Mikes Film Talk

Ghosted (2023) could have been titled “The Big Yawn.” This is a movie that we wanted to love. Starring Chris Evans (Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Captain America: The First Avenger) and the ever talented Ana de Armas (Knives Out, Blonde) this should have worked beautifully. Sadly, this is a tired reimagining of at least two other films.

Been There, done that

Killers (2010) with Ashton Kutcher in the Armas role and Katherine Heigl in the Evans role. In 2013 there was Knight and Day. This one featured Tom Cruise in the Armas role and Cameron Diaz as Evans’ counterpart. 

Knight and Day even featured a knock down and drag out fight on an airplane. Although, to be fair, Ghosted with its mid air fight scene, gave us some good stunt choreography.

The formula has been done before, and if not better than Ghosted’s effort, it is at least on par with its predecessors. Swapping the gender on the professional, spy, assassin, et al, plot does not improve stale storylines. This film could have been titled “The Big Yawn.”

Sam Spade

Although the use of “The Big” anything evokes thoughts of Dashiell Hammett and Sam Spade. This yawn fest lacks the solid originality of the fedora wearing gumshoe’s adventures.

The film looks great though. As do the main leads. Dexter Fletcher directs this fast paced romantic thriller with flair. Writers of this spy thriller, or to borrow another superior film’s title Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, counted no less than four scribes. This is clearly a case of “too many cooks.”

Clever lines do pass between the two main characters. The sort of comic rejoinders one could expect are rife. “You are a sociopath. I am not. You know who says that? Sociopaths!” Other examples follow the same direction. Cute and funny but a tad too repetitive.

WE got it already

Speaking of repetitive. How about “You two need to get a room.” This little gem gets rolled out multiple times. Yes. We get it. There is supposed to be a ton of sexual chemistry between the two leads. *Yawn* Give it a rest folks. This frantic repetition is termed “beating, or flogging, a dead horse.”

Despite some great visual gags and some pretty great cameos, Ghosted drags in the originality department. Sure it is fun to hear Adrien Brody speak with a French accent. Just as it is a treat to bask in Tim Blake Nelson‘s cameo performance as a Russian interrogator.

*On a side note: The cameos were well done and funny, to a degree. It was amusing to see a lot of Marvel actors showing up in support of good old Chris.*

There’s a signpost up ahead

This yawn fest is too predictable by far. This is mainly down to a lot of signposting. After hearing that Evans’ character wrestled in college several times, we know this is going to crop up.

All this active signposting is not necessarily a bad thing. It is just over done. Fletcher is a Mike’s Film Talk favorite. He just took too much care ensuring that the audience noticed all the “right” things.

But

The film looks stunning. Great colour palette, some good wire work and stunt choreography plus some crisp CGI. Downsides to all the things this film got right, include: Armas’ continual modesty grabs during the finale fight scene, repeated nods to the sexual chemistry between the two leads and the above mentioned signposting.

Ghosted is a solid 3.5 star film. It gives us nothing really new but has a good chuckle track record. Overall, it does its job. It entertains but, it has been done before. Check out the trailer below or just head over to AppleTV+ and stream it.