Review: Ghost Town (12A)**
"New York is lousy with ghosts. They're everywhere," says Greg Kinnear in this obvious and not terribly funny romantic comedy which has been tailored to fit the dubious talents of Ricky Gervais.
Ghost Town is one of those formulaic flicks that can be engineered for the abilities of interchangeable comics-turned-thesps. In this case it's Gervais as a grumpy British dentist resident in the Big Apple who could give Scrooge a run for his money.
As Bertram Pincus, Gervais bad-mouths his patients and lives the life of a perpetual grouch. He's a miserable, heartless misanthrope. Then something happens. He goes into hospital for a routine bowel operation, dies on the operating table and is revived after seven long minutes. The next day, he begins to see long-dead people wandering the streets of New York.
Naturally he's perturbed – not least when he realises they can see him, too. One, Frank (Kinnear), urges Pincus to help him communicate with his grieving widow (Ta Leoni). It doesn't take long for an attraction to grow between the two and soon the dead guy is playing gooseberry.
Ghost Town is a rip-off of The Sixth Sense, albeit with gags. Alternatively it's a skit on Ghost without the sideshow of Whoopi Goldberg's fake clairvoyant. Or Truly Madly Deeply but lacking the wit. However it may be dressed up, it is lame entertainment. Yet it allows Gervais to further propagate his one-note act, and that's precisely what his American fans want. This one was co-written and directed by David Koepp, the scribe behind Jurassic Park, Carlito's Way and Spider-Man. Everyone needs some levity, and maybe this is Koepp's attempt to tell a gag. Sadly, he chose Gervais. Whoops.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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