Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10823 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-03-02
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Synopsis
Deadpan hilarity and quirky charm come alive in Ghost Town, starring Britain's favourite comedian Ricky Gervais (The Office) as social reject Bertram Pincus. Emmy award winner and seven times Bafta winner Gervais proves his Hollywood worth in this transatlantic feel good love story about a man, a woman and a ghost. Pincus is a New York City dentist with horrendous people skills. When a routine surgery goes awry, Pincus is pronounced dead, but is miraculously revived seven minutes later. The ill-mannered Manhattanite suffers only one lasting after-effect; the ability to see and speak to the dead. Word soon gets out in the spirit community and Pincus is irritate to discover he's the go-to guy for every phantom with unfinished business in the city.

At the forefront of the ghostly mob is recently deceased Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear--Little Miss Sunshine, Baby Mama), who is determined to stop the remarriage of his widow, Gwen (Tea Leoni--Spanglish, Fun with Dick and Jane). The laughs unfold when the prickly and romantically inexperienced Pincus, smitten with Gwen, tries to woo her away from her betrothed--with hysterically awkward results.

With sharp performances and beautifully dry Gervais execution, Ghost Town won't fail to make viewers laugh out loud. With a host of special features including commentary from renowned director David Koepp and a 'Making Ghost Town' featurette, this is one DVD that should be in the collection of every Ricky Gervais fan.

Special Features:

• Commentary by David Koepp and Ricky Gervais
• Making Ghost Town - HD
  
• Ghostly Effects - HD
  
• Some people can do it- HD
  

Customer Reviews

Gervais excels with gentler style of comedy
An unusual choice for a leading man in a romantic comedy, the rather dumpy Ricky Gervais still manages to succeed, generally by convincing the viewer that personality does indeed count more than good looks. Although the living seeing the dead premise is hardly unique, in this case the idea has been freshened up, with Gervais' character finding the situation a tiresome nuisance rather than frightening or profound. Although not scripted by Gervais, he certainly must have had some off-the-cuff input, as some of the quips are trademark Ricky. Gervais also does an admirable job of believably bringing round the apparently aspergic Dr.Pincus to interacting with the human race (both living and dead).

Although well supported by the rest of the cast, it's Ricky that gets all the laughs. I think Tea Leoni does struggle a little to make us believe her character would fall for Pincus, but that is really a flaw in the script; she is allowed to tolerate him far too quickly (especially when she asks him to inspect the teeth of the mummy she's studying). However, a good job all round, this movie is a definite success.

As far as a technical review goes, image quality is strong with good detail, although the colours appear to have been deliberately washed out a little, perhaps to add a Woody Allen style sheen to the city scenes. The sound is a little bit of a let down though, and is rather muted, although perfectly adequate for this type of film. At least the dialogue is clear, which is the important thing - you'll just have to turn it up a bit. There's a good score with some classic tunes though, which might have benefited from more bass weight.

Only Floss The Teeth That You Want To Keep.
This is one of those films that looked really good on the adverts and while I had a little trepidation about watching it, I decided to go into it with an open mind. My main concern was whether a comedy about a Dentist who could interact with dead people would work and particularly as Gervais was taking the lead role. Despite my slight concerns I can honestly say that I really enjoyed the film and as romantic dead comedies go it was particularly funny.

It's a slightly different type of movie to the usual films from director David Koepp with his previous films including Secret Window and Stir of Echoes. He has put this film together particularly well and the special effects are really well done. In particular the sneeze as someone walks through one of the ghosts is a very clever concept. He uses some very clever camera work and creates some very amusing scenes. His direction and use of the lighting and sound work particularly well and I was very impressed with the finished article.

With Koepp also taking on part of the script writing with John Camps it meant that the script and direction stayed true to the original vision. The plot travels at a reasonable pace and while it doesn't follow quite the regular path you would expect it works as something slightly different. The character of Pincus is very well written and you really get a good feel for how he is and as the films progress and you find out more about him you start to understand his hatred of pretty much anyone.

The role of Pincus is portrayed particularly well by Ricky Gervais in his first lead role in a Hollywood movie. He adapts to the part particularly well and this dispelled one of my earlier worries. I was expecting to see just another version of the Office's David Brent but thankfully Gervais did something a little different with Pincus and it worked very well. You want to hate him because of his attitude to everyone, but as you learn more about him and he comes out of his shell you grow to like him. I feel I should warn you though if you're not a fan of Gervais and his humour this isn't a film for you.

While the film really appears to be a vehicle to launch Gervais in America there are also a couple of good performances from his supporting cast. In particular Greg Kinnear's performance as the dead cheating husband Frank is particularly enjoyable. He plays the character well and while you find yourself won over by Gervais you love to hate Frank throughout. The other notable performance is from Tea Leoni who plays Frank's ex wife particularly well. There is some great chemistry between her and Gervais and i really felt that added a bit of conviction to their performances.

Overall I have to say that whilst I did have my concerns before sitting down to watch it, they were quickly dismissed. This is an enjoyable comedy film that plays on an old style of story and gives it a nice new twist. The soundtrack adds some real feeling to the movie and as well as countless funny moments there are some rather serious scene that Gervais in particular pulls of very well. If you're not a fan of Ricky Gervais this really isn't for you, otherwise it s a film that will make you laugh and if nothing else will pass 102 minutes of an evening without any problem at all.

quite good
although i enjoyed this movie it is probably for a die hard ricky gervais fan. still miles les cringeworthy than the office and highly entertaining. perhaps one to watch on tv though