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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Ghost (1990)

Ghost (1990)

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Released 5-Dec-2001

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Romance Main Menu Audio & Animation
Theatrical Trailer-1.85:1, 16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0 (2:21)
Featurette-Ghost: Remembering The Magic
Audio Commentary-Jerry Zucker (Director) & Bruce Joel Rubin (Writer)
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 1990
Running Time 121:31
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (63:11) Cast & Crew
Start Up Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Jerry Zucker
Studio
Distributor

Paramount Home Entertainment
Starring Patrick Swayze
Demi Moore
Whoopi Goldberg
Tony Goldwyn
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI $39.95 Music Maurice Jarre


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles Greek
English
Spanish
French
Hebrew
Croatian
Italian
Portuguese
Slovenian
English Audio Commentary
Spanish Audio Commentary
French Audio Commentary
Italian Audio Commentary
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Arguably one of the more iconic films of the 1990s, if for no other reason than enrolments in pottery classes went through the roof after its theatrical release, Ghost is one of those supposed "chick flicks" that the female gender seem to degenerate into paroxysms of tears over for no apparent reason. Well, I have often wondered why it is that such drivel gets written about films such as Ghost. Okay, the female gender might be slightly more prone to tears than the male, but if anyone cannot get a tear in the corner of their eye from this film, then I can only conclude that they must be the famed android Data. Mind you, paroxysms of tears would perhaps need more emotional depth from a female lead than the lead here is capable of.

    For those very few who might be unfamiliar with the story, Ghost is pretty much about a ghost - the ghost of handsome young banker Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze), gunned down in a struggle with a petty mugger. Naturally this leaves his girlfriend Molly Jensen (Demi Moore) rather devastated, and so Sam turns away from the light to try and sort out why it is that he has found himself in this predicament. Sam soon finds out it is not easy being a ghost "in between", especially as there is no manual to refer to. He ends up being little more than a presence that cannot let go of what he had - at least until he happens to be in his old apartment when his murderer turns up looking for something and cops more of an eyeful of Molly than he should. Now Sam has a purpose, and heads off to work out why he was murdered - which puts him in contact with psychic con artist by the imposing name of Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg). Even though she is pretty much a charlatan, it turns out that she does actually have some ability and she can sure hear Sam. Sam has to convince Oda Mae to convince Molly that she is in danger and that the real danger is from an unexpected source.

    The film copped two Oscars in 1990 - Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay. That tells you where the true strengths of the film lay. The screenplay produced by Bruce Joel Rubin is where everything springs from and it really is quite beautifully done. Never in a hurry to take you where it wants to take you, but neither erring on the side of slow tedium, it is a nicely paced story that takes the time to be what it needs to be. What was surprising was that the man brought in to realise Rubin's story was a choice so unlikely it was not even from left field, nor from anywhere near the baseball field but rather from some alternate universe! At the time, Jerry Zucker was best known as one of those madcap group who had brought us such gems as Airplane! (better known to us as Flying High), yet he was the man tasked with the job of bringing this story to the screen. I suppose it is a strong indictment of the quality of Rubin's screenplay that Zucker was able to come in and tackle a strong, character-based drama so well. Even Rubin admits, however, that the realisation of Oda Mae Brown is solely the result of the superb acting of Whoopi Goldberg, whose Oscar was thoroughly deserved. It is no word of a lie to suggest that everything that is superb about the film can be seen in the scenes involving Whoopi Goldberg. Patrick Swayze proved that he was no slouch in the acting stakes in a role that would be a very difficult one to act - being there but not being there. He did the job more than effectively, but the film is dragged down by the performance of Demi Moore, who frankly has all the emotional depth of Keanu Reeves on a bad day - and obviously Ghost is a film that is heavily reliant upon emotional depth.

   In itself, the film is no classic, but it has become a classic film in some sense of the word through the sheer iconic nature of that one scene. Arguably the ultimate date movie if you really wish to express your softer side, it is nonetheless a film that you can return to on a regular basis.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Of the transfers I have so far seen from Paramount, I would have to say that serviceable is probably a not unkind way of categorising them, which is precisely what we get here - a very serviceable transfer with little in the way of problems but hinting that it could perhaps have been a lot better.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is reasonably sharp, with a distinctly soft look at times that is probably a reflection of the way the film was shot. There is no really fuzzy stuff though, even when grain gets to be a bit more noticeable. The whole transfer has a grainy look, which impinges upon the clarity of the transfer in a marginal way. Detail is significantly improved over the VHS tape and the shadow scenes in particular now make a whole lot more sense than they previously did, even allowing for the slightly dark tone of the transfer.

