"We Have a Ghost" Movie Review

"We Have a Ghost" is a film directed by Christopher Landon and is, like the title suggests, about a ghost haunting a house that a family moves into. To be honest, that is all I really want to say about the film because I knew nothing about this film upon first viewing and I am glad I did because the film and the direction it takes is only more rewarding for having me do that.

Now, one thing I can say for people who may find the the star power of Anthony Mackie (better known as our favorite Falcon turned Captain America) and David Harbour (which fans of "Stranger Things"

may recognize him as Jim Hopper) to be appealing but are worried about a ghost film being too scary, what I will definitely say is this is a PG-13 film at its core. There are a few moments of swearing and a couple moments that may be scary for young kids, but overall this film is far less of a horror film and far more of a family romp.

Speaking of the stars of this film, the big stars of this film of course give a great performance as always, but the rest of the cast also acts incredibly well. Every single person of this film gives a lot in their respective roles, particularly one of the main characters, Kevin Presley played by Jahi Di’Allo Winston. This kid in particular really shined as an introverted and highly empathetic lead which allowed the film to feel just as warm as his performance. The only character I didn’t really like was Joy Yoshino played by Isabella Russo. I think the actress did really great for what she was given, but her lines felt too forced and annoying to be relatable. She was a little more likable towards the end of the film where the focus was taken away from her attitude and shifted more on the events that were taking place, but that didn’t really save her in my opinion.

The script itself, aside from Joy, was mostly well handled. Character flaws were highlighted in the best ways, story beats at the beginning of the film were sincerely shocking to the point where it was genuinely and authentically hilarious, and when the story needed to get more serious, it didn’t particularly lose its tone in the process. That is true until the climax at least where all of the sudden it felt like I was watching an entirely different film due to the tense nature of its content. Still, the tense nature of the climax was effective in that I was genuinely on the edge of my seat genuinely cheering on characters I grew to like.

With all of that said, some things particularly in the second act felt a bit corny or forgettable. All the story beats still made sense, but sometimes it just felt it pandered to the kids a bit too much just to balance out the more adult content. The film ended up feeling like using great ingredients to make a loaf of bread. Sure, the ingredients were great, but it still felt like eating a really good loaf of bread. Yes, it’s good, but there is nothing original that makes this film stand out as a game changing movie.

Final Verdict: 6.6/10