Blu-Ray Review:
Ghost
By Jason Gillard
*Screen shots are not from the Blu-Ray source.
Movie
Ghost is one of those movies that I should hate. Now I say should because for some reason I don't hate this movie. It has chick flick written all over it, but there something about it that makes me like it. Maybe it's the supernatural element. But I do like the story, and for those of you who haven't seen the film here is a quick plot summary. Sam Wheat (Swayze) is murdered on a date with his girlfriend Molly (Moore). Sam's spirit is able to stay on earth because his job on earth is not finished. Sam finds out that his death was not an accident and that Molly is in trouble. Sam runs into a physic who he thinks is a fraud called Oda Mae Brown (Goldberg), but it turns out she can hear the dead. With Oda Mae's help he sets out to save Molly. It's funny, when I write out the plot like I just did, it seems ridiculous, but they did a good job of making you care about these characters. Sure it has those sappy romantic moments and the special effects are clearly dated now, but there is something about this film that just sucks you in. This movie was huge when it came out in 1990 and I can see why. If you haven't seen the film then maybe now is the chance to watch it again.
8 out of 10
Video
Paramount gives us a 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode of the film in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The film was recently remastered for a DVD release, My issue with this transfer is that I didn't feel like I was watching a high-def movie. It felt like I was watching a regular DVD for most of it. That being said the film has very little in the way of dirt or dust and the transfer is in pretty good shape in this regard. Black levels were OK and detail again was OK but not great. The special effects look dated and almost blurry in some scenes. I also found that there were some scenes that had heavy grain on them and this is even more distracting when you're watching it at this higher resolution. I have used the word OK quite a bit here and that is what I would have to say about the transfer.
7 out of 10
Audio
Paramount has give the film a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD upgrade. But the audio in the film doesn't really shine as most of it is centered in the front. There are some discreet effects in the rear surrounds whenever the demons come to take away a soul, but other than that it's mostly centered. The diologue comes across really clear which is important. The sub woofer is rarely used. The Dolby TrueHD soundtrack is OK for what it is, but that's about it.
7 out of 10
Extras
Here is what you get in the way of extras:
Audio Commentary
Featurette: "The Making of a Classic"
Featurette: "Alchemy of a Love Scene"
Featurette: "Inside the Paranormal"
TV Excerpt: "100 Years... 100 Passions"
Still Gallery
Theatrical Trailer
All of the extras are SD except for the trailer. The only extra I could recommend here is the featurette called "The Making of a Classic". It at least has some new interviews with some of the cast, but at 13 minutes its hardly great. Overall I wouldn't by this Blu-ray for the extras, that's for sure.
5 out of 10
Overall
As a Blu-ray I can't recommend this disc. It's not enough of an upgrade over the previous DVD. If you're a big fan of the movie it might be worth it, but you could buy the DVD for less and up-convert it and have about the same quality.
6 out of 10
Not Recommended.
Ghost Blu-ray is available now from Amazon.com