BEFORE: I know, it's a commercial kiddie movie, but it keeps my ghost theme going, and what is Halloween, if not a commercialized kiddie holiday?
THE PLOT: A paranormal expert and his daughter bunk in an abandoned house populated by 3 mischievous ghosts and one friendly one.
AFTER: Yeah, this was pretty corny - it started out OK, with Bill Pullman as a paranormal "ghost therapist" called in to rid a haunted house of ghosts, and Christina Ricci as his daughter who bonds with Casper, the Friendliest of the ghosts. But it went off the rails with Cathy Moriarty playing the owner of the house, looking for some kind of hidden treasure. And there's a machine that can turn a ghost back into a human, with some kind of primordial potion - ridiculous.
And there's a trio of ghosts more evil than Casper - or are they evil? It's hard to tell because they're portrayed so inconsistently - one minute they're scaring construction workers, the next they're chumming around with Bill Pullman. And the movie feels the need to romanticize being a ghost, informing us that dying is "like being born - only backwards." Thanks, Casper, that's really helpful...
Casper also tells us that when people die, life doesn't matter so much anymore, so their purpose in life tends to be forgotten. But the whole gimmick of the film relies on the notion that ghosts are people who died with unfinished business - how are they ever going to finish their business on Earth, if they can't remember what it is? Also, later in the film a character dies, and completely remembers who she was, and every part of her plan! Well, which is it? And if the ghosts can pass through walls so easily, how can Pullman's character trap them in a vacuum cleaner?
Eric Idle provides the comic relief, but unfortunately so much of it is slapsticky, relying on people slipping on wet floors, or getting covered in shaving cream. There are also cameos from Don Novello (turning his Fr. Guido Sarducci character into an exorcist), Dan Aykroyd reprising his role as a Ghostbuster, Ben Stein as a deadpan lawyer. But those aren't enough to make up for all the pratfalls.
RATING: 3 out of 10 cobwebs
SPOOK-O-METER: 2 out of 10
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