Ethan’s’s Score: 5.5/10

I feel kind of bad that I’m about to give this film a negative review. It’s a sweet, well-intentioned and non-offensive comedy. And how many of those do we get? But it’s unfortunately pretty generic and predictable. And I have to be that asshole critic if I want any credibility. It just really pains me to say that Ricky Gervais could’ve done so much better in his American starring role debut.

Gervais play Bertrum Pincus, a misanthropic dentist who gains the ability to see ghosts after dying for six minutes during a colonoscopy. Many of the ghosts he sees beg him to take care of their unfinished business. But one that stands out is Frank (well-played by Greg Kinnear). He constantly follows and talks to Bertrum about his wife who he wants to make amends with. Bertrum gets to doing it and eventually ends up falling in love. You can probably see where this is going. And that was the big problem for me.

Gervais, who I consider one of the funniest people in the world, is able to squeeze some laughs out his well-known style of humor. Sometimes it doesn’t always fit in, but most of the time it hits. He has good chemistry with Kinnear and even if the writing isn’t great, it’s still fun to watch them. But unfortunately, at times the movie’s humor feels a bit closer to the sitcom-within-a-sitcom from Gervais’ Extras, When The Whistle Blows. A bit ironic I found that.

So I’m not saying this a terrible movie, it’s just far from a great one. In fact I could ‘ve easily given this a 6 or 6.5 but I have to be an asshole every once in a while. I’ll just end by saying to wait for DVD. It’s not really required theater viewing.