This is the start of a sort of series, I guess you could call it, where every free weekend I have, I find an older movie to review; “older” in this case meaning 2000s or prior. For reviews outside of this series I will try my best to try to focus on movies 2010s and later. No promises though cause I have a deep love for the classics. First up is Ghost.
History
Picture the summer of 1990, windbreakers are in, Yugoslavia is on the way out, and Michael Jackson was just declared Artist of the Decade by the obviously most qualified person to award him with such a title, George W. Bush. Come July 13th Ghost would release to theaters on a budget of ~$23 million and by the end of the year it would make $505 million, making it the highest grossing film of the year and third highest grossing film at that time. A paranormal romantic drama with some comedy and a dash of action sounds like someone’s entire fridge slid into a pot and they decided to make a stew out of it. Only Patrick Swayze’s cool charm, Demi Moore’s powerful emotion, and Whoopi Goldberg’s strong wit could make this movie as good as it was. Whoopi Goldberg’s performance as Oda Mae Brown, an initial con artist but soon to be psychic medium, would later win her her first and only Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. This would make her the first black woman in 50 years to win the award, something that would not happen again until 2006 when Jennifer Hudson would win Best Supporting Actress for Dreamgirls. Ghost would win an Oscar for Best Screenplay as well.
Review
Ghost follows Sam Wheat, a man at an all time high of his life. He is has a nice job as a banker, a nice best friend Carl Bruner, and nice apartment with his nice new fiancé Molly Jenson. But this all soon comes crumbling down when one night walking home from a live performance of MacBeth he is killed in a mugging gone bad. Sam soon finds that he is a ghost (Woah who saw that coming!), and discovers that the man who killed him is still a threat to Molly. Through the help of psychic medium Oda Mae Brown, and a couple of ghosts he has to find a way to protect Molly and bring his murderer to justice.
I first encountered Ghost as a kid when my mom was watching it on cable one day. However, once Sam and Molly started to play patty cake with clay and each other, I soon ran off scared of the cooties they were sharing with one another. Fast forward to the summer after high school, while stocking DVDs at my summer job, I would find a copy of the film. Now having grown into a big Patrick Swayze fan and no longer afraid of cooties, I would buy a copy of the DVD to watch later. I discover that Ghost is the type of film you watch when you need to cry. SPOILERS AHEAD The characters capture you and you find yourself rooting for Sam to bring his killer and back stabbing bitch of a best friend to justice, unaware of how much it will hurt to see him wrap up his unfinished business and leave Molly and Oda Mae for the afterlife. But before the movie rips your heart out at least you get a couple of laughs and fun mischief of the malevolent spirit variety. I did find one of what is supposed to be more emotional scenes of the movie to be a little odd. About half way through the third act, Oda Mae allows Sam to posses her so that him and Molly can feel each other’s touch. Except it wasn’t Sam’s touch and had the movie not swapped perspective to show Swayze instead of Goldberg, you would have seen what any on looker saw which is Molly and Oda Mae getting real comfortable with each other. (Shout out supernatural sorta lesbian love I guess) This scene is supposed to fill you with sadness and joy because these two soul mates separated to soon by death get to reconnect, but I couldn’t help but laugh at how when he was caressing her face instead of his hands she probably felt Oda Mae’s long nails. Also found it a little hard to focus at times, which was the point, when looking at Swayze and Tony Goldwyn’s bare chest every couple scenes but no complaints from me!
The Cast
Patrick Swayze will be a reoccurring character of Weekend Rewind because of just how many hit movies he has been in. His acting range was very impressive, with deep passionate Heartthrob characters like Sam in this film or Johnny Castle in the 1987 hit film Dirty Dancing, to comic gold characters like Vida in 1995’s To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar and Jim Cunningham in 2001’s Donnie Darko. I love all these films and will be doing a review on each of them eventually. The truth of the matter is that Patrick Swayze was everywhere in Hollywood from the 80s-00s and because of this he sort of became associated with the vibe of those decades. I can’t think of the 80s without thinking about Swayze hits like The Outsiders (1983) or Road House (1989). Patrick Swayze was always a large ally for the LGBTQIA+ community during a time when being one was a risky move in Hollywood. But more on that when I review To Wong Foo.
I first saw Whoopi Goldberg in a 2001 comedy called Monkeybone where she played Death. I wish I could speak on that film more but I saw it when I was a wee lad and have very little memory of it and will have to watch it again soon. I will say Whoopi Goldberg has only won one Oscar and it was for this film which is such bullshit because she is an amazing actor who has done so much in her life since her big break in The Color Purple (1985). She is one of those few comedians that also know how to be funny and act, and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t really like comedies! I feel that a lot of comedians end up always just playing themselves just under different names like Will Farrell (god I can’t stand Will Farrell). But Whoopi Goldberg doesn’t do that because she is more than a comedian, she has amazing talent and looks amazing while she does it, it is honestly unfair. Goldberg would also be prominent in the 80s but while Swayze found success prior to Ghost and carried it on into the 90s, she would reach the height of her career after Ghost being apart of as many as 61 different tv shows and movies in the 90s. She has hosted the Oscars a total of 4 times and was the first black woman to host them as well. She is often considered the greatest host in the history of the Oscars. Whoopi Goldberg has also become a prominent activist and proud feminist fighting for civil rights both on a off-screen. She is truly an amazing actress.
While I have extensive knowledge on the other two I unfortunately have only seen Demi Moore in St. Elmo’s Fire(1985) and her more recent film 2024’s The Substance. What I can gather from the 3 films I have seen her in, her acting skills have aged very well along with her. She was amazing in this movie, her and her short 90s cut was it and her chemistry with Swayze was amazing. There is a reason that pottery scene has been recreated so much through pop culture.
Final Review.
Over all on my rating scale of -5 to 5 this movie was a good 4 it was solid had a great plot and very popular. However, it was slow at times and the cgi was kinda bad but it was the 90s so.
CineaFreak 
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