Corporate Movie-Making At Its Most Predictable

Rating: 3/10 (16 May 2005)

GHOST hearkens back to films of the 1940s and 1950s which mixed screwball comedy, romance, and suspense with a ghost story. And GHOST reads exactly like a cross between TOPPER RETURNS and A GUY NAMED JOE: Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) is murdered--but his spirit remains earthbound, seeking to uncover his own killer and re-establish contact with his beloved and grieving Molly (Demi Moore.) Eventually Sam manages to establish contact with a fraudulent medium named Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg)--and in exchange for helping her out in the spiritualist business he convinces her to act as his agent on the earthly plane.
All of this sounds fine in theory, but GHOST plays like something created by corporate marketing men, and instead of a fantasy confection the film serves up something more akin to a three month old poundcake awash in slobbering sentimentality. The cast makes absolutely no attempt to create characters--but given the zero-quality script level you can hardly blame them; the story itself is extremely predictable, and if you don't know who killed Sam halfway through the film you need to run out for quick brain-scan; and everything from cinematography to editing to design is just as ho-hum as it can be.
The only reason to watch this film is for Whoopi Goldberg, who is absolutely hilarious as Oda Mae Brown--but frankly even Goldberg's comic turn can't make this turkey fly, and if you want to see her at her comic best I'd recommend you catch some of her stand-up work. My recommendation? Hunt down a copy of TOPPER RETURNS and A GUY NAMED JOE and watch the originals instead.
Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer