Ghost Town (Cert 12, 98 mins, Paramount Home Entertainment, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Tea Leoni, Aasif Mandvi, Billy Campbell.
During a routine colonoscopy, middle-aged, British dentist Bertram Pincus (Gervais) reacts badly to the anaesthetic and his heart stops beating. Thankfully, hospital staff revive him on the operating table but Bertram wakes with a strange gift. He can now see and hear the spirits of the recently departed, including Frank Herlihy (Kinnear), who entreats Bertram to speak to his widow, Gwen (Leoni). The misanthropic dentist unexpectedly feels an emotional connection to another human being and he wrestles with his growing attraction to Gwen. Alas, she is engaged to human rights lawyer Richard (Campbell), who works with homeless prostitutes in Bengal. With a different leading man, Ghost Town could have been a quirky and charming romantic comedy. Regrettably, with Gervais on board, the project becomes a limp one-man show and the award-winning star of The Office and Extras simply doesn’t have the charisma to carry an entire film, falling back on his usual repertoire of comic tics and mumbled asides. Sexual chemistry between Gervais and Leoni is completely inert, rendering Bertram’s romantic overtures horribly pathetic. He’s certainly no credible match for Campbell’s suave, charming do-gooder. Saturday Night Live regular Kristen Wiig is a blessed relief in a cameo as a litigation-shy surgeon, who tries to cover up for the unfortunate turn of events on the operating table. “You died… a little bit,” she eventually confesses. There’s every chance viewers will die of boredom well before the end of David Koepp’s film and the emotionally manipulative, mawkish denouement that recalls Scrooge’s transformation in A Christmas Carol. Bah humbug indeed.

DVD Extras: Director and actor commentary, “Making Ghost Town” featurette, “Ghostly Effects” featurette, “Some People Can Do It” featurette.
Rating: **

(Cert 15, 124 mins, Entertainment In Video, Thriller/Action, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Colin Farrell, Edward Norton, Jon Voight, Noah Emmerich, Jennifer Ehle, Ramon Rodriguez, Rick Gonzalez.

When four men from NYPD are ambushed and slain during a drug bust, Chief of Manhattan Detectives Francis Tierney Sr (Voight) assembles a crack task force to identify and capture the shooter. He implores his son, Detective Ray Tierney (Norton), to lead the investigation, working alongside brother Francis Jr (Emmerich), the dead men’s commanding officer, and brother-in-law Jimmy Egan (Farrell). Ray’s meticulous work
uncovers undeniable evidence of police involvement in the drug turf war between Angel Tezo (Rodriguez) and Eladio Casado (Gonzalez).

Consequently, the department becomes embroiled in a scandal that makes grim reading on the front page of the morning newspaper. Meanwhile, the entire Tierney clan prepares for the impending death of Francis Jr’s terminally ill wife Abby (Ehle). Pride And Glory pounds the beat with a band of brothers for whom intimidation, extortion and murder are badges of honour. Gavin O’Connor’s gritty thriller is shot predominantly on handheld cameras to maintain uncomfortable, close proximity to the action, shadowing detectives as they wander back and forth through a crime scene or hunkering down during a standoff with an armed man. The constant movement can be a little disorienting but is an apt reflection of the Tierneys, always searching for the next lead, the next link in the chain. Director of photography Declan Quinn opts for a grimy, colour-bleached palette that makes the city seem cold and foreboding. Norton and Farrell are solid in underwritten roles but both are out-gunned by Emmerich, whose scenes with his dying wife leave a lasting impression. His character’s hard fought and hard earned redemption comes at a terrible price.

DVD Extras: “Source Of Pride: The Making Of Pride And Glory” featurette.
Rating: ***

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