Ghost Town: "Why Do I Hear Crickets?"

Poor Mr. Gervais...You Must Be Tired From Carrying This Movie All By Yourself.

Hey guys! Did you like Ricky Gervais in HBO's "Extras"? Or How about Ricky Gervais on BBC 4's "The Office"? Well then if you like Gervais being the only funny person or thing for about 2 hours with no commercial breaks; "Ghost Town" is for you.

The Grade & Review After The Jump...

The Award For "Complete Misuse Of A Great Cast" goes to: Run Fatboy Run!

Have we learned nothing from "Run Fatboy Run"? An 'okay' written romantic comedy with awful direction. Run Fatboy Run is our first warning of what bad things could come from the homogenization of: "Funny British Actor/Comedian" makes movie with less than talented director/producers. We can only hope Simon Pegg is able to recover with his new Megan Fox/Kirsten Dunst movie [click the link for an odd photoshop of Simon Pegg's face].

I digress, but clearly this will be the newest trend in Hollywood for the next couple years [much like the 'Pregnancy Comedy' movie trend is making headway]. The best thing about Ricky Gervais is very much him being Ricky Gervais. He's smarmy [and he's at his best in this movie], charming and seems like a real person who's funny, as opposed to a comic who shows shades of being an approachable human being. For those, like myself, who are in to the 'Gervaisims' in episodic form [meaning in small half hour to hour bursts] then some of his scenes; especially later on in the movie, will seem to grate on the viewer. Honestly, even with the flaws, Gervais carries this movie. He is able to be funny, a complete jerk, and a bit of a doe-eyed puppy dog at the drop of dime.

Essentially, this movie's big failing is that it isn't a very well thought out idea.  A prick of a dentist [Gervais] dies for 7 minutes under anesthesia. Wakes up only to realize he has the ability to see dead people [or ghosts].  One of the dead people [Kinnear], is still trying to make sense of his newly dead self and is learning to let go of his wife [Leoni]. The widowed [but recently taken] wife 'conveniently' moves in a floor below Gervais's character and big bang boom...love interest spawned. It is ridiculously formulaic and predictable, but I'm sure because of these reasons...a fair amount of people will probably love "Ghost Town".

Always Good To See Kristen Wiig Get Work

Kristin Wiig is really the only other kind-of-funny character in this movie. She pretty much puts down the same kind of 'quick comedic timing' which she's done on SNL and Knocked Up. Kinnear is always great, but he doesn't really drive the movie along he's more of an annoyance to Gervais. Tea Leoni...well...whenever I see Leoni acting I'm always glad it isn't "The Naked Truth". The bar is low for her...and has been since "Deep Impact".  She was awesome in "Spanglish" and "You Kill Me"...this movie is neither of those. She plays an anthropologist I believe, but I don't think anyone in this movie really cared about developing that at all.

Worth A Watch If Properly Warned,

This Movie Gets:

A Bow From Jennifer Garner In Her Last Show Of The Play: "Cyrano De Bergerac"