When a man finds himself trapped between this life and the afterlife, he embarks on a journey of discovery to cope with his new position. But with the help of a psychic, he learns that he was left on earth to make certain things right.

GHOST is a movie that really shouldn’t have worked. You have a ghost that has to investigate his death and save his living wife. That’s a recipe for a horror film or an embarrassingly bad romantic comedy. However, despite the silly premise, GHOST is one of the most romantic movies of all time and manages to melt the hearts of even the most cynical moviegoer.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that it features Patrick Swayze in his prime and Demi Moore close to hers. Although Moore was great, the pressure fell on Swayze to convince the audience that what he’s going through is real. He does a fine job, but where he and Moore shine are when they’re together. We all remember the pottery scene, which still proves to be a fantastic moment.

It’s a tearjerker, but it somehow manages to not beat you over the head with it. The story itself is set up to tug at your tear ducts, so there’s not much you can do about it. If you watch this with someone sensitive to sad movies, make sure you bring your tissues. I’m also pleased to say that it stands the test of time rather well. The hairstyles and the outfits show its age a little bit, but the story and the performances hold up well and the film should appeal to just as wide of an audience today as it did when it was first released.

The film does tend to drag a little bit, but it’s a dangerous line in a film like this. On one hand, they have to establish the characters enough so we care about what happens to them. On the other, they have to move the story along so we don’t get bored. I think they do a great job in the beginning and once he meets up with his wife again, but the in-between moments are a little slow. It’s a minor complaint in an otherwise great love story. Oh, and just try to watch this movie and not sing “Unchained Melody” a dozen times the next day.

Video: Widescreen (1.85:1): The DVD release was pretty good and there are only marginal improvements with this Blu-ray.

Audio: English 5.1 TrueHD with English subtitles: The audio was fine.

Commentary with Jerry Zucker and Bruce Joel Rubin: These are the best commentaries. Where they tell great, personal stories about how they got into the business and how the movie came to be. Bruce Joel Rubin opens up with a great story about how he was inspired for Ghost while living in a Tibetan monestary. I guess it doesn’t get much more inspirational than that.

Ghost Stories: The Making of Ghost (13:06): You can’t put movie scenes into a 13 minute featurette, but they did. Aside from that, it was actually pretty good. We hear from the writer, director and then get some older interviews from Swayze and Moore. They touch on just about every aspect of the film and do a good job of covering the major decisions.

Inside the Paranormal (8:35): This was kind of freaky because I actually believed the people that were being interviewed. They were “psychic mediums”. Basically, they claim to be able to see dead people. Normally, I call bullshit on stuff like this, but these people weren’t advertising services, they were just seemingly normal people talking about their ability. Very cool.

Alchemy of a Love Scene (6:16): Of course, the pottery scene gets its own featurette. They discuss how the scene came to be and why they chose pottery. Originally, they were going to make Moore a carpenter, which would have been horrible. This is a good look at the scene.

Cinema’s Great Romances (19:45): This actually focuses on AFI’s “100 Years, 100 Passions” list they did a while back. It’s pretty cool if you like the AFI lists, but for me, the only AFI list was the first one. However, the featuertte was nice because it went over most of the films on the list. If nothing else, you’ll get some good movie recommendations.

There are some Previews

GHOST is a good movie to own because it’s timeless and one of the better romance films out there. If you already own the DVD, I wouldn’t bother with the upgrade. But if you haven’t checked it out in a while, do yourself a favor and watch it.