We Have a Ghost

So, the movies "alright".

It's competently directed, acted, and it looks decent. The issue I have is it's waaaaaay long. For what the movie was presented to be, it should've been about and hour and forty five minutes TOPS. With a running time of two hours and six minutes... the film is extremely difficult to get through.

And... the tone is all over the place. Is it a comedy? A drama? A thriller? A mystery? It tried to be all of these things. I've seen a lot of movies on Netflix like this recently. Is it a Netflix thing? Or just something Hollywood is trying on for size. Hopefully they cut the crap because it doesn't work.

The main hero, Kevin, is really likeable. And I appreciate that. Performances are good, but the jumbled mess is not the casts fault. It rests with the filmmakers. Netflix should've advertised this as more of a drama revolving around a family. There ARE funny moments, but the preview makes it seem like this will carry throughout the entirety of the movie and it doesn't.

It's average and gets a higher rating for me because I'm a fan of David Harbour.

From Christopher Landon, the man behind films such as Happy Death Day and Freaky, comes a funny and moving ghost story, with great cast and cool car chases as well. The story follows a family of four who moves into a new house, only to find out that it's haunted by the ghost of a guy (David Harbour) who wears a bowling shirt with the name Ernest on it. The first to come into contact with him, is the younger sensitive son, Kevin (played by Jahi Di'Allo Winston), who feels all alone and can't connect with his family, especially his father (Anthony Mackie). When Kevin sees Ernest, he bonds with him and makes it his mission to find out his story and help him cross over to the other side, but naturally it's not that simple, as the family find themselves targeted by the CIA (Tig Notaro and Steve Coulter), who want to capture Ernest and do experiments on him. Kevin teams up with the girl next door (Isabella Russo) in order to uncover the mystery behind Ernest and help him out. Even though there are so many ghost stories, this one does offer something fun and new, first of all seeing David Harbour playing a ghost (with unattractive hair cut) and not being able to say any words, is truly impressive. The rest of the cast does good job all around (too bad Jennifer Coolidge had such a short time on screen though). I especially loved a moving scene between Kevin and his father, where he becomes honest and tells him that he's proud of him. Also the visuals and soundtrack are also great. The films discusses many topics such as family, social media and the power of friendship (even with a ghost).

It's overly long and goes to some very random places narratively but We Have a Ghost is still a really fun 80s Amblin throwback that has plenty of charming moments and humour that hits more than it misses. It's definitely Christopher Landon's weakest film in a while but thankfully still isn't bad by any means.

The cast are all good in their undemanding roles that require them to go through the usual stereotypes and motions and David Harbour is obviously the standout with the hardest job. He has to be extremely innocent and emotive purely through movement and he pulls it off effortlessly.

Christopher Landon's direction is really good, the film has some fun set pieces combined with the right songs to make them even better and the overall earnesty of the film wins you over by the end. The CG isn't anything spectacular but it's convincing enough and rarely pushes its own limitations.

I didn think I woud like it, but it was pretty good.

The characters were very likable, they weren't funny just to be funny but really believable.

No over the top scary stuff, just super entertaining to watch. I did wonder about the ages of some of the characters .....he looks more like a granddad, but okay I guess, it is possible for a man to have a child later in life. I'm not a great fan of Tig, as she is usually acting the same grumpy person... but I really liked her in this movie. Same goes for Jennifer, she was as I was expecting her to be, but perfect for the role.

I would love to see more movies like this on Netflix. From start to finish a great watch.

It seems Netflix are determined to releasing new weekly movies that are mediocre and too long. This easily, just like other Netflix-films like the recent Jason Mamoa films Slumberland and Sweet Girl or the very recent Your place or mine, could have been 90 minutes. I'm confident I would have enjoyed this film much more if it was shorter - now I just feel numb.

Sometimes a light comedy can be just what I crave. It can have medium reviews but in a certain mood, a "medium" film can be perfect. But for two hours? Landons previous films in the Happy Death Day-franchise + Freaky are much more succesful in being enjoyable.