High Spirits [DVD]

Despite being mainstream, safe, and silly, Guttenberg and Hannah have the right amount of chemistry to at least give this low-budget movie some substance. Although not the best film and the script looks to be a jumble of rewrites and loose ends, it is an earlier movie for the incredible cast of stars and was released in the late 1980s, so it is a little out of date.The fantasy comedy from 1988 takes place in a lonely Irish castle. The castle begins to come to life with the assistance of some visitors. The visitors end up in a romantic relationship with two spirits and this becomes the main focus of the film.Yes, the movie is a little strange, but you can't help but laugh at the humorous romantic comedy and enjoy watching it.

Enjoyed the movie.The case came through broken, but dvd was okay.

This is a fun little film we say when it first came out. A simple story of a down on his luck Irish castle owner trying to survive by opening it up for tourists as a ghost attraction. He tried to create the ghosts not realizing he already had them. As his father stated “our son is an idiot” The first batch are Americans and of course everything goes wrong.As a story its simple. Sweet in some ways and stupid in other ways. The best way to approach this film is just roll with it. Don’t expect anything and just ride the ride.The cast in general is good. Loved O’Toole, Hannah and Neeson. Guttenburg? I never really cared for him. This is one of the few times he is palatable to me.Streaming wise? I had no issues.

Such a funny romp with great comedic delivery from all of the performers. I give this movie 5 out of five stars. It's been one of my favorite movies throughout the years, and still brings laughter when I watch it. It is on my annual Halloween Movie Night list.

This is a great classic comedy with some famous stars. I loved this movie as a child and for its time it did not extremely well with the special effects. It has just enough fright to keep you entertained but not terribly scary which is why I love it. Great family classic!

Fell in love with this film ages ago.Still one of the best comedy and fun ghost story blends .Just can't go wrong with O'Toole and Guttenberg!O'Toole inherits his old family Irish castle...only problem he was never the in keeping type ! Yet he struggles threw to keep the local village people employed. Of course as debts mounts he takes loans out on the castle from a nasty person who hates the castle with a passion.Tired of O'Tools blarney as to why his loan money is not paid . He sends his Daughter Sharon and her husband Guttenberg to find out what's up. Sadly, Sharon is almost as bad as her Father telling her husband Guttenberg it's a second honeymoon trip, not about work for Daddy who want to move the whole castle from Ireland to L.A. California !!Thing get worse for O'Toole as a paranormal investigator comes with his family to discredit the Irish Ghost O'Toole claims to have.It's enough to raise the dead...only problem - are the living ready for Irish Ghost relatives idea of pranking and having fun !Chaos in sues !This is a good old 1980s very early 1990s film ...so you may have explain some stuff to younger kids like any films from that age. Like yes ,there was only 2-3channels in the U.K.s BBC.Only land lines no cell or wifi.Basically get them into the era of the piece. Great family film and fun trip into the 1980s.If you enjoyed Guttenberg s Tower of Terror you will love this film !!!

Loved this movie from the first time I saw it.

Good flick.

Not Neil Jordan's best film, but a bit of harmless fun all the same. The kind of thing the kids (young-ish ones) might enjoy at Halloween time.The story is simple enough: an impoverished Irish landlord (Peter O'Toole) decides to open a ghost themed resort hotel for American toursits in his tumbledown castle to save himself from bankruptcy. With the help of some locals he "invents" the ghosts. But he hasn't reckoned with his ancestral ghosts who start putting in an appearance just as soon as the first paying guests arrive.The cast is rather more exciting than the story, besides the ever enjoyable Peter O'Toole, there is also a young Liam Neeson as one of the ghosts. The entire supporting cast is made up of many well known faces from the 80s from both sides of the Atlantic, among them Darryl Hannah, Steve Guttenberg, Donal McCann, and Peter Gallagher as hunky novice priest. One has to commend them all for going along with what doesn't really amount to more than a bit of very silly fun. A bit of unintentionnal humour is added by the then state of the art special effects in the ghost scenes which by now seem truly antiquated. Don't expect too much, just sit down and enjoy, and this should keep you nicely entertained on a rainy Sunday afternoon.The quality of the DVD is fine, both picture and sound are quite good for a film from the 80s. There are no subtitles. No special features included.

