Well Deserved Praise

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This movie was a bit mercurial--it started of terrible, then it seemed as if it was going to be a decent movie, then it changed for the worse.Racist officer Jack Moony (Bob Hoskins) suffers a heart attack and receives a heart transplant from African-American lawyer Napoleon Stone (Denzel Washington). In came the extremely racist and crude jokes from his coworkers. This heart transplant came with more than bad jokes it came with the ghost of Napoleon Stone.Initially, Denzel was hamming it up as Napoleon and it was uncomfortable to watch Denzel behave in such a manner. Then, the movie seemed to take a turn for the best: the dialogue got better, the plot made sense and all was right. Then, just as suddenly the movie became a chore to watch. The plot had holes and characters were behaving badly. The movie fizzled out even if it was a happy ending.

Jack Moony (Bob Hoskins) is a racist loudmouth white cop. He is still in love with his ex Crystal Gerrity (Chloe Webb) who is now a working girl. Napoleon Stone (Denzel Washington) is a lawyer with questionable clients who gets gunned down. Jack Moony suffers a heart attack, and finds that he's given Napoleon's heart. Now Napoleon's ghost haunts him and together they solve his murder which Crystal is the key to.Writer/director James D. Parriott doesn't have the writing skills for a comedy. Denzel is good as a slick lawyer, but his urban shtick sounds silly. He and Hoskins have great acting skills, but they aren't funny together. I get the sense that Denzel is suppose to be Eddie Murphy. Obviously Denzel is no Eddie Murphy. As an action thriller, there isn't enough action and it's not very thrilling. I would recommend this only for die-hard fans of either Denzel Washington or Bob Hoskins.

An easy way to tick off Hoskins or Washington when you meet them may be your mentioning of this movie to them. I saw it at it's Los Angeles premiere and it contained ONE funny scene, which consisted of Hoskins trying to wrest a cheeseburger from spirit Washington. The movie was unfunny, racially offensive(I didn't appreciate the "endowment" comment that Washington made) and dramatically untrue in spots(if a mother just lost her son, would she be discussing her child's sexual habits with ANYONE, especially a stranger?).It would have been a completely forgettable experience had it not been for Hoskins and Washington. They do not elevate this movie, for no one really could, but it sticks in the mind as a film that makes you wonder why these talented actors decided to do it in the first place.People are comparing this to "Ghost" and that is indeed not without merit, however, for more enjoyable movies with ghosts, I would suggest "The Ghost Goes West" with Robert Donat and Eugene Pallette or for a more romantic turn, "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

Obviously, this is not a Neil Simon movie, but the actors do a good job with the script given. It was funny and an interesting twist to the subject matter (after all, making death and a heart attack funny is a big order). No, this is not "Ghost" but then "Ghost" was a drama not comedy. Overall, a good movie and worth seeing!