Ghost Town
by David Koepp
List Price:
Our Price: $2.40
You Save: $12.59 (84%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.71 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dequina Moore, Greg Kinnear, Jordan Carlos, Ricky Gervais, Téa LeoniDirector: David Koepp
Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
Writer: David Koepp
Producer: Ezra Swerdlow
Producer: Gary Barber
Producer: Gavin Polone
Producer: Joseph E. Iberti
Producer: Roger Birnbaum
Writer: John Kamps
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-12-27
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Dreamworks Video
Movie Reviews of Ghost Town
Movie Review: Ghostly comedy - "The Sixth Sense" played for laughs
Summary: 5 Stars
Hollywood has put out rather a lot of ghost stories in the past few years, but this one is different. It was very appropriately advertised with a reference to the line spoken in "The Sixth Sense" by little Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), "I see dead people" - instead they say of the central character played by Ricky Gervais "He sees dead people - and they annoy him."
Imagine "The sixth sense" remade as a comedy, with Haley Joel Osment's little boy replaced by a misanthropic dentist with the people skills of David Brent from "The Office" and you have "Ghost Town" which is at times very funny, at times quite touching, and always entertaining.
Doctor Bertram Pincus (Gervais) is an misanthropic English dentist working in New York. He likes his job because most of the people he meets cannot talk back to him when he's working on their teeth and because it's a job in which the fact that he is incredibly rude to everyone doesn't matter too much. Imagine a cross between the "boss from hell" characters Ricky Gervais plays as the museum director in "Night at the Museum" and David Brent in "the office."
In the first few minutes of the film most viewers will wonder whether Bertram Pincus is so rude because he hates people or because most of the people he meets are complete idiots. You rapidly realise that he really does dislike people but an awful lot - not all - of the people he meets give him reason to. A lot of the humour of the film is based on Pincus insulting people: around 50% of the time the joke is that the character actually dares to say the things which most of us would think but never dream of speaking aloud. The other half of the time Ricky gervase is seeing how outrageous he can be.
Then Dr Pincus goes into hospital for a routine operation on his colon, dies on the operating table and is brought back to life. When he recovers he can see and hear all the many ghosts who are haunting New York.
As in many ghost-story films, the premise is that dead people who stay around on earth do so because they have unfinished business. As soon as they realise that Pincus can see and hear them, he is besieged by ghosts who want him to help them take care of the various things they have left behind.
A ghost called Frank (Greg Kinnear) had been an unscrupulous but persuasive rat who cheated on his archaologist wife Gwen (Tea Leoni). He convinces himself that the business he had to complete is to stop his widow making another bad marriage, and as the human rights lawyer who is now courting her (Bill Campbell) seems too good to be true, he persuades Pincus to try to break up their romance.
To stop himself being pestered by the dead, Pincus has to abandon years of treating the living like dirt and try to act like a decent human being ...
A certain number of plot inconsistencies, but in general this is a very good, professionally made film which was great fun to watch. A lot of the jokes are very funny, Gervais is, as usual, brilliant, and the supporting cast as also excellent. Strongly recommended.
Summary of Ghost Town
Synopsis: For Sell-through OnlyItem Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: PG13
Street Date: 12/27/08
Wide Screen: yes
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
LanguageENGLISH
Foreign Film: no
Subtitlesno
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve Please note: This supplier will be closed on 11/24, 11/25, 12/26, 1/2 for the holidays. The shipping cut off is 12/10 to try and have the products delivered by Christmas.
Ricky Gervais is brilliant in Ghost Town, playing an unnervingly rude dentist, Bertram, who dies for a few minutes during surgery and acquires the unwanted ability to see ghosts. Chased throughout Manhattan by a gaggle of restless spirits begging him to take care of their unfinished business on Earth, Bertram turns them all away except Frank (Greg Kinnear). The latter, a rogue who cheated on his archaeologist widow, Gwen (Téa Leoni), wants Bertram to intervene in a romance between Gwen and a starchy activist (Bill Campbell). Misanthropic Bertram has to polish his relationship patter, but ends up sounding a lot like Gervais' infamous character in the original The Office, unable to complete a sentence without making others uncomfortable. In time, of course, Bertram falls for the wonderful Gwen, setting up a bunch of overlapping conflicts. Cowritten and directed by David Koepp (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), Ghost Town walks a fine line between comic freshness and a story idea with elements that have become overly familiar in movies and on television. Kinnear and Leoni have never been better on screen, but Ghost Town is well worth seeing because no one like Gervais has previously played the hapless hero in a high-concept film such as this one. With Gervais doing his familiar, hilariously discomfiting thing, it really doesn't matter what kind of movie Ghost Town is. Happily, it's a pretty good film in every respect. --Tom Keogh
Stills from Ghost Town (Click for larger image)
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Similar DVD Movies
Red (Special Edition)SUM; Release date: 2011-01-25; DVD
Best price: $7.63
Price in other shops:
Ghosts of Girlfriends PastNEW Line Home Video; Release date: 2009-09-22; Published: 2009-09-01; DVD
Best price: $2.79
Price in other shops:
Edge of DarknessWHV; Release date: 2010-05-11; DVD
Best price: $0.96
Price in other shops:
You Kill MeGenius; Release date: 2007-10-09; DVD
Best price: $3.54
Price in other shops:
Run, Fatboy, RunNEW Line Home Video; Release date: 2008-09-23; Published: 2008-09-01; DVD
Best price: $1.69
Price in other shops:
How to Lose Friends and Alienate PeopleSony; Release date: 2009-02-17; DVD
Best price: $5.16
Price in other shops:
Cemetery JunctionSON; Release date: 2010-08-17; DVD
Best price: $7.39
Price in other shops:
Stranger Than FictionSONY PICTURES HOME ENT; Release date: 2007-02-27; DVD
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
Just Like Heaven (Widescreen Edition)DreamWorks; Release date: 2006-02-07; Published: 2006-02-01; DVD
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
The Invention of LyingWarner Brothers; Release date: 2010-01-19; Published: 2010-01-01; DVD
Best price: $3.74
Price in other shops: