Ghost Town: The Movie

I agree with Lawrence. I saw this at AOF. The editing was extremely difficult to digest, very D grade and amateur editing. The scenes drug on, very painful at times. They almost had a story and characters were just lost. It's a shame cause some of the shots were really, really nice and this movie could of been OK with some proper, professional, post talent. Rating this a ten is very humorous, very few ten professional movies exists, and it is very obvious that these must be people from this production rating it. That's OK, everyone wants their movie to be the best ;) but this film is far from a ten but a very good try for real amateur film makers. It looks like a first film but apparently it's not the companies first attempt. They are really going to have to step it up and make QUALITY projects if they want to compete and play with the big boys. It's a bummer to see the director also commenting on this page defending the movie, that will surely loses the integrity of the project fast. Directors should step back and let the film speak for itself and let the peoples honest judgment take play, people are smart they will tell you what they like and don't like. :) On a good note the setting was nice and the costumes looked great and some of the characters were really fun but should of been given a little more time to develop, seems like some characters had too much of the screen and others needed more. Very Confusing. Needs serious tightening and attention. Hope this is constructive criticism not to be taken to heart. Good luck on the next project! JBerg

About 20 minutes into this movie you begin to wonder just what is going on. What should have been a straightforward western tale of revenge is muddied up by poor storytelling. Too many cuts back to the back story and confusing choices of shot selection constantly nag at the viewer. Just when you think you have an idea about what is going on, the editor throws something totally irrelevant on the screen and you are left wondering what happened? This is incredibly frustrating! I can "see" the story on a basic level. I can sense what the film is trying to do. But it as if the editor is purposely trying to throw a wrench into the works. I am left with a simple question: Why would he do that? Nothing is more straightforward than a western. The good guys and the bad guys are easily distinguishable. And the plot is usually quite linear. Why then would you take a simple story such as this and assemble it in such a dyslexic manner?

They may have tried hard,but there is a rash of inexperience both in front of the camera and behind it that kills the film almost immediately and makes the viewer wish he had chosen something else to watch.Even the more experienced actors like Rance Howard and Bill McKinney come away looking bad because of the painfully ridiculous dialog written for them by the film's inexperienced script writers.The story is interesting enough,though,and would probably have come out looking a lot better with a more seasoned crew in charge.While it might be true that this film was not intended to be a blockbuster,it still has to be entertaining,and it comes up painfully short.

I fell in love with the story Heaven's Neighors quite a while ago. So naturally I kept my eyes open for anything Jeff Kennedy is associated with. Heaven's was a beautifully crafted story that tugged at your heart and stayed with you, rumbling around in the back of your mind for weeks. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for Ghost Town. The plot and characters are incredibly hard to follow. The storyline suffers from horrible editing. And it lacked that special touch that brought you in to the world that was created through the lens. To be honest, Heaven's, according to the credits was written and directed by Kennedy. And on Ghost Town he was only co-director. Dean Teaster/West was the other co-director as well as being involved in the story as well as producing. So I cannot say for certain how much of an impact Kennedy had on the movie, but judging by the end product it wasn't much. If Heaven's Neighbors is an example of his film making fingerprint, then Ghost Town was clearly not in his hands.

If you type in Dean Teaster on IMDb you get the page for Dean West. Mr. West produced, co-wrote the story, co-directed, and acted in Dean Teaster's Ghost Town. Not only that but the major characters in the story are named Teaster as well! So I guess I can assume that this is Mr. Teaster/West's movie. Actually it's his first movie. He had a co- director but his name is not all over the credits like Teaster's. This all leads up to an important question: Does he know anything about film and story structure? Judging by this movie I would have to say no. But don't take my word on it. Check out most of the previous comments. If you do you will notice a very common theme running through all of them. Mr. Teaster/West does not have a clue as to how a film should be assembled. If the flow of individual scenes are not rough and jarring they are too long and vapid. There are cuts in the wrong places, no cuts where there should be, and disturbingly few masters used and when they are they are not in the correct position. Take it form a film school graduate, Mr. Teaster/West and his editor need to go back to film school. This time pay attention to film basics 101. Take notes