Ghost – Blu-ray Disc Review
December 20, 2008 – 3:21 AM --- by: Danielle ByingtonTags: Bruce Joel Rubin, Demi Moore, Jerry Zucker, Paramount, Patrick Swayze, Rick Aviles, Tony Goldwyn, Vincent Schiavelli, Whoopi Goldberg
has an average rating of 6.9 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
Dolby TrueHD 5.1
are all Special Edition DVD ports
– 
– 1990
– 126 minutes
– Paramount
– 
Overall Verdict – Recommended
Buy it for $19.99 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by: Danielle Byington —
The Movie Itself is directed by Jerry Zucker (“Airplane!“), and written by Bruce Joel Rubin (“Jacob’s Ladder“, “Deep Impact“, and “The Last Mimzy“). The story revolves around the couple Molly Jensen (Demi Moore), and Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze). Sam is in banking, while Molly, on the more creative end, is an artist, and the couple has just moved into a new apartment in the downtown area. Aside from the typical bickering in relationships, all seems to be going well, until one night while walking home, the couple is mugged by a criminal; not only mugged, but Sam is shot in the process, and dies.
Not realizing at all what just happened, Sam walks back to Molly after briefly chasing after the thief, to find her holding his wounded deceased body. The moment is definitely surreal for Sam, and at first as the film continues with him simply being confused, following Molly in her mourning, until one day when an unfriendly looking man enters Molly’s apartment while she is gone. Sam recognizes him as his murderer, and watches as the man, Willie Lopez (Rick Aviles), as he rummages through the apartment, obviously searching for something of particular importance to him. After Molly returns home, Willie eventually dashes out of the apartment, unknowing to the fact that the ghost of the man he killed is following him.
While tracking his killer on the subway, Sam also encounters a very territorial ghost, the Subway Ghost (Vincent Schiavelli), whom Sam eventually will take note from as he notices this ghost’s ability to touch and move things in the physical world (unlike Sam at this point). After following Willie to his place of residence, Sam now knows the exact address and description of his killer; but, how can he do anything about it when know one can hear him or see him? Walking back down the street seemingly stuck as to what to do about his situation, he notices the shop of a psychic/spiritual adviser. Perhaps out of hopelessness, Sam wonders in, only to see a fraud of a show being displayed by the psychic, Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg). Slightly humored by how fake her reading is, Sam begins speaking aloud to himself about how pathetic her act is. Considering the joke he was witnessing, never did he expect she would actually hear him. Alarmed and accusing another person of creating the voice, Oda Mae creates a huge scene, appearing to be talking to herself, though she sincerely hears the voice of Sam’s ghost. Upon realizing she can hear actually him, Sam refuses to let go of this opportunity to have communication with the real world, following Oda Mae to her apartment with her sisters who work with her, desperately trying to persuade her to contact Molly for him.
Obviously a phone call of Oda Mae informing Molly that her deceased lover has a message for her does not go over well, and so Sam further begs Oda Mae to go to their apartment in downtown, singing “I’m Henry the VIII” all night until she agrees out of annoyance. Standing in the street yelling up to Molly’s window, Oda Mae, accompanied by Sam, mentions several bits of personal, sincere information that Sam coaches to her, thus winning over Molly’s skepticism. Inviting Oda Mae inside, Molly receives the information through the medium from Sam, and finds it to be the truth; until she later talks to a close friend to she and Sam, Carl Bruner (Tony Goldwyn), who is also a banking colleague of Sam’s. However, Carl talks Molly out of going to the police, accusing the psychic of taking advantage of her and her pain. Sam is also present in the apartment for this conversation, and follows Carl as he leaves, as he claims he going to check out the address given to Molly by the psychic.
This is when Sam realizes Carl was not actually a friend, but thoroughly in on the plot to murder to him, as he witnesses Carl talk to Willie as an obvious acquaintance. Sam now only has Oda Mae to help him make the needed actions in the physical world to prevent Carl from stealing the $4,000,000 Sam was murdered for.
