Ghost Town (2008)
Directed by David Koepp
Bertram Pincus, a cranky, people-hating Manhattan dentist, develops the unwelcome ability to see dead people. Really annoying dead people. Even worse, they all want something from him, particularly Frank Herlihy, a smooth-talking ghost, who pesters him into a romantic scheme involving his widow Gwen. They are soon entangled in a hilarious predicament between the now and the hereafter!
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What critics say influenced Ghost Town
Breezing into screwball-romance terrain charted by such otherworldly standards as "Blithe Spirit," "Topper" and "Ghost," writer-director David Koepp seems liberated by the chance to put repartee front and center.
The British comic plays Bertram Pincus, a misanthropic dentist in New York City who develops an ability to see dead people; to be specific, the dead are noodgy, solid-looking ghosts of the type that populated the Cary Grant movie Topper.
The premise of a ghost—or multiple ghosts—that only one person can see dates back to at least Topper (1937), to which Ghost Town owes a significant debt.
While growing up in days of yore, I loved the Topper movies.
At its essence, Ghost Town is Topper multiplied, with Gervais' misanthropic dentist Bertram Pincus seeing dead people all over Manhattan following a botched medical procedure (some of the film's funniest scenes involve the brilliant Kristin Wiig as a purposefully inarticulate surgeon and Michael-Leon Wooley as her in-house legal counsel).
Again, Koepp has delivered something of a throwback, but his inspirations are marvelous: "Ghost Town" offers an update of the supernatural farce found in "Topper," "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" and other comedies from Hollywood's so-called golden age, when the term "adult" meant "sophisticated."
"Ghost Town" plays a bit like a blend between the Bill Murray comedy "Groundhog Day" (1993) and the Patrick Swayze tear-jerker "Ghost" (1990).
In the third act, the movie all but announces it's going to copy "Groundhog Day," then does so.
Koepp’s Ghost Town, however, is more than simply a regurgitation; while it clearly pays homage to a variety of antecedents—everything from early classics like It’s a Wonderful Life and A Guy Named Joe to more recent favorites like Ghost and Groundhog Day—its view on human relationships is surprisingly direct, even edgy for a studio comedy.
Maybe M. Night Shyamalan is due some cash, because "Ghost Town" is essentially "The Sixth Sense" with the hilarious British misanthrope from the original version of "The Office" and "Extras," whose catchphrase would be "I see dead people, and I wish I could serve them all with restraining orders."
Gagging on elements of Ghost and The Sixth Sense, the film finds Pincus dogged at every step by spirits with unfinished business on Earth.
His directorial efforts, The Trigger Effect and Secret Window had their share of attributes but neither stood a candle to his underrated Stir of Echoes, which was the ghost story everyone should have seen in 1999 instead of The Sixth Sense.
It also owes a bit to a much more recent—and more serious-minded—work, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense (1999).
Pincus maintains a tightly controlled world of solitude, until he goes in for a routine colonoscopy only to emerge with a parodied version of "The Sixth Sense."
During the opening minutes of the film—an occasionally effective mash-up of Ghost, The Sixth Sense, and The Frighteners—Gervais is nearly mute as Bertram Pincus, D.D.S. , a dentist who enjoys his work because it allows him the peace and quiet that comes with sticking cotton balls into his patients' mouths.
Breezing into screwball-romance terrain charted by such otherworldly standards as "Blithe Spirit," "Topper" and "Ghost," writer-director David Koepp seems liberated by the chance to put repartee front and center.
The living pass through the dead in an amusing way reminiscent of 1990's "Ghost" and each time it happens, the mortals sneeze.
"Ghost Town" plays a bit like a blend between the Bill Murray comedy "Groundhog Day" (1993) and the Patrick Swayze tear-jerker "Ghost" (1990).
Derailed by a romantic subplot, Ghost Town fails to make use of the dead as proper comedic fodder.
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Koepp is probably best known as a screenwriter -- he's worked frequently with Steven Spielberg and Brian De Palma, on pictures like "War of the Worlds" and "Carlito's Way" -- but his directing credits include a poetic little supernatural thriller called "Stir of Echoes," the kind of picture that proves a filmmaker knows how to do a lot with a little.
Koepp has also directed in the past, but they've mostly been low-key thrillers (Stir of Echoes, Secret Window).
Director David Knoepp, known more for the things he has written (Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, War of the Worlds and Jurassic Park) than the things he has directed (Stir of Echoes), helms his first comedy with a deft, confident hand.
Cowriter (with his "Zathura" colleague John Kamps)/director David Koepp has visited the supernatural before with the creepy "Stir of Echoes" and campy King adaptation "Secret Window."
His directorial efforts, The Trigger Effect and Secret Window had their share of attributes but neither stood a candle to his underrated Stir of Echoes, which was the ghost story everyone should have seen in 1999 instead of The Sixth Sense.