A down on his luck Irish nobleman named Peter Plunkett ( Peter O'Toole ) faced with the repossession on his ancestral ancient home, declares the place haunted, then promptly invites a bus load of American tourists over to witness the " hauntings " themselves.The tourists soon realise that any supposed hauntings on show are actually the result of Plunkett's staff in various costumes & guises and declare that they will publicly denounce his claims and that is when things start to get spooky, from bloody hands in mounted fish-heads to eerie ghoulish nuns all making an appearance to the tourists.It soon becomes apparent to all that Castle Plunkett is actually home to real ghosts .Two of these ghosts, Martin (Liam Neeson) and Mary (Daryl Hannah) have been doomed to re-enact the same argument every evening for the past 200 years, in which Martin, convinced that his new bride was being unfaithful, stabbed her to death on their wedding night.This reenactment is one night witnessed by mild mannered and neglected husband Jack ( Steve Guttenberg ) who complicates matters further when both he and Mary generate a mutual attraction.She see's him as the man who has broke the curse that had her being murdered every night and he, is, well, a Tourist.As he says to her at one point " you're a ghost, I'm an American, it would never work "It then escalates into a series of events featuring ghostly goings on, Martin falling for Jack's arrogant wife ( Beverly D'Angelo ) and a night of hilarity culminating in a night of " scalping " between Jack & Mary.Be interesting to see if the original film Director Neil Jordan set out to make is in any way represented on screen, as in it's finished form it is full of inconsistencies in the way it flows.It goes from romantic comedy with witty one liners and subtle humour, to noisy silly sight gags ( in which the cast run noisily around the castle or grounds screaming at each other ) and back again, which suggests a great deal of editing went on during post production?Despite these personal gripes, I am very very fond of this film. I rented this a lot from our local video shop back in the 80's, and it passed away many a rainy sunday afternoon.Silly? yes, but ghoulishly entertaining.

There was a time when Halloween meant films. I this used to be on terrestrial television. Okay it is in set it Ireland but Hollywood Ireland which means everyone is Orish. And some of the actors are actually Irish which makes you wonder. Nice story line and location looks like Ireland which is always lovely.Story line is not scary - unless you have never seen the concept of ghosts before and then yes it is quite scary. A bit of a love story a bit of rights wronged and then righted. A bit of Peter O'Toole doing a master class in being drunk (no one plays drunk better). So it is a bit of a them and us film. Greedy hotelier and the put up on owners. The Sceptics and the believers. The Ghosts and the peopel who are alive.So not a modern classic that changes you life. But definetly a film that brings back Halloween movies. Bit of mind candy not your favourite chocolate bar but definetly the one you eat before natures candy in your halloween trick and treating bucket.

Enjoyable film, we had lots of chuckles watching this. The idea of setting up a fake ghost story in order to keep the hotel in his family and get people to visit and stay is quite funny. Though things dont go according to plan and that fake haunting is foiled by the american guests. Then the real haunting starts as the hotel family ghosts are annoyed with the way things are. Things happen people fall in love with ghosts. Plenty of well known names on the credits in a film before some where very famous. Only thing we would critisize is Daryl Hannah's irish accent, fortunatly it does not spoil the enjoyment of the film.

A rollicking, comedy film with ghisties ghoulies and thing that go bump in the night. Supported by superb performances from Peter O,toole, Darryl Hannah and Steve Guttenburgh. Look out for a Young Liam Niessen as the psycho Ghost 'Martin' he proudly affirms he has the biggest bahoogies in the vicinty!!! Look out also for an appearance by the late character actor Ray Macnally-as 'Daddy'Terriffi and highly entertaining well worth a re-release to the public.