Meet Humphrey, an orphan ghost who believes that the co-existence between humans and ghosts are possible. However, his adoptive family of ghosts do not believe that this is possible and even though they are put out of their dwelling and are forced to make their existence known to human beings, they still believe that they should not be “seen”. Unfortunately, this conspiracy of why the ghosts in Britain are being evicted from their haunting places is solely because of Humphrey’s existence and it’s up to him to put this to an end. Ghosts are people too… right?
Ghost stories have been replaced by vampire films and it’s a shame, because well, we all remember Casper the Friendly Ghost and Ghostbusters, right? It’s beloved ghost stories like that, which are long remembered into adulthood and eventually we show these films to our children and so on. They are classics and nobody can deny that a good ghost film is fun for everyone. So, here we have The Great Ghost Rescue, which is a film about a ghost family needing to change with the time. Some of the members of this family has been alive (not necessarily breathing though) for ages and suddenly they have to get with the time, which is present day Britain. Therefore, in a way this is a coming of age and modernised version of the normal ghost fairytale with a few interesting twists and turns, but not at all unpredictable and because of that, there is “family fun” written all over it.
Based on Eva Ibbotson‘s novel, The Great Ghost Rescue, is a fun little flick that stars Kevin McKidd (Grey’s Anatomy, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief), Steven MacKintosh (The Jacket, Underwold: Evolution), Emma Fielding (A Respectable Trade, Pandaemonium) and Georgia Groome (The Cottage) and is suitable for the whole family. With special effects that’s not too shabby, and acting that could have been better, this may not be in the same league as Ghostbusters, but it’s still an entertaining flick with a few good qualities to it. For mom, we have Kevin McKidd, who’s a ghost with no legs, but come on… everyone loves Dr. Owen Hunt. For dad, we have Emma Fielding, who plays a bit of a snobbish character with a good heart (though I’m sure dad will be more inclined to keep his eyes on the twenty year old Georgia Groome who was drowned during a witch trial. For the rest we have the adventure seeking Toby Hall, who plays Humphrey and boy is he an adventurous kid….
The acting wasn’t that magnificent and the film probably didn’t do the book justice (I have not read the book yet, but I’ll definitely try to get my hands on it) and with a bigger budget it may have likely gone mainstream, which it unfortunately didn’t. But it’s an enjoyable film with a lot of good elements to it and it’s something different. Don’t expect guts and gore or vicious scares, expect to reminisce about your own adventures when you were a kid rather.
If you have kids, they will love it and if you like Casper, well now you can meet Humphrey and add The Great Ghost Rescue to your collection as well.
