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Ghost Town, a review by Jon

Ghost Town
3 out of 5



Ricky Gervais plays dentist Bertram Pincus, who briefly dies during a small operation. This gives him the ability to see ghosts and they, like most people, really annoy him. Especially Frank (Greg Kinnear) who wants help making sure his widow (Tea Leoni) doesn't remarry.

This is a cute film. In some ways it can't help but repeat old ground from Ghost, but there's just a hint of [British] irony to stop it being purely sentimental mushy rubbish. Though there is that too. Greg Kinnear is great as Frank, trying to right the wrongs of his life, but he would have been lost without straight-man (for the most part) Gervais. It's another miserable bastard variation for him to play, but he does very well and I'm always pleasantly surprised at the mileage he gets out of what is essentially the same routine. There's a nice twist on his usual trick of pretending not to understand a question when a Doctor does it to him, brilliantly. I'm certainly never bored by him and he has some cracking lines that made me laugh out loud, especially when he's dealing with the various ghosts begging him for help (which of course he refuses). I'm not sure his character would have been that witty, but he saves it mainly for scenes with or about Tea Leoni's character so we can easily claim she's having the effect on him as he falls for her. I enjoyed her character and the two work very well off of each other, and all three leads flesh out what could easily have been very thin roles. Leoni on particular has always had a slight unpredictability, which is essential in a film like this.

Because yes, this is fully-certified, middle-of-the-road, completely harmless rom-com, and as should be, it is very predictable. Heck, think really hard for a couple of minutes and I bet you can work out the broad plot without seeing the film! Don't do that though, it is worth seeing, because like all good rom-coms, it knows how predictable it is and generally gets on with it. I do wish the middle section had been shorter so there'd have been more time in the last act. A couple of very funny ghosts fall by the wayside, which was a shame. Still, it's occasionally moving, occasionally hilarious, if dependably obvious.

EDIT: Btw, this is worth seeing on Blu-Ray. New York looks absolutely gorgeous, especially just on the cusp of winter. And there's some nice time-lapse effects that I'm sure would have been lost a little bit on DVD.

(From Jon's Marathon of Horror! 2009 on October 3rd, 2009)

Cradle 2 the Grave, a review by Silence_of_Lambs

Summary:
When his daughter is kidnapped and held in exchange for priceless diamonds, Fait (DMX), the leader of a crew of highly skilled urban thieves forges an unlikely alliance with a Taiwanese Intelligence officer (Jet Li) to rescue her. Their race against the clock to find the precious stones ultimately unravels a plot to distribute a deadly new weapon of war.

My Thoughts:
This film comes in the tradition of Exit Wounds (with better acting, since there's no Steven Seagal) and Romeo Must Die and just like them it's a festival of martial arts scenes.
The story comes along as a classical "No-Brainer" (and because of some severe plausibility leaks it's actually better to leave your brain in "StandBy), nevertheless this flick is highly enjoyable.
Not much to say against this movie: Decent story, decent acting, decent directing, ...
If you like the movies above and/or flicks like Bad Boys this film is highly recommended to you.

My Rating: (out of possible 5)

(From Michael's random reviews on October 29th, 2010)

Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews, a review by Tom

Star Trek: The Next Generation
6.25 Timescape
Writer: Brannon Braga (Writer)
Director: Adam Nimoy
Cast: Patrick Stewart (Capt. Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Cmdr. William Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lieutenant Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Michael Bofshever (Romulan / Alien), John DeMita (Romulan), Joel Fredericks (Engineer)

The Enterprise is frozen in time together with a Romulan Bird of Prey. At first glance it looks like those two where in battle. But is this really the case? Picard and company, arriving from a seminar, have to investigate. I like this episode. You have to suspend disbelieve dealing with this premise, but if you do, it is an enjoyful episode.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews on November 1st, 2011)