Customer Reviews

Chasing Ghosts

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The worst thing about this moving is that 80 percent of it is REALLY good (worth 4-5 stars). Great performances from Michael Madsen, Michael Rooker, Tom Wright. Every actor pretty much gives the the movie his/her best effort ... except Corey Large and Shannyn Sossamon.

Large and Sossamon are awful. THESE WERE THE BEST PEOPLE AT THE AUDITION? The producers should have advertised the auditions better. They drag the movie down to 2 stars. Sossamon was given hollow, awkward, and mostly unemotional lines and she's going to do her best to make them sound hollow, awkward, and unemotional.

Large's character is a little more developed... although after watching the movie, you wish he hadn't been. Every moment with Large speaking is another moment of your life you'll never get back. Large walks through most of the movie wearing a tie with his shirt untucked... I guess because the writers think that's cool? He just looks like a douche. Even the "unexpected twist" at the end which may explain some of his idiosyncracies doesn't save his character. It just makes you want to punch yourself in the face for sitting through the whole movie.

The movie really comes into its own in the apartment scene with Large visiting Sossamon. It's clear that neither really knows what to do next. Without other actors in the scene giving them cues, they just stand there staring at each other. Or maybe that's what the director told them to do. The whole thing just left me with the weirdest feeling that I was seeing the setup for a porno.

It amazes me that this movie is so under rated and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN wins Academy Awards. Not that NO COUNTRY was not a good movie, but CHASING GHOSTS is a better story with even better acting. Madsen, Rooker and Busey are brilliant in this. This is technicolor noir as good as it's done, on a par with TRUE ROMANCE. If you don't like or understand noir film making, you may not get this. But if noir is your thing you'll love this movie.

Part thriller, part puzzle, this movie starts with murder of the mafia boss' son in the disco club and leads to long unresolved case of the missing police officer, his corrupted colleague and revenge of a young cartel boss. Main role of the police officer in the middle of all this is Michael Madsen, so well known for portaying guys living at the edge in every way: he is stretching the truth, while fighting off his guilt about murder of the police officer who was his good pal and whose daughter is unable to collect decent pension after her father's disappearance due to allegations that her father was a "dirty cop"; he is a lone wolf counting days to his retirement while trying to solve seemingly random murders of the mafia members. His pending new replacement, a young cop from narcotics team may not be what he claims to be. This film is made to resemble "The Usual Suspects" but it is too confusing at times to be that engaging. Madsen gives fine performance of the anti-hero that everyone can relate to. We see so many of them every day and recognize them immediately. Be well rested before watching that movie because otherwise you will not be able to follow...

Slow, confusing and some bad acting. Why was the girl in the movie except for her see through shirt with nothing to see. I did not understand the ending. He did not shoot the "man in the chair" and all the flashbacks suggusting he did seems weak. Did his partner stange a hanging somehow with the main bad guy locked up? How did he get away? I am sorry I did not get it. I even forgot most of the names.

This is a movie about how to smoke and look cool when u do. Almost every seen of this movie, Michael Madsen is either taking a drag out of his cigarette, or he's lighting up a cigarette.