User Score
7.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 75 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 65 out of 75
  2. Negative: 6 out of 75

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  1. LauraF
    Oct 1, 2008
    10
    This movie was stunning. It causes you to shed buckets of tears - whether because you're laughing your face off or because of the touching humanity portrayed in the characters.
  2. BllS.
    Sep 27, 2008
    10
    Very funny movie. Well written and acted. Laughter brought tears to our eyes.
  3. GinoC
    Jan 20, 2009
    10
    A great all around movie. Very funny, but also humor with a big heart and Gervais, once again, excels at being a bit harsh and making you like him at the same time. Tea Leoni and Greg Kinear do their roles great justice. A genuinely funny and touching film. As ironic as it may seem, those who think the film is unfunny are probably a bit too misanthropic to let their guards down to enjoy this it.
  4. RM
    Sep 20, 2008
    9
    RG is hysterical! Very funny and enjoyable film. Great cast.
  5. TFox
    Sep 21, 2008
    9
    It has been a while since I laughed so much!
  6. JohnS
    Sep 21, 2008
    9
    Great movie. Really took advantage of Gervais talent. Best movie so far this year.
  7. EdM.
    Sep 23, 2008
    9
    Very funny and original. The trailers do not do this movie justice.
  8. MarkB.
    Oct 17, 2008
    9
    Screenwriter (and sometime director) David Koepp not only makes amends for his beyond-pedestrian work on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and demonstates a comic facility that nobody would've previously credited him for, but has crafted a thoroughly charming, touching and frequently uproariously funny supernatural comedy-romance that can stand proudly with many of the classic fantasies of yesteryear, as an Ebenezer Scrooge-like misanthrope is reformed by ghosts--or, to put it another way, a Tin Man gets a heart. British character comic Ricky Gervais is an acquired taste I haven't acquired until now (I couldn't get through Extras, and vastly prefer Steve Carell's Americanization of The Office) but he's a real treat to watch her as the world's meanest (and most miserable) man, a loner who dislikes his fellow humans so much that he seems to have chosen the profession of dentistry for the express purpose of getting paid to make them squirm and suffer. The movie's opening half hour (during which Koepp displays a peculiar but real talent for transforming inanimate objects into hilarious supporting players) in which Gervais temporarily dies on the operating table during minor surgery, an event that enables him to see and communicate with dead people, comprises the most consistently amusing 30 minutes seen onscreen this year, with special props going to Kirsten Wiig, who plays an overly lawsuit-conscious doctor/ hospital administrator and who -- here as in last year's Knocked Up -- manages to make sheer, aself-serving duplicity seem almost adorable. And speaking of huggable actresses, Tea Leoni, playing a winsome, soon-to-be-married archaeologist whose dead husband (Greg Kinnear at his caddish best) employs Gervais to break up the engagement, is as usual wonderfully natural and appealing. A modern-day Carole Lombard equivalent, Leoni may not be able to buy a box office hit with someone else's money, but like Lombard she unerringly blends razor-sharp comic timing with effortless on-screen warmth; she's simultaneously glamorous and down to earth. (In 2004 Leoni delivered what was perhaps the decade's most underrated comic performance; many viewers and critics hated her as Adam Sandler's perpetually driven, insecure high-maintenance wife in James L. Brooks' Spanglish, but I spent most of the picture wanting to put my arm around her and tell her that everything would turn out OK and that she didn't have to try so darn hard.) The best movies of ANY genre, including the least strictly realistic ones (horror, SF, fantasy--and romantic comedies) almost unanimously display or reveal truthful insights about human nature, and one of the elements that makes Ghost Town so special is that Leoni's intended is not at all a bad guy or a buffoon, but the movie knows that in choosing him, Leoni is overcompensating for what a heel Kinnear was, but that to be truly happy Leoni needs a good person who's also a lot of fun to be with, and shouldn't have to choose between one or the other. If Ghost Town has any flaws at all, it's that it focuses on its central quadrangle -- compelling as it is -- at the expense of the OTHER ghosts' needs, which in some cases are even more vital (the stuffed squirrel scene late in the picture is not only incredibly moving, but yields some truly stunning character revelations). Perhaps all will be revealed in the deleted scenes portion of the DVD, but just what was it that the naked dead guy wanted Gervais to do anyway? Expand
  9. HaroldG.
    Dec 18, 2008
    9
    I was totally blown away by the ending of the film. I didn't expect he'll get hit by the bus.It kept me guessing a second there.What now!haha! I was moved by the film especially about the Einstein part. Really good insight.Using John Mayer's song at the credits was also a big plus to the film. It really suits the emotion portrayed by the film. Very good.
  10. BenH.
    Dec 22, 2008
    9
    Ricky Gervais is great and everyone should take the time to see this movie and all of his work
  11. HowardC.
    Sep 15, 2008
    9
    this is a very funny movie which has a big heart. Gervais is great and though he is playing a loner, cynical dentist, the comedy is not in the office or extras mode. It feels real for a ghost movie if that makes any sense and while we know it will work out in the end..it doesn't feel forced. Last two lines are really lovely and a perfect finish.
  12. Bill
    Sep 29, 2008
    9
    One of the most funny and entertaining movies I have seen in a theater in years.
  13. EssiS
    Mar 16, 2009
    9
    A great script by David Koepp, who also directed this surpriser film of 2008. Everything worked in this film. Funny and moving.
Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 30 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 30
  2. Negative: 0 out of 30
  1. A winning mix of sharp comedy and touching bits that keeps the laughter -- a few tears -- flowing.
  2. Reviewed by: John Anderson
    80
    Smartly supernatural, and featuring sensational performances by Ricky Gervais and Tea Leoni, Ghost Town is a "Topper" for our times.
  3. Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    40
    If it sounds all so pale and predictable, it is.