High Spirits (1988)

movies

I LOVED THIS MOVIE,IT HAS LOTS OF COMEDY AND ROMANCE WITH A LOT OF SPIRIT!!!AMAZON WAS ABLE TO SEND IT TO ME FAST AND WITH A GOOD PRICE.I TRIED FIRST TO PURCHASE THIS FROM A LOCAL MALL AND THEY ORDERED IT FOR ME I WAITED 3 WEEKS AND IT WAS ON BACK ORDER.I FOUND AMAZON.COM ORDERED IT AND GOT IT IN LESS THEN 7 DAY !!!!!!GO AMAZON!!!!!!!!!! June 3, 2008

VERY FUNNY!

A great cast and script make this one of my favorite movies. Very refreshing story line. May 19, 2008

light hearted story

Whimsical, romantic, sometimes funny. Older movie but can hold its own in todays world for those who want to watch something that the whole family can watch. April 21, 2008

High Spirits -- Fun w/ Peter O'Toole

This movie was panned by every critic at the time of it's release, and rightly so; it is not a 'serious piece of cinema'. I was attracted to this movie only because it featured Peter O'Toole and I wasn't disappointed on that count. O'Toole plays a wonderful 'drunk-yet-erudite' descendant of an ancient Irish family that runs a rather delapidated hotel that is the family castle. The movie revolves around O'Toole's character's attempt to hold on to the family castle by advertising it as a haunted hotel and enlists the staff/villagers in a ridiculous attempt to play "...ghosties,ghoulies and beasties". The story evolves as the first group of guests arrive. Steve Guttenberg plays the husband of a shrew of a wife,Beverly D'Angelo. Daryl Hannah plays the murdered ancestor of O'Toole and Liam Neeson plays the murderous husband - both are ghosts that have been destined to relive the murder night after night. The supporting cast are the real stars along with O'Toole. Liam Neeson makes a decent ghost though his character isn't in the film near enough.
All in all this is a very light-hearted movie that is worth watching for O'Toole, if you can stand Steven Guttenberg and Daryl Hannah who are given way too much screen time.

There is a bit of profanity in the beginning during a phone conversation between O'Toole's character and the mogul that is calling in the mortgage on the castle. There are mild references to sex and there is a good bit of drinking. January 18, 2008

Starts out good, then falls apart

I thought the first third or so was pretty good. Peter O'Toole was great at the beginning and I was intrigued to see how the story would play out. But, it started to fall apart after awhile and never really recovers.

The main problem for me was that there were too many characters that never really get developed. You have the castle staff who, while have some fun moments playing the "ghosts" never get a chance to shine. And the multitude of guests also muddle the characterization. They could've done without the priest subplot (although I like Peter Gallagher and Jennifer Tilly).

The cramming of all these characters also leads to dropped plots (they never really resolve the castle-in-monetary-crisis issue), stretched believability (Steve Guttenberg falls in love with Daryl Hannah in 5 minutes and no one in the castle had ever seen a ghost before?), and missed opportunites (I would've liked to see more of Peter O'Toole and his ghost dad, or more of the other ghosts for that matter).

The movie has some funny slapstick and beautiful scenery, but ultimately it just doesn't come together and the result is a silly movie with enough plot threads to make your head explode. It could've been a really good film with a great romantic plot, but it falls short. January 7, 2008

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