Mostly Ghostly (2008)

I watched many Disney movies and series, this was so good! It made my childhood better. I am sick of fake humor in some Disney series and movies, and all pathetics and so on. But, this was so emotional and good, I gave 9 stars because I don't like being scared hahaha. In general, in Hollywood there is a lot of junk but for me this was different, especially while watching from Europe, where we want to say for almost every movie "ah,American junk". For me this was different, sorry but this is my opinion, I respect other opinions. And it has also a good humor that wasn't forced and it is truly GOOD, no bad language, no saying bad about the others, no bad confrontations etc. A REAL CHILDREN MOVIE.

The story centers around Max Doyle, an average 12 year old boy. He is not at all into sports and is often teased by his brother and father. Despite his kindness, good looks, intelligence and strong talent, he appears to have no friends. Poor kid. His own family seems to not even care about him that much. He has a strong passion for magic tricks, which gets him involved with real magic when he meets an evil ghost. At school Max is badly bullied. He is beaten up every day by a kid named Billy, who is by far my favorite character. Despite his cruelty towards Max, it is fun to watch one of the most cliche movie bullies torment the small kid, when that bully is played by Travis T. Flory, reprising the same role he played in everybody hates Chris. It's too bad he wasn't seen enough in the movie. When Max discovers two ghosts living in his house, he offers to help them defeat the evil ghost. The older ghost Nicki (Luke Benward) is not friendly toward Max and blackmails into helping. He plays constant pranks on Max and his family, but eventually comes through for Max and beats up Billy. Max gets sidetracked when he sees a girl at school, but still manages to defeat the ghost during the talent show. I'm not sure what the lesson is or how certain characters changed in this movie, but it has great acting and good comedy.

Trying to overcome his tough childhood, a boy learns his house is haunted by the child ghosts of the former residents looking to prevent a sinister force from unleashing a great evil on Halloween and must band together to stop it from happening.This here turned out to be quite a disappointing effort as there really could've been a lot going for it. The main problem with this one is the fact that there's no real reason for the ghost to start his plan of action. It really makes no sense because it's never really hinted at and it really doesn't offer anything as to make the villain an imposing figure beyond the blatantly obvious ploy he utters and the terrorizing he does, leaving a big hole in the film if the main villain is wrapped in complete and utter confusion. Also of rather low regard is the decision in the later half to remove the one that's been captured and make it impossible to offer assistance, which effectively renders it a moot point as to it's inclusion. As well, their child-like antics in the beginning aren't that enjoyable as watching them run around the house at fast speed and knocking things over or move furniture around don't make for a particularly exciting time. That said, there's still some fun to be had here with the rather fun effects on display, which make this pretty entertaining from time-to-time as it deals with the master ghost and the different ghouls in their make-up, the high-spirited finale has some great spectacle and there's one outstanding sequence where he must evade slumbering ghosts in a congregation to retrieve a prize without them noticing that comes off fairly chilling. As a full-on horror, though, this isn't that great but it's decent enough for children.Rated Unrated/PG: Mild Violence.

Mostly Ghostly is definitely superior to any other movie based on R.L. Stine's work. The special effects weren't the best, but who can blame Disney for that? They cast was funny, and mentioned real life complications that tweens and teens go through, such as bullying and trying to impress their crush. Madison Pettis was cute, but Luke Benward was the comedian in the film. He made me laugh more than any other character, were as Ms. Pettis just brought smiles. Many people were famous, but the main character was surprisingly a new talent. Some of the acting was non-believable, but some was a joy to watch. A great movie for tweens and teens,though maybe to graphic and frightening for ages under six, or people who get scared easily. All in all, I give this movie a solid 8.3.~Cloey