When I saw the previews for Ghost Town, I figured it would be a predictable movie. And it was. It follows Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais), a miserable, sarcastic dentist who basically hates people. He has an operation and dies for about seven minutes. When he is revived, he has the added bonus of seeing ghosts. All the dead people want him to finish their unfinished business, and one ghost in particular, Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear) is quite persistent and somehow convinces Pincus to persuade his wife (now a widow) to break up with her current boyfriend.
You basically know what’s going to happen, but Gervais adds a fresh take on the sarcastic jerk-turned-nice guy. Since I recently watched Season One of Extras, Gervais’ hit HBO series, I’ve been looking forward to seeing him as the lead in a film – and he didn’t disappoint. He’s so funny and his comedic timing is spot on.
Another silly co-star who had me cracking up was the surgeon, played by Saturday Night Live’s Kristen Wiig. The banters between her and Gervais were the funniest scenes in the movie, which many times consisted of an ongoing joke, very reminiscent to the style of both SNL and Extras. Sometimes it seems to go on for too long but they still managed to keep me laughing through it all.
Ghost Town is a typical feel-good movie: nothing spectacular but something everyone likes to watch every now and then. I’ll give it props if only to give Gervais the credit he deserves.
Hopefully he’ll host the Oscars!
Rotten Tomatoes – 85%
IMDB – 7.8/10
Moviewiseguys – 6/10