-to-face either, and needs a new go-between(Bertram) to replace the old go-between(the Blackberry) as a facilitator of intimate communication. "Ghost Town" is so much more than a romantic-comedy. In an early scene, Bertram exits a room without stopping to fawn over a colleague's baby photos. Now imagine this scene if the dentist had a Blackberry stuck to his ear. "Ghost Town" is about cell-phones. It's about how the cell-phone usage breeds a more subtle brand of misanthropy.

John S gave it a9:
Great movie. Really took advantage of Gervais talent. Best movie so far this year.

T Fox gave it a9:
It has been a while since I laughed so much!

R M gave it a9:
RG is hysterical! Very funny and enjoyable film. Great cast.

Ghost Town DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount)

Ghost Town
DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount)