Ghost Town: The Movie (2008)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good concept, poorly executed.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

According to IMDb this is Dean Teaster's (West?) directorial debut. Why is it everybody thinks they can direct? Yes, there are two directors listed in the credits, but since it's called Dean Teaster's Ghost Town, I'm assuming the other director (who has a few directing credits to his name) was put there by the producer's to hold Teaster's hand. The problem is he should have held it harder. Some would argue he should have squeezed it. Like so many posts that have come before, it is in the editing where everything breaks down. Yes, you are clearly working on a very small budget. But that has nothing, repeat nothing, to do with telling a good story. I have rarely watched such a poor assemblage of scenes. It is almost as if they don't want you to follow the story. Just when you think you know where it is going, the scene switches and something non essential to the story is thrown in. Teaster makes many rookie mistakes like this. He is so enamored of everything that was shot that he puts it in no matter if it works to advance the story. Plus he lacks the ability to create proper pacing within individual scenes. It is like watching a conductor, who lacks any sense of rhythm, lead an orchestra. Painful. While one can learn to cut out scenes that don't work, lack of rhythm is another matter. A good editor, and a good director, have an innate sense of rhythm. The best are usually musicians, or at least play an instrument, and can transfer that understanding of timing and tempo to the story. I would hazard a guess that Teaster isn't a musician, and probably has two left feet as well.

I have a masters degree and while I don't hold that above anyone I was surprised by a few of the comments listed. First I knew of DJ Perry at MSU many years ago but I have not kept up with him or spoke to him since those days. I do look out for new films he is in because I really like how someone that had dreams so many years ago made all that happen. Most recently I had to go to Walmart and buy Dean Teaster's Ghost Town. I was surprised when I did not see him on the cover but after watching it DJ is one of the main stars. My husband told me the one guy on the cover is a country singer Sammy Kershaw. OK. I watched the film twice and I found that the beginning was a great visual trip that took the audience through the Old man's sickness filled with guilt. It eluded to all this through several feverish flashbacks hence the trippy dream within a dream. I thought that the whole story unfolded in a very unique way vs just A to B to C to D. That is what I liked about PULP FICTION. I guess I'm glad that they did not dumb the film down. The characters and themes added a real depth. The power of legend and superstition. Father and son relationships. Seeds of love planted and never harvested. I could go on and on about what I liked in this film. The cast was great and I have to say that I never guessed that DJ would be doing these moving scenes today. Back at MSU he was also a nice person but I guess when we hear people talk about being in movies we say to ourselves...yeah right.I'm here to say...he was right. Congrats to him and the entire cast. I loved the cranky old general and the old outlaw as well. Great to see some faces from other popular TV shows. My father was a TOUR OF DUTY fan and so when he saw Terence Knox and Tony Becker he was excited. He also really enjoyed the film and was excited about Rance Howard and Bill McKinney.Overall a great film and for those that can't piece stuff together...I can't wait to see what comes next.

About 20 minutes into this movie you begin to wonder just what is going on. What should have been a straightforward western tale of revenge is muddied up by poor storytelling. Too many cuts back to the back story and confusing choices of shot selection constantly nag at the viewer. Just when you think you have an idea about what is going on, the editor throws something totally irrelevant on the screen and you are left wondering what happened? This is incredibly frustrating! I can "see" the story on a basic level. I can sense what the film is trying to do. But it as if the editor is purposely trying to throw a wrench into the works. I am left with a simple question: Why would he do that? Nothing is more straightforward than a western. The good guys and the bad guys are easily distinguishable. And the plot is usually quite linear. Why then would you take a simple story such as this and assemble it in such a dyslexic manner?

This feature is about as exciting as a plate of tripe. Overall I'd say even though an edit could possibly fix some of the incredibly draggy and droopy-dog scenes, on other hand if a film drags and drags and droops and drags and droops and droop-drags, then the director either did not direct according to the script, or there was no script, or the script is as bad as the film.Perhaps if this was sliced to tiny bits, if each 20 minute scene is cut down to the actual 2 minutes or less of actual informational footage, then maybe we'll have a story that interests me. Now that I read a few of the oher reviews, I see I am not alone in this, and the long scenes with no cuts just does not work here.Hitchcock tried it in Rope, but Hitchcock is Hitchcock and Rope has some astounding things in it. But as this film stands, I am not interested.The first thing I watch, if a film has extras, are those extras. Well, the extras in this film seem to be a bunch of self absorbed people patting each other on their self-absorbed backs and making jokes which exclusively exclude the viewer.As Viewers, we are alienated, even from the "Making Of" featurettes on the DVD release I found. One featurette was a very long clip of two guys talking to each other and we have no idea what they are discussing except that they use a few cursewords here and there.The inclusion of greats Rance Howard (Ronny Howard's Pop) and Renee O'Conner (Gabriella from Xena Warrior Princess) does not help matters any. We really don't have any idea what is going on at all. I'd say, before editing this, first write a script and then decide on a way of filming it, because this attempt seems to be a struggle and the struggle fails. I got about 15 minutes into the film and was forced to shut it off- To quote Dennis Weaver from the 1958 Orson Welles film "Touch of Evil"It's a Mess! It's a stinkin Mess!"so I must say: "It's a Mess! It's a stinkin Mess!"Independent Film is one of my interests... I would be interested in this, but for the fact that there is practically nothing there that is interesting. Nothing validates the effort I made in obtaining this film.When I obtain a film to view, I expect it to be worth the rental fee at Blockbuster. That said, I did not rent it from there. This film may be found at Amazon.com, and I do not feel that the $18.00 price tag matches the value of the film contained in the DVD.(Edit) Ahhh- I see at least 1 person does not agree with me. Your perogative, but that does not change the fact that this film is wanting in several hundred ways.