Ghost Chase Reviews

A struggling young director named Fred (Tim McDaniel) and his would-be star Warren McCloud (Jason Lively) expect their funding woes to evaporate after Warren's grandfather mentions him in his will. Unfortunately, the pawned items bequeathed to Warren, including an old clock, don't seem that valuable. However, as Fred builds props for his upcoming film, Warren's clock magically transports a spirit into one of Fred's animatronic creatures. Turns out that it's the ghost of Lewis, the butler who served Grandfather McCloud. (When miserly Grandpa decided to seal himself up with his fortune, he murdered Lewis, the only witness to his hiding-place.) Can the reincarnated manservant lead these Hollywood wannabes to Grandpa's walled-up riches? As Lewis racks his rusty memory for the location, movie mogul Stan Gordon (Paul Gleason), the grandson of Grandpa McCloud's business-partner, spies on their activities. After Warren and Fred tip their hand to Stan, he schemes to find Grandpa's cache first. It's a race to the back-lot of Gordon studios as Warren, Fred, and Warren's girlfriend dig for the treasure that could finance their careers. Clumsily designed as a showcase for special effects, this lamebrain kiddie comedy is a shoddily directed and performed attempt to retool GHOSTBUSTERS as a latter-day Hardy Boys' mystery. With its wheezing gags and moribund pacing, the film sputters to an overblown finale; the only verve comes from the technical wizardry wasted on this not-so-wild ghost chase.