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Reviews
Ghost Town (2008)
Gervais Raves At Spirit Level
This seems to be the first leading movie role for Ricky Gervais (of "Office" and "Extras" fame) although you may have previously caught his cameo appearance in "Night At The Museum". Gervais was hilarious on the small screen and, to my mind, he doesn't disappoint in this larger scale offering. Gervais plays a supergrump of a Manhattan dentist (Bertram Pincus) whose hatred of people in general is only exceeded by the hilarity of his one-liners (usually put-downs). Pincus is admitted to hospital for routine surgery under general anaesthetic but he dies on the operating table for a few minutes. Although they revive him he survives with a special gift – the ability to see ghosts. And they can see him - and they also realise that he actually dwells in the land of the living. The ghosts look just like ordinary people – apart from their tendency to walk through solid objects: walls, moving vehicles, you name it. The plot thickens when one of the ghosts (played by Greg Kinnear) persuades Pincus to woo his widow – on the basis that, although Pincus is exceedingly dull, his ex-wife (Tea Leoni) deserves a better catch than the creep of a lawyer who she's got lined up to replace him. At first Gervais is sceptical but eventually plays ball when he realises that, if he doesn't, Kinnear won't give him a moment's peace. Then – naturally – the inevitable happens and Pincus starts to fall in love.
The special effects in this movie are particularly good. Well, to be exact, there's one special effect. That, of course, is Kinnear and the rest of the ghostly gaggle being able to dematerialise when impact with solid objects is imminent – and then reappear again. Brilliant stuff. It's been done before, of course, in other films – but not half as well as this, I would suggest. Mind you, the other ghostly business and spectral scenes (usually involving Gervais being rude at spirit level and mistakenly insulting live people in the way) comes across as just a tad corny. But then, as we all know, film perfection is hard to conjure up.
My disbelief was suspended to the point where I actually started to accept that Gervais was really able to see and communicate with the dead whilst in the land of the living. What strained my credulity, however, was coming to terms with any man (let alone three, including the ghostly ex-husband) actually being able to fancy anyone as insipid as Tea Leoni. I couldn't work out whether it was her or her film persona that I didn't like – but after a while I stopped caring anyway and just went along with the laughs. Leoni's character was that of an animal archaeologist (fossil fancier) who also showed an unhealthy interest in her doggy's doo-doos. Perhaps that was all part of the comedic set-up but, if so, that was a bit I didn't really get.
I'll leave you to find out whether Pincus (Gervais) gets the girl, gets rid of the ghosts who are pestering him to do good deeds for them (to finish off unfinished business so they can finally make it to the great rest home in the sky) or is even able to make physical contact with Kinnear long enough to strangle him. (I know I would have been tempted to find a way.) You really ought to see this as it's not only a funny film (very funny in parts) but like all good comedies is also poignant enough in places to be a bit of a tear-jerker if you're in the right mood. So I'd seriously advise you to get hold of this movie any which way you can, even if you have to steal it. But if your hand can't somehow seem to make contact with the DVD case then the chances are that you're already dead.
Valiant (2005)
Not Squawking Likely
The idea was brilliant, almost inspired, but it turned into very much of a lame duck (no pun intended) on screen. The Dickin award was and is a sort of animals VC or George Cross. In World War II (when this film is set), homing pigeons more or less cleaned up with 32 out of 54 awarded for displaying conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty whilst serving with British Commonwealth armed forces or civil emergency services (according to Wikipedia).
Now back to the movie. The trouble is that it never really managed to run (or fly) very far with the original immaculate conception. I thought that it pretty much found its level by catering for eight year-olds (of all ages) by copious amounts of burping and farting from the birdie characters, which was more or less the high point of the action. The plot (if you can call it that) was thinner than the wafer on your interval ice-cream, with the eponymous Valiant (voiced by Ewan McGregor), wanting to be a hero in the Royal Air Force Homing Pigeon Service, which flew messages about enemy movements across the English Channel. Although it may represent a (forgotten) slice of wartime history, it fails miserably to impress at the comedic level, except unintentionally: "We have ways of making you squawk" is possibly one of the worst lines ever in movie history (and I've sat through a few, I can tell you).
There are possible compensations though. Here, I'm thinking of the richest array of vocal talents never to have shown their faces on screen, probably making it one of the most expensive British voiced-over films ever. You name them and there they are. Everyone from John Cleese and Hugh Laurie to John Hurt and Rik Mayall. But then these voices are so distinctive, the problem I had was in attempting to dissociate the cartoon from his real life comedy persona. Moreover, this wasn't helped by the writers apparently trying to recreate their sitcom characters by cunning use of dialogue(certainly with the Ricky Gervais character, who sounded more like David Brent out of "The Office" than David Brent out of "The Office"). In fact, it was so predictable at times, they may just as well have got Rory Bremner to do all the voices. (Perhaps they did - that would account for Hugh Laurie coming across more like his Blackadder character than Hugh Laurie doing his Blackadder character.)
So my advice to you is not to inflict this film on yourself unless you're with (or you are) an eight year-old (of any age) desperate to spend an hour and a half out of the rain. Of course, I could be wrong and possibly this film made a lot of money at the box office. In which case I can only think that the movie-going public were shat on by the film makers from a great height. Final verdict: Bird's Custard.
The Girl on the Boat (1962)
It Floats My Boat - But Only Up To A Point
Interesting that our Norm was paired opposite Millicent Martin, who was to be big in the forthcoming satire boom in England in the 1960s (and "That Was The Week" in particular). Quite why Wisdom took on this type of lead role is something of a mystery - cast as he was as one of the Bertie Wooster, PG Wodehouse, upper class, chinless wonder types. Yet he does remarkably well with, I have to say, not one of P.G.'s best offerings -even though the novel was given a makeover for the big screen by the improbably named Reuben Ship (a film and TV writer who penned scripts for, amongst others, Spike Milligan and Frankie Howerd). However, some of the rough edges of the dialog do grate somewhat, presumably in a vain attempt to keep faith with the Wodehouse original. On the printed page such exchanges can still sparkle. But on screen they run the risk of coming over as being about as sharp as the blunt end of a bread pudding. As when the Norman Wisdom character (Sam Marlowe), caught by a New York cop prancing around the street in his underwear (don't ask) says: "It's all right, officer, I'm English." And the cop replies: "Well, I'm Irish, so you'll have to come up with a better excuse than that." Wisdom and Martin are most ably supported by, in particular, Richard Briers, who starred in later sitcoms such as "Brothers In Law", "The Good Life", (you name it) playing the part of the Wisdom character's useless friend, Eustace Hignett (well, with a name like Eustace he would have to be useless, wouldn't he?). Though quite unlike any character he had played before (or was later to do) Wisdom does maintain the tradition of being a (somewhat unlikely) romantic lead. And although he was pushing fifty by then (compared to M.M. being well under thirty) he still comes across as comparatively youthful and was able to pull off a number of stunts both in and out of the water while managing to look convincing. But as to whether or not he actually gets the girl in this one - you'll just have to watch the movie and see for yourself.