Overall, the film is obviously a classic, with its perfect blend of romantic, mystery, and suspense elements. This can be further said as the film doesn’t take its elements of death and the spiritual world over-the-top, disconnecting from the large audience it owns, keeping the boundaries of our world and the world of Sam’s ghost reasonable. “Ghost” is labeled #19 in 2002’s “AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Passions“, further proving its fame in cinema culture, probably most recognized for the “pottery love scene”, with the movie’s theme, “Unchained Melody” accompanying it. The film was also a nice touch to the resumes of actor Patrick Swayze, and actresses Demi Moore, and Whoopi Goldberg, who definitely were not unknowns, but a having their names attached to a huge title such as this made things stay that way. All in all, “Ghost” earns a “4.5 Star Rating“.
Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This 35MM transfer to High Definition really does this 1990 film justice. There is a good amount of detail to be seen in this release, from close-up shots, such as actors’ faces, and even the close-up of the forming clay on Molly’s pottery wheel. There is also no “haloing” look to the film, sometimes seen in movies from this time, often from the use of too much lighting on the set that gets amplified in Hi-Def. The color palette is perfect and balanced, from the more subdued colors scenes in Molly’s apartment and wardrobe, to the eccentric bold clothing of vivid colors worn by Oda Mae. The black level is not horrible, but it isn’t quite solid and inky, though fleshtones are generally accurate in almost all lighting through the movie. There is also a small amount of artifacts here and there through out the film, however, aside from those few flaws, the video is still a huge improvement, receiving a “4 Star Rating“.
Audio Quality on this release is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround. The audio on this release really shines, baring a very clean and modern sound for a 1990 film. The emotions of the score, composed by Maurice Jarre, really set the tone for the film’s content from eerie, to curious, to meta-physical, all conveyed nicely in this audio format. Sound effects through out the movie sound quite clear and realistic, and there are a couple instances of panning through out the soundscape, such as when Molly, frustrated in sadness, rolls a glass jar of coins down the stairs; the shattering of the glass, and bouncing of the coins on the wooden stairs move form the front channels to the rear. Dialogue is also presented clearly, which is important for a film with such content. Bass presence is not very impressive, though the rest of the use of the soundscape is, receiving a “4 Star Rating“.
Bonus Materials are presented in mostly Standard Definition (High Definition supplements will be noted), using Dolby Digital 2.0.
- “Commentary By Director Jerry Zucker And Writer Bruce Joel Rubin“
- “Ghost Stories: The Making Of A Classic” (13 minutes) involves the cast and crew discussing the idea behind the movie, making mention of drawing from the element of the Ghost in the play “Hamlet” requesting his physical demise be avenged.
- “Inside The Paranormal” (9 minutes) interviews with a few psychics/mediums as they discuss the movie’s spiritual content, and their opinions and comparisons of the movie’s accuracy of the spiritual realm.
- “Alchemy Of A Love Scene” (6 minutes) discusses the well-known “intimate pottery spinning” scene from the movie, and how the dancing just spontaneously happened, making it the film’s “love-making” scene, and erasing an actual physical “love-making” scene that was originally scripted.
- “Cinema’s Great Romances” (20 minutes) discusses some of the top AFI’s “100 movies, 100 passions“, including “Roman Holiday“, “A Place In the Sun“, “Sabrina“, and even “Ghost“, itself.
- Photo Gallery (HD) consists of about 60 photos in a slideshow.
- Theatrical Trailer in High Definition.
Overall, the bonus materials are Special Edition DVD ports, though it is nice to see they at least made it to the Blu-ray’s release; it would’ve also been nice if the standard DVD’s retrospective featurette, “Ghost: Remembering the Magic“, had made it to this release as well. However, what is present is not “wowing”.
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
Screenshots:
NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.
