Ghost (1990)

"A near-perfect movie. A 10!  Gary Franklin, KABC-TV
"You'll fall in love with Ghost.  Joel Siegel, Good Morning America
"A wonderful movie, sincere and inspired, with four terrific performances...  Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Editor's Note After renovating their expensive loft in the TriBeCa section of Manhattan, Molly (Demi Moore) and Sam (Patrick Swayze), a young successful yuppie couple, are walking home one evening when Sam is tragically gunned down by a street mugger. Molly goes into a deep depression, but, unknown to her, Sam has come back as a ghost in order to protect her from danger--although he isn't yet aware who or what means her harm, and he has a lot of learning to do in order to make himself known to her. He teams up with an unwilling psychic, Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg), and together they try to convince a very skeptical Molly that Sam was actually murdered and has returned spectrally to complete some unfinished business. Moore and Swayze and are excellent as the couple, and Goldberg won an Oscar for her portrayal of the wild and wacky psychic. GHOST is considered by many to be one of the most romantic films of the 1990s.

	Demi Moore
	Patrick Swayze
	Tony Goldwyn
	Whoopi Goldberg
	Adam Greenberg - Cinematographer
	Bruce Joel Rubin - Writer
	Jerry Zucker - Director
	Lisa Weinstein - Producer
	Mark W. Mansbridge - Art Director
	Maurice Jarre - Original Music By
	Steven-Charles Jaffe - Executive Producer
	Walter Murch - Editor

Shortly after moving into a new Manhattan apartment, a pair of lovers are separated by a street thug's bullet. Communicating through a frazzled false medium, the man's ghost tries to avenge his death and protect his girlfriend. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture, Best Original Score. Academy Awards: 2, including Best (Original) Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress--Whoopi Goldberg. New York Times
"...Eccentric enough to remain interesting....[Goldberg] makes the most of it..." 07/13/1990 p.C8

Premiere
"[F]unny and touching and memorable." 04/01/2004 p.54

Ultimate DVD
5 stars out of 5 -- "Swayze and Moore were two stars at the absolute top of their game and it's their magnetic chemistry that gives enduring momentum to this story..." 05/01/2007 p.99

DVD Town 8 of 10
Writer Bruce Joel Rubin explains in the accompanying documentary that his inspiration for "Ghost" was Shakespeare's "Hamlet." But you knew that. He says he always wanted to write a ghost story from the ghost«s point of view, but he could never get a hold on it. Then he remembered the ghost of Hamlet«s father and found his handle. It would be a revenge story, and the rest is history...Director Jerry Zucker had just helped produce "Airplane!," "Top Secret!," and "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" and apparently wanted a break from films ending in exclamation marks. He was looking for a change of pace and found it in 1990 with "Ghost," a romantic-fantasy-comedy-drama, and the rest is, well, you know...a mostly enjoyable two hours of diverse pleasures. - John J. Puccio

Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
This plot takes place in the world of upscale Manhattan yuppies...One of the irritations of "Ghost" is that the Moore character is such a slow study. Over and over again, Goldberg tells her things only her lover could possibly have known, and over and over again, Moore disbelieves her - she trusts the villain, instead. We are treading here on the edge of the Idiot Plot..."Ghost" does, however, make a nice mixture of horror and humor, especially in the scenes involving Goldberg and her sisters (Gail Boggs and Armelia McQueen). The film's biggest puzzlement involves the exact status of Swayze's spiritual sojourn in this world..."Ghost" contains some nice ideas, and occasionally, for whole moments at a time, succeeds in evoking the mysteries that it toys with. - Roger Ebert