New Movie Releases: Ghost Town and More!

Ghost Town
You may not know who Ricky Gervais is. You should, because he's hilarious on UK shows such as The Office and Extras, but he's not well-known in the U.S. That might be about to change, but given the barren early screening of Ghost Town this past week, we're banking on a "not so much".

Ghost Town is the tale of Dr. Pinkus (Gervais), who is, frankly, kind of a dick. The dentist hates everyone. Dogs, children, patients, everyone. When he goes in for a colonoscopy and demands anesthesia, he dies for seven minutes due to complications. Because of his (temporary) death, Pinkus can now see dead people. (Cue The Sixth Sense jokes.) And those dead people will not leave him the fuck alone.

Apparently ghosts only stick around if they have unfinished business. Like, duh, Casper taught us that. But in this flick, they demand that Pinkus help them, and one persuasive ghost, Frank, (the ever-likable Greg Kinnear) cuts a deal with the good doc--if Pinkus can stop Frank's wife (Tea Leoni) from marrying a supposed prick, he'll get all the ghosts to leave him alone. Cue the cliche romantic comedy crap about girl hating boy at first and then romance ensuing.

But, wait! This romantic comedy has a couple of things going for it, namely Gervais. While the script seems a bit trite at times, the moments when Gervais is going off on his Gervais schtick (we're assuming that the script read, "dialogue, Ricky does his thing for three minutes, and more dialogue") are pure comedic gold. He makes fun of Chinese people, cracks bad jokes about gingivitis, and discusses his disgusting gag reflex. C'mon, that shit is hilarious.

Yeah, okay, it's pretty typical fare with a few golden nuggets, but it definitely provides some good laughs, and the chemistry between Gervais and Kinnear is pretty ad-or-able, even if the supporting characters of Ghost Town are fairly muted compared to the outlandish ones Gervais is used to. And, the throwback to '30s rom-coms with extreme happy endings feels sorta like a high-concept Hollywood concoction Gervais would have ridiculed in Extras. Oh well, it made us laugh..and then feel superior with reminiscing the Rickster's funnier works. --Darcie Duttweiler
[Trailer] [Showtimes]

Lakeview Terrace
In this evil-neighbor thriller, Samuel L. Jackson plays a rogue LA cop who harasses his new neighbors (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) in increasingly terrifying ways.
--Matt Smith
[Trailer] [Showtimes]

Igor
An animated flick with a great cast (John Cusack, John Cleese, Steve Buscemi, Eddie Izzard, Jennifer Coolidge among others), Igor follows an ambitious hunchback who works as the assistant to a mad scientist--but who dreams of becoming an evil genius himself one day. --Matt Smith
[Trailer] [Showtimes]

My Best Friend's Girl
Dane Cook plays "Tank", a guy who makes money by attempting to drive women back to their ex-boyfriends. But when he's hired by his best friend (Jason Biggs) to go out on a date with Alexis (Kate Hudson), things get complicated. --Matt Smith
[Trailer] [Showtimes]

Up the Yangtze
The critically-adored Up the Yangtze is a documentary exploring the cost of progress in modern China. Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang follows workers and tourists aboard a "farewell cruise" on the Yangtze river, where construction of a gigantic hydroelectric dam will soon flood the surrounding villages, forcing residents to relocate. --Matt Smith
[Trailer] [Showtimes]

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