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Ghost Dad
Elliot Hopper, a widower with three children, is working on a business deal to get his family out of financial straits when he is suddenly killed in a taxi accident. With the aid of a paranormal researcher, Elliott attempts to complete the deal from the beyond, ensuring his family will be taken care of.
Release : | 1990 |
Rating : | 4.4 |
Studio : | Universal Pictures, SAH Productions, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Production Design, |
Cast : | Bill Cosby Kimberly Russell Denise Nicholas Ian Bannen Christine Ebersole |
Genre : | Fantasy Comedy Family |
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Instant Favorite.
Don't listen to the negative reviews
best movie i've ever seen.
As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
Leaving aside Bill Cosby's recent run-ins the with the law, I must say I've never found him the least bit amusing. Maybe it's an American 'thing' mixing slapstick, sentimentality and someone talking like they have a mouth full of toilet paper. Who knows... But for whatever reason, he was the highest actor on American TV for years, and was one of the first true black superstars of the media age. You may wonder why these impressive credentials didn't help him develop a more lucrative movie career... Until you sit through something as terrible as 'Ghost Dad', of course.Dear oh dear, what WERE his agent and him thinking when they flicked through THIS script and decided it would be worth making? Having already starred in a string of flops at the cinema, Cosby NEEDED this, as a last throw of the dice, to be a hit. Needless to say... He came up snake eyes, and he never did have the popularity on the big screen he enjoyed on the far smaller one. Not a great loss, in my view.To start with, his character in the movie is HORRIBLE. He spends all his time at work (to the extent where he reads bedtime stories for his youngest on cassette, forgets all their birthdays and can't even remember each child's name...) so we instantly hate him off the bat. When he DOES join the regions of the undead, the director seems to make up the rules for if he can be seen in daylight, whether he can touch solid objects or not and what kind of powers he has as a spook as he goes along. There is NO consistency here... Aside from the dreadful attempts at comedy and the non-performances from all involved.And just when you think things couldn't get ANY worse... It pulls out the most pathetic deus ex machina of an ending you'll EVER likely see. How the screenwriter scribbled this crap down with a straight face I'll never know. At least he probably laughed more than the poor, poor audience. This is truly a film as dead on arrival as it's protagonist... The difference no-one would try to bring it back from the afterlife. 2/10
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It was ingenious how they combined the screen writing with the special effects to allow the "live" people" to interact with Bill Cosby (as Elliot Hopper) in his "between" state: They could hear him, but only see him if the lights were turned down low. I found this genuinely interesting, because a low-light situation is one of the best conditions for seeing the human aura. What I liked maybe most about Ghost Dad was the pacing, which was flawless; not a single wasted or empty moment in the movie. Always there was good dialogue. Regardless of what some reviewers have to say, I did not find the movie "corny" at all. It was a perfect combination of sober and hopeful.The ending was beautiful, as Elliot's daughter, Diane (played by Kimberly Russel), has her own near death experience and he has to convince her to go back to her body. The ending is a very happy one, but I will not spoil it for you.Note: Historically, I have been very critical of movies that force us to suspend our disbelief through plots that just don't work (particularly with "invisible" people). Ghost Dad is very believable, and Cosby (and the movie) never lose focus or waste time on goofy gags or cheap dialogue. Very well done, indeed.
I watched it as a child with my brother. It was corny but hell it was fun! I loved Bill Cosby in this role and the premise of the whole movie was, while a bit of a stretch, quite fun in itself. Here you have a hard-working dad and his children..what happens of the dad suddenly "leaves his body", while nit exactly being dead? A comedy ensues as all of them struggle to adjust to the dad's new predicament, doing all sort of weird stuff. There is also the memorable taxi driver from hell. I was never quite able to forget him. This was a good family movie and both me and my brother had a lot of fun. It was silly, it was goofy, it was cheesy, but it was warm and lively and entertaining. A lot more credit should be given to this movie. For me, it will always remind me of the days when me and my brother watched things together. Good times. You might be put off by the goofiness and corniness of it but for me it is an 8/10. Good 'ole Bill Cosby.
If you haven't seen this movie see it. Bill Cosby unsuccessfully tries to balance work and family, when he suddenly dies in a horrible car crash. He is then whisked away to HELL, AKA London, England, where a man named Edith trains him in being a ghost. Now Cosby must raise his kids as a Ghost Dad. The movie is insane. Cosby flies through walls, Pops out of a phone to strangle his daughter's boyfriend, declares himself Satan, and goes to his female neighbor's house for a little "afternoon delight". I've seen it 40 times. Why wasn't this masterpiece mentioned when director Poitier received the lifetime achievement award. "Edith is a Girl's Name!"