Ghost Town

A typical Gervais and a good one, too

Frank just accidentally let his wife know that he cheats her with his gymnast when his estate agent called her about the apartment he bought for his girlfriend. And just that second Frank gets run over by a bus. Shit happens. What also happens is the dentist Bertrand Pincus, the ultimate asshole who hates all his clients and basically every human being that ever tried making
contact with him. He goes to the hospital for some small surgery and when he is released he sees people and for the worst – they are talking to him and asking him for favors! Well actually what he sees are the ghosts of the street of Manhattan who got unfinished business with their former loved ones and he is the first to be a link between them and the living in a long time. So he has to
help them or does he.

Frank is the most bothering of them and jumps on Pincus right away with the “small favor” of getting his former wife away from the suspicious new boyfriend of hers she is in love with. Not that he had much of a reason, he just thinks that is what he has to do. And Pincus – accepts doing him this favor under the condition that after this one they all leave him alone and he can go on quietly hating everything living.

Greg Kinnear and Ricky Gervais make such a great “couple” in this movie and Gervais is once again so … himself! Seriously – every time I see Ricky Gervais pissing of people I think to myself “man, you gotta learn from this guy!”.

There's nothing really bad to say about this movie. Good set up, funny as hell, great actors, a Gervais on his best and even a good soundtrack. It's one of these movies you gotta love, for real. It must be such a boring review to you ending with that critic, but well: Face it, we got a really good movie here!

Ghost Town – Released Sept 2008

Extras - Even moviestars are only human

Being an extra is alright but watching „Extras“ is even better! (Sorry, that one just slipped out)

„Extras“ is or was however a 12 episodes BBC series (plus one final movie lenght special episode) with Ricky Gervais as the main character Andy. Andy is an extra who wants to be a star instead of working with the big ones. Asked for what his job is, he always answers he's an actor and he tries to make his dream come true after 40 years waiting for it.

His friend Maggie (Ashley Jensen) is also a bit desperate about her full time job as an extra, being single, just as Andy, and on her side dreaming of going out with the movie stars. And so they use every single shooting day trying to get their thing done. Andy tries to get short speaking roles and Maggie meanwhile tries to catch the attention of the best looking guys on the set. But the so called stars are only human. Some are totally unlikeable and if one isn't Maggie does the trick to ruin it anyway by saying something very, very stupid.

In Season 2 which is episode 7-12 Andy even made it through to get hi own scripts produced as a weekly series but unfortunately it isn't as easy as he thought it would be and finally he is unhappy again with his so called fame.

This series is a must see, there is no way around it if you like movies, actors, some nice humor and likable characters. The 13 episodes are over far too fast in the end and you maybe even gonna miss the series a bit.

Beware, even your favorite actors will seem a bit too human to you after watching that but just give it a try. In those 13 episodes there do appear:

Ross Kemp & Vinnie Jones, Ben Stiller, Kate Winslet,Les Dennis, Samuel L Jackson, Patrick Stewart, Orlando Bloom, David Bowie, Daniel Radcliffe , Chris Martin , Ian McKellen, Robert De Niro

That is a damn lot of stars with some self irony to play themselves and even that makes it totally recommendable! The series won a Golden Globe and 7 other prices and now it won the status of one of the best concepts I've ever seen on screen! Go, watch it!