Product Details

• Actors: Peter O'Toole, Donal McCann, Mary Coughlan, Liz Smith, Tom Hickey
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: June 4, 2002
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000063JDK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,045 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "High Spirits" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

HIGH SPIRITS - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a wonderful film, December 4, 2002

By 

Byron Kolln (the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: High Spirits (DVD)

I have loved this film since I was 9! HIGH SPIRITS is a whimsical comedy-fantasy from the visionary director Neil Jordan starring a superb cast.

Peter Plunkett (Peter O'Toole) is the owner of Castle Plunkett, a gloomy castle set in the Irish countryside. In order to get the money-hungry Brogan family off his back, he decides to advertise the castle as the most-haunted place on the Emerald Isle (with the hotel staff doubling as the spirits)!.

Among the cynical tourists that arrive are Jack (Steve Guttenberg) and his valium-guzzling wife Sharon (Beverly D'Angelo); a scientist of the paranormal (Martin Ferrero), his wife (Connie Booth) and their children; the chaste Brother Tony (Peter Gallagher) and the sexy Miranda (Jennifer Tilly).

The "ghosts" are soon discovered to be fake, thus enraging the REAL ghosts of the castle who decide to make a little mischief for themselves! Jack finds himself falling in love with the elusive Mary Plunkett (Daryl Hannah), while Sharon is unwittingly courted by Mary's husband, the dead Martin Brogan (Liam Neeson).

Director Neil Jordan envisioned a "Midsummer Night's Dream"-type atmosphere for this film with partner-swapping and people being seduced by other-worldly beings. However, producers soon had other things in mind and significantly re-edited the movie to their own vision. Cast members came from the set complaining that the producers had enfuriated Jordan with their antics, forcing him to walk off the project.

However, the film is a constant delight, and this long-awaited DVD release will surely be relished by fans of the film.

The DVD includes both the widescreen and full-frame versions of the film as well as the trailer.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous Phantoms!, November 22, 1999

By 

Lucia Katerina "de la Luna" (Montrose, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Spirits [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Despite the critics views, I love this movie.... Peter O'Toole is wonderful as a titled Irishman trying to keep his family castle by infesting it with home-made ghosts (the castle staff) to attract an international, phantom-following clietele. A bickering couple from America (Steve Guttenberg and Beverly D'Angelo) discover that there really are authentic ghostly denizens of the castle (Liam Neeson and Daryl Hannah--- he murdered her 200 years before in a fit of jealous passion, and they are doomed repeatedly to reenact the event)-- Steve Guttenberg falls for Daryl, and Liam is randy for Beverly D'Angelo. Peter O'Toole's relationship with his dear old deceased Dad-- wonderful... Entertaining(at times hilarious!), engaging and original; A Might-Have-Been-Great, but still WAY Entertaining movie--- and one I was lucky enough to find on video!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Modern Midsummer Night's Dream!, February 26, 2000

By 

Allen R. Young - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: High Spirits [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Neil Jordon has recreated the aura of Shakespeare's classic and set it within a beautifully haunting castle (whose exterior is the exquisitely picturesque Dromore Castle in Ireland's County Limerick). Here, the clash of cultures, Irish and American, and mortality, alive and Undead, are intricately woven with the comedy of conflicting personal interests -- and all set amidst the castle's dusty-and-dilapidated, labyrinthine passageways; passageways which inevitably lead to fulfillment and renewal. How could the professional film critics not see the enchantment! For those who are, at heart, a youth again, looking expectantly on a new day's adventure, or an adult, who knows the excitement of true love conquering limitless boundaries, this movie is for you. It is equal to any comedy written by the English Bard!