This is only fair, since Koepp’s very effective supernatural thriller Stir of Echoes, which was released a month after Sense, got buried in the rush to (over)praise Shyamalan’s film.
Koepp has also directed in the past, but they've mostly been low-key thrillers (Stir of Echoes, Secret Window).
Cowriter (with his "Zathura" colleague John Kamps)/director David Koepp has visited the supernatural before with the creepy "Stir of Echoes" and campy King adaptation "Secret Window."
Director/co-writer David Koepp -- whose last directorial effort was the Johnny Depp chiller "Secret Window" (2004) -- helms with a creative consideration too often lacking in Hollywood features.
His directorial efforts, The Trigger Effect and Secret Window had their share of attributes but neither stood a candle to his underrated Stir of Echoes, which was the ghost story everyone should have seen in 1999 instead of The Sixth Sense.
But if their respective directorial output is any indication – Nathanson made The Last Shot, Goyer The Invisible and Koepp Secret Window – then perhaps it's best that they should focus their talents on the page.
Directed and co-written by the very talented David Koepp ( Secret Window , Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), Ghost Town tickles the funny bone while also reminding us of the important things in life.
That the man who wrote the likes of Death Becomes Her, Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible and Spider-Man (to name only a few) for other directors has forged a directing career on such fare as The Trigger Effect, Stir of Echoes and Secret Window has long caused many to wonder when Koepp might finally save something really worthwhile for himself.
"Secret Window" (2004), adapted from a Stephen King story, wasn't particularly revelatory, but Koepp's previous features -- the unjustly neglected "The Trigger Effect" (1996) and the eerie "Stir of Echoes" (1999) -- are wonderfully effective throwbacks to the smart scares found in the pre-blockbuster era of fantasy movies and on "The Twilight Zone."
Writer/director David Koepp has fashioned his filmmaking career out of taking genre chances with dicey material (“Secret Window,” “The Trigger Effect,” “Stir of Echoes”).
Like the rest of Koepp's directorial efforts (The Trigger Effect, Stir of Echoes and Secret Window), Ghost Town is smaller in scale than the often-gargantuan screenplays he writes for others.
Koepp’s Ghost Town, however, is more than simply a regurgitation; while it clearly pays homage to a variety of antecedents—everything from early classics like It’s a Wonderful Life and A Guy Named Joe to more recent favorites like Ghost and Groundhog Day—its view on human relationships is surprisingly direct, even edgy for a studio comedy.
Of all the film's classic predecessors, "Ghost Town" suffers most when balanced against Anthony Minghella's lovely debut film, "Truly, Madly, Deeply," which elicited deep, naked tremors of feeling from the setup of a woman letting go of her dead husband.
Breezing into screwball-romance terrain charted by such otherworldly standards as "Blithe Spirit," "Topper" and "Ghost," writer-director David Koepp seems liberated by the chance to put repartee front and center.
Souls, Just Like Heaven, and of course Blithe Spirit, the granddaddy of these ghostly rom-coms.
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Koepp’s Ghost Town, however, is more than simply a regurgitation; while it clearly pays homage to a variety of antecedents—everything from early classics like It’s a Wonderful Life and A Guy Named Joe to more recent favorites like Ghost and Groundhog Day—its view on human relationships is surprisingly direct, even edgy for a studio comedy.
But the picture surprises in other ways as well, thanks to unexpected tweaks in the script co-written by John Kamps and director David Koepp (best known for penning such blockbusters as Jurassic Park, Spider-Man and the latest Indiana Jones installment).
Director David Knoepp, known more for the things he has written (Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, War of the Worlds and Jurassic Park) than the things he has directed (Stir of Echoes), helms his first comedy with a deft, confident hand.
The situation has been a comedy staple for decades, but an expert chef can make routine ingredients special, and Gervais has both the delivery and the pointed script (co-written by “Jurassic Park” and “Spider-Man” screenwriter David Koepp, who also directs) to deliver major laughs.
All I know is that the central concept is pretty musty, but treated with an appealing lack of irony by all concerned, which in this case is basically the same thing as director and co-writer David Koepp, best known as the remarkably inconsistent screenwriter of everything from Jurassic Park to The Lost World: Jurassic Park .
That the man who wrote the likes of Death Becomes Her, Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible and Spider-Man (to name only a few) for other directors has forged a directing career on such fare as The Trigger Effect, Stir of Echoes and Secret Window has long caused many to wonder when Koepp might finally save something really worthwhile for himself.
Ghost Town, written and directed by David Koepp (who wrote Jurassic Park), is a good-natured and engaging fantasy/romantic comedy in the tradition of Heaven Can Wait or even Topper.
All I know is that the central concept is pretty musty, but treated with an appealing lack of irony by all concerned, which in this case is basically the same thing as director and co-writer David Koepp, best known as the remarkably inconsistent screenwriter of everything from Jurassic Park to The Lost World: Jurassic Park .