    The transfer lacks a bit in the colour stakes, although this is not exactly unexpected given the nature of the film. There is a lack of vibrancy in the colours but really there is nothing much to worry about here. Even in some of the more garish Oda Mae scenes, everything is well handled and colour oversaturation is not an issue.

    The only indication of an MPEG artefact in the transfer is the slightly jerky nature of the Steadicam shot during the cemetery scene at 25:40, but since it is likely inherent in the source material this should hardly be blamed upon the authoring. There are also a couple of film-to-video artefacts in the transfer, namely some aliasing in the blinds at 8:49 and some shimmer in the background at 10:44. There are probably other artefacts around but the fact that I have not recorded them would indicate how minor the instances would be. There are film artefacts floating around in the transfer but nothing more than I would expect in a film of this age and certainly nothing to raise any issue with.

    The DVD is an RSDL formatted effort with the layer change coming at 63:11. It is mid-scene, as Molly is sitting at the top of the stairs with the penny jar, and is a little noticeable but not really disruptive to the flow of the film.

    There are nine subtitle options for the main feature, and the sampling of the English efforts indicate that they are reasonably accurate (missing just a few odd phrases in really dialogue heavy sections). They are otherwise nicely handled and presented.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are five soundtrack options on the DVD, the main two of concern to us being the English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and the English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded soundtrack. These were the options that I checked out. The other three options are Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded soundtracks in French, Italian and Spanish.

    The dialogue comes up very well in the transfer and is easy to understand. There did not appear to be any problems with audio sync in the transfer.

    The original score comes from Maurice Jarre and it is a nice one too. It may not be amongst the very best that Maurice Jarre has ever done, but it sure does a fine job of supporting the emotional tone of the film throughout. The film of course also includes some classic popular music and aside from boosting the popularity of pottery, the film was also responsible for a resurgence of interest in the genuine pop classic Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers. That scene, that song - that is what film icons are all about.

    Since we are talking a heavily dialogue based film, had there not have been a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack I for one would not have been surprised. However, the fact that we do get a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and what is more a full bitrate 448 Kb/s effort is all the more pleasing - and when it gets the chance to be used, it is superb. Most of the time you just sit there listening to the movie and really nothing sound-wise is grabbing you. But when those shadow scenes come along with those little ghouls, the sound suddenly reveals itself for what it is, with a wonderfully open, lovely surround presence and just the right sort of hint of bass support to put a knowing smile on the dial. It is not spectacular but it sure is nicely effective and quietly understated. Nice stuff indeed.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    Paramount have put together a nice little collection of extras for the DVD, that at least indicates that they are trying to do the right sort of job by us.

Menu

    16x9 enhanced and with some rather nice, romantically presented main menu audio and animation enhancement to boot.

Theatrical Trailer (2:21)

    Like so many theatrical trailers of the 1980s and beyond, manages to give away just about all important bits of the film in its basic two minute format. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, it is 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. In fairly ropey condition, with more than a few film artefacts floating around, it is looking its age pretty badly. Still, if you don't have time to watch the full two hour job, this will give you the whole film in two minutes.

Featurette - Ghost: Remembering The Magic (22:24)

    A retrospective look of sorts at the film, predominantly through interview material with Jerry Zucker and Bruce Joel Rubin, but with contributions from the three main stars too. Presented in a Full Frame format, it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with a nice Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Technically there is nothing much awry - maybe a little more minor aliasing than I would have liked - and the whole is actually a heck of a lot more interesting than I was expecting. A very nice effort indeed.

Audio Commentary - Jerry Zucker (Director) and Bruce Joel Rubin (Writer)

    After something of a stilted start, they soon get into the flow of things and whilst there is very little here that is screen-specific, they do fill in all sorts of behind-the-scenes stuff that actually results in an interesting effort. Not averse to having a laugh, often at themselves, I wish more commentaries were this conversationally easy going. Amongst the gems thrown out in the commentary? How about Nicole Kidman playing the lead? Well, I reckon she would have been far, far better a choice than Demi Moore.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    As far as we can ascertain, there are no material differences between the Region 1 and Region 4 releases.

Summary

    Ghost is one of those films that you can return to on a regular basis and enjoy tremendously. Whilst the video transfer could perhaps have been a little better overall, Paramount have broadly speaking given us a more than serviceable DVD package that does the film the sort of justice that it deserves. The only real complaint is the fact that 16 chapters for a two hour film is not exactly the best sort of example of chaptering around. Recommended.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris (Biological imperfection run amok)
Sunday, December 23, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-515, using S-Video output
DisplaySony Trinitron Wega (80cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationYamaha RXV-795
SpeakersEnergy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right C-2; rears EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL

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