So much average

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Peter O'Toole is a hoot as the harried owner / operator of a run-down Irish castle. Since he is in dire straits financially, he decides on a gimmick: turn the castle into a ghost-themed tourist attraction. Soon, a bunch of customers from America have turned up, including married couple Jack and Sharon (Steve Guttenberg and Beverly D'Angelo), a parapsychologist (Martin Ferrero) and his family, a young priest (Peter Gallagher), and a ditsy sexpot (the one and only Jennifer Tilly). What happens is that some honest-to-God real ghosts show up, chief among them Mary and Martin (Daryl Hannah and Liam Neeson), who have been re-enacting his murder of her for almost 200 years now.While this viewer is glad that some people do take great pleasure in "High Spirits", he found it a tedious mess often lacking in wit. It has a lot of spirit (pardon the expression) as it devises various frantic and farcical moments, but the material just isn't that great. I couldn't help but feel embarrassed for many of the actors, who frequently have to try too hard to make it all work. (The cast would charge that the producers were the ones that ruined the thing with their meddling and trashing of writer / director Neil Jordans' ("The Crying Game") good intentions.) The visual effects are variable, and production designer Anton Furst ("Batman" '89) creates some generally agreeable sets. A real castle in Ireland was also utilized, and there's some effective atmosphere generated from the location shooting that was done. The wind machine certainly goes full-blast at times.Some actors come off better than others. O'Toole, Neeson, and Ray McAnally (as O'Tooles' ghostly father) are pretty amusing, and as you can see, there are some very lovely ladies on hand. The less said about Guttenberg, the better.Overall, a disappointment, although it does tend to get somewhat better as it goes along.Four out of 10.

There was a time, long long ago, when Hollywood produced sincerely great and lovely movies. Where have they gone, the authors of far ago? A movie with nice language and prose, with lovely characters and a rock-solid story rarely equated by now-a-day's cinema.

When Peter Plunkett's Irish castle turned hotel is about to be repossessed, he decides to spice up the attraction a by having his staff haunt the castle.The trouble begins when a bus load of American tourists arrive - along with some real ghosts.Among the tourists are married couple Jack and Sharon. Sharon's father holds the mortgage on Castle Plunkett, so she's hoping to debunk the ghosts.Jack, on the other hand, after meeting pretty ghost Mary, is very eager to believe.Can there be love between a human and ghost? The thing with this film is not to pat too much attention to the problems, or you will begin to hate the movie. Guttenberg delivers his normal schtick in this, albeit a little bit more adult this time around.For the eighties, this really had quite an impressive cast. O'Toole must have been method acting in this because in some scenes he really does appear to be under the influence.The rest of the cast are average, but Kudos to Hannah for having one of the worst Irish accents I have ever heard on screen, No wonder Neeson has spent 200 years killing her.The effects are okay, and its quite reminiscent of a dodgy carry on film, in the fact that the humour is a little bit seaside saucy.Other than that it's very disjointed, edited badly, and really makes little sense.

An Irish castle is about to be foreclosed on and sold to an American developer, but the head of the household (Peter O'Toole) devises a plan to present the castle as haunted and lure in tourists. But when the spirits of his ancestors catch wind of the foreclosure, they take matters in to their own hands.This film is Peter O'Toole. If you like him, like his accent or whatever about him, you might like this film... but beyond that, it's a bit of a flop. Steve Guttenberg is here after his career peaked, Daryl Hannah described as beautiful but looking nasty, Peter Gallagher in a humorous but small role and Liam Neeson in makeup not really allowing his talent to shine.As a comedy, the film does not have much to offer. As a horror film, it has even less. It may be sort of a romantic comedy, but not really... the story just does not go anywhere. I find most of the supporting cast annoying or unnecessary, and it strikes me as an excuse to cast Irish actors and bring some revenue to Ireland... but this film even fails as a tourism promotion.I won't say I entirely disliked it. It was watchable, and even though I think the plot was a bit inconsistent at times (can ghosts touch people or not?) it was an interesting idea. Probably not original... probably not even a little bit. But still sort of fun in an 80s way.I had never heard of this film before my girlfriend pulled it out of a box of old VHS tapes... and now I'm not surprised. It was a good time sharing a childhood memory with her, but I can see why the film has been forgotten. So many more films have been made since, quite a film of them better, that it's not likely you will go out of your way to see this one and I don't encourage you to do so.