Ghost of New Orleans

I don't know if I should feel badly for Cary Elwes or Terrence Howard for having to portray characters that were way out of their wheelhouse, or if I should cry for those of us that had to watch them. OMG, they were terrible.

The story had potential, but was bogged down and moved way too slowly.

It's hard to believe how many really great actors were a part of this incredibly bad film.

The opening scene reveals the problem with this film - if it was a home-made film, ala the Blair Witch project, it might be more forgivable, but even indie films should be able to do better camera work than this, better directing. It's particularly tragic as a supernatural mystery film in New Orleans sounds so good and the scenery was downgraded by the truly poor production - almost as if the director, cameramen and production crew were entirely trashed throughout filming. I liked the plot, the casting and though I'd watch a film just for Josh Lucas, here his acting was spotty (fading in and out of character, too blatant to be passed off by the character development that did happen) he was far outmatched by Terrence Howard. Deborah Woll and Cary Elwes are fun in their supporting roles and it's always good to see those two. Lake Bell is very pretty - not going to win any acting awards for this - but she didn't ruin the film. I'd say the cast must not have been overly inspired - hope nobody else gives this director a shot. What a shame because this could have been a much better film. Still, definitely worth watching if you're going to bed anyway and are watching it for free.

The Ghost of New Orleans is a ghost detective procedural. I do not know why I didn't see it at the theaters, but I wish I had. I really wanted to give this an eight or nine, but I can't. The last twenty minutes it comes into its own. I'm not as put off by the one bad accent, if you been too Southern Louisianna then you've heard it from Louisianans, there's only one place where it really doesn't work. There are three Louisianan accents, and he (Barry) does pull off one except once. Regarding basements in New Orleans, it's a common mistake and the term may be used in reference to a first floor that floods easily that is normally behind a retaining wall to keep the floods out. They feel like basements but are not basements so when you see a basement in a movie about Louisianna, it wasn't filmed in Louisianna. If you like detective or Ghost Stories then you'll like this.

Lucas convincingly pulled off this eerie tale of a police detective who not only was haunted by his past mistakes but haunted by the murder of beautiful young woman in the present. The storyline kept me interested and somewhat surprised to the end.

Let's make something clear, this is not a thriller movie. It's a decent crime drama but there is nothing about this movie that I would consider it a thriller. I'll be honest it's not a bad watch but be forewarned it is slow and not in one of those building up slow then smack you down crazy make it all worth it kind of slow. The one thing it does have going for it it leads you in a couple directions. You really don't know who the final suspect is until the very end. The acting was decent, the cinematography was underwhelming, especially since they were supposed to be in New Orleans. I feel like they could've done so much more with the story but it was like the writer just couldn't pull all the threads together to create something exciting. I'm not going to say it was a total waste of time but I will say I do not have a desire to watch it again. On to the next.