Sunday, February 22, 2009

you know those comedies that aren't actually funny...this isn't one of them

I haven't been to the actual movies, as in buy and ticket and go to the theatre for a long time. Months....since sometime in 2008 I would be guessing. And I can't remember the last movie I saw at the theatre so clearly it wasn't really that memorable. Actually now I come to think about it, it may have been Mamma Mia.

But my love of all things Ricky Gervais drew me out in the heat of a summer's day to Ghost Town. The Jinxster and I met up and squished ourselves into the smallest theatre with a group of about 20, late teenagers, a family of four, and one or two loners. Clearly, our Cinema 4 thinks that there is little audience for this ghostly comedy, having relegated it to the tiniest room in the building. Before the start, we wondered whether we were going to have to put on our teacher voices but once things got going all was well. Who knew young people went to the movies in the middle of the day on a Sunday? I thought it was all Friday/ Saturday nights, leaving the daytime sessions for parents with children, and us - the aged. HA!

If you have bad memories of the Righteous Brothers, Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze (sadly now very unwell) and a pottery wheel rest assured Ghost Town is nothing like that. Gervais is a misanthropic dentist, Greg Kinnear, the slightly dislikeable unfaithful husband haunting him, and Tea Leoni the woman they are both chasing for different reasons. And best of all, for all you Ferris Bueller fans, an Alan Ruck sighting...older and greyer now, but not all that different from when Matthew Broderick led him astray all those years ago. I'll say no more, except I haven't laughed out loud at a movie so much for quite some time. You know those comedies that aren't actually funny, where you've seen all the mildly amusing scenes in the trailer - this isn't one of them.

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