Ghost Dad

Ghost Dad (1990)

Runtime: 83 minutes

Directed by: Sidney Poitier

Starring: The Now Infamous Bill Cosby, Kimberly Russell (no relation), Denise Nicholas, Ian Bannen, Barry Corbin

From: Universal

Yes, I saw this movie last night... and it wasn't the first time I had watched this before. What a sordid tale I have to tell about this bad (and bizarre) movie; peep the details below:

My name is Blair Russell, and I once saw Ghost Dad theatrically. Yes, it is another film my mother took me to see along with my two younger sisters; I was a 9 year old when I saw this, probably the first days of July, 1990. Honestly, I don't have a great explanation as to WHY I got to see this on the big screen? .. was it my mom, was it my sisters... I dunno. I hope it wasn't me who wanted to watch the film! Truthfully, I did not remember a damn thing about the movie so it might as well have been me viewing it for the first time.

After the experience of this a second time... my mom may have been horrified at what she saw! I mean, aside from it not being good, this movie is very weird. It's not like I did not see odd things in the 80's on TV or in other movies. But it was rated PG so I imagine she wasn't expecting it to be so dark, let alone there being a joke about Cosby having erectile dysfunction-and yikes is that an uncomfortable moment now-the teen daughter being referred to as a “bitch” or Bobby Briggs from Twin Peaks (Dana Ashbrook) sticking his tongue out at the teen daughter in a cunnilingus manner. I will presume she did not like those moments or wanted us to see/hear them at that age.

The whole film, what a misguided mess it was, and like I said I had no memory of anything. It was quite the eye-opening experience realizing how strange this was. Cosby dies after a cab ride from hell from a bearded dude who worships Satan. A boy who was like 13 years old sees Ghost Dad not try to hide that he's a ghost, so the boy thinks that Dad is an alien (?!), but threatens blackmail... but Cosby threatens great bodily harm if he squeals, and that can't be the only time he's reacted that way to people threatening to expose secrets... I really did try to divorce myself from knowing what Old Bill was like in real life while watching this, but it was impossible to do so during that scene.

But back to the film; it's rather dark as you see a dysfunctional family deal with dad becoming Ghost Dad. It actually is depressing, as the mom died a few years ago and they are practically broke as dad spent a lot to try and save mom. All that goes along with lighthearted sight gags and like I said, GD sometimes doesn't try to hide him doing things when it's light out (as he can only be seen in the dark, and it takes a lot of effort just for him to interact physically) and there's the general absurdity of him trying to carry on as a living human being, including trying to finish an important deal at his job. It is so ill-judged; I imagine people don't want to track down these movies and I understand why, but in the 70's Sidney Poitier did fine behind the director's chair as he and Cosby did a few films together. This time he did not step in front of the camera also, but even if he did, this would not suddenly make this a good film. To think that Leonard Part 6 is even weirder and even worse.

Oh, and one last thing: this uses a song from a film popular among some film fans. It is not too surprising that this tune was used for The Warriors trailer, as the song fit the images and the soundtrack for the Walter Hill cult classic. Paramount was one of the companies behind Sorcerer, so that's how they were able to use the film's theme, Tangerine Dream's Betrayal. Well, Betrayal also appears in this film! Universal was the other company, so that explains it; you hear it during that aforementioned taxi ride from hell. I was shocked, then amused to see it be used in a scene involving plenty of stressful driving. It certainly beats the supporting character who is a guy named Edith... but it's pronounced "Ed-dith" and it is even less funny in the movie than it sounds from me describing it.