Thursday, March 16, 2017

Ghost (1990)


IMDb plot summary: After a young man is murdered, his spirit stays behind to warn his lover of impending danger, with the help of a reluctant psychic.
Directed by Jerry Zucker. Starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, and Tony Goldwyn.

Somehow this weird little supernatural romance drama has slipped by me all these years. Now that I've seen it, I'm mostly just "meh" on it. By far Whoopi Goldberg's character is the most compelling of the leads, and the scenes where she has to deal with being able to hear Sam's ghost are great, second only to the angry subway ghost. Patrick Swayze is NOT good in this, though he's not helped by several extreme close-ups lingering on his face when contorted in extreme "emotion." You can almost see him thinking, "Look sad. Now LOOK SADDER." Because the romantic leads are never truly fleshed out, it's hard to connect to their turmoil when they're ripped apart from each other, making it all kind of underwhelming, even when it does work as a concept. Frankly, I wish we'd had a lot more interaction with the other ghosts and less going back to the eternally bland Swayze and Moore.

2.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Ghost < About Last Night...
Ghost > Top Gun
Ghost > Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging
Ghost > How to Rob a Bank
Ghost < The Pajama Game
Ghost > Drive
Ghost > How to Deal
Ghost > Where the Red Fern Grows
Ghost < Yankee Doodle Dandy
Ghost > Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Ghost < Sisters

Final spot: #1385 out of 2594.

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