Ghost Town - Movie News

Critical Capsules
October 18, 2008: Ghost Town (PG-13) Unfortunately, David Koepp’s Ghost Town seems to be a film few people are interested in seeing — in part, I suspect, due to that God-awful generic title. Is Ghost Town really the best Koepp and co-writer John Kamps could come up with? The film deserves better. The story — involving a nasty-tempered dentist (Ricky Gervais), who briefly dies during a colonoscopy and afterwards can see and talk with ghosts no one else can see — may be nothing more than Topper by way of The Sixth Sense, but what the film and performers do with this material is pretty special. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Ghost Town is the savviness with which it balances comedy and romance, and the fact that its comedy is almost always rather kind and character-based. The blend of humor and humanity is just right. In some ways, it’s a throwback to an earlier time. It’s just possible, however, that these are its true strengths — the very things that give it something all too often lacking in mainstream movies these days: an identity. —Ken Hanke

Blindness, Burn After Reading, and more
October 18, 2008: GHOST TOWN Given the dearth of quality romantic comedies produced by the major studios – these days, it’s up to the independent outfits to provide them – it’s a pleasant surprise to discover that Ghost Town manages to buck the odds. Certainly, the high-concept storyline makes it sound rather dreary: Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais), a dour dentist who avoids interacting with people at all costs, suddenly finds himself surrounded by dead people. That’s because he himself died for seven minutes while undergoing a routine colonoscopy, and this established an open line of communication with restless ghosts still hovering around Manhattan. Chief among them is Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear), who demands that Bertram prevent his widow Gwen (Tea Leoni) from marrying a human rights lawyer (Billy Campbell). Ghost Town is given a significant boost by the presence of Gervais, whose caustic wit and no-nonsense demeanor provide the picture with more of an edge than it would have received with a more conventional leading man at the helm. 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. Kinnear’s ethereal hubby isn’t exactly the dashing nice guy he initially seems, while the emotionally torn widow played by Leoni (who really needs to appear in more movies) isn’t just a pawn to be moved around by the three men in her life but instead takes control of the situations presented before her. Charming and unassuming, Ghost Town offers enough in the way of laughs to raise anyone’s spirits.

‘Ghost Town’ reverts to formula
October 5, 2008: The comedy “Ghost Town” introduces old and new movie standards for the spirit world. For instance, ghosts need closure in order to cross over into the afterlife — old — and stepping through them is the primary cause of sneezing — new.

Dentist Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) lives his life with the objective of avoiding human contact at all costs. He has little tolerance for the presence of others, and he regularly goes out of his way to spurn even the most basic pleasantries.

Unfortunately, after a routine colonoscopy, he finds people drawn to him in droves — people nobody else seems to be able to see. Pincus learns that while hospitalized, he died briefly, and as a result, he can see ghosts.

Ricky Gervais on his new film Ghost Town
September 18, 2008: Ricky Gervais and fame do not go well together. The creator and star of the television series The Office and Extras was recently thrown into the celebrity whirlpool of lights, cameras and screaming crowds in Toronto, where he was one of the star guests at this year’s film festival.
Ricky Gervais
‘I don’t do accents’: Ricky Gervais has his first leading role in Ghost Town, a supernatural comedy in which he plays a dentist who can see ghosts

While his characters, David Brent or Andy Millman, would have revelled in the limelight, for Gervais the whole experience was unnerving and embarrassing.

“The worst thing about this job for me is the fame,” he says. “I’ve never understood why anyone wants people to know who they are. That’s the thing I wish I could turn off.”

Hollywood’s undead: They’re just like us!
October 8, 2008: Dead-but-still-talking characters are all over popular culture these days. From TV shows like “True Blood,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Desperate Housewives,” “The Ghost Whisperer” and “Reaper” to movies like “Twilight,” “Ghost Town,” “Over Her Dead Body” and the film version of the novel “The Lovely Bones” (due out next year), the dead are getting a stunning amount of face time.

Ghost Town boosts Gervais profile
September 22, 2008: The picture in which Gervais stars - called Ghost Town - was released in the US this weekend. But despite good reviews, the film itself hasn’t generated a lot of heat at the box office.

Gervais appears opposite Greg Kinnear and Tea Leoni as a New York dentist who finds himself unwillingly involved in a supernatural love triangle.