High Spirits (1988)

Well, this is one of my all time favorites! It has not a complex story line, it's easy to watch, and easy to fall in love with the scenarios, the ambiance and the cast. Speaking of the castle, this movie earns great marks for it: the decoration of the sets it's brilliant, and gives a wonderful mood, and the outdoors are really beautiful. Daryl fits the part very well, although sometimes she looks like having too much make up on. With a hand full of good actors, a gorgeous soundtrack and sets that my dreams are made of, i can say that i watch this movie countless times (pretty sure more than 1000 times)and I recommend to be seen on a rainy afternoon, with dimmed lights and the fireplace on!

Fmovies: I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Peter O'Toole is wonderful as are the remainder of the actors. This movie is part of my DVD collection.

It's a screwball comedy about what people will do to try to save their livelihood, marriages, etc. Some of the situations that the characters find themselves in are a bit corny; however, they are still funny. It's also somewhat of a ghostly movie. I thoroughly enjoyed the ending.

If you've ever lived in England, Ireland, or Scotland, the characters in this movie will remind you warmly of those people.

It is a movie that you can sit down with the family and some popcorn and enjoy.

Maybe I have a warped sense of humour (or just a very British one) but I laugh every time I see this film, and I've seen it well over a 100 times over the years. It is genuinely funny, the script is witty and the actors superb. This is one of my all time favourite rainy day films. No matter how times I watch it there are still little things I'd not noticed or things I'd forgotten happen. I strongly suggest getting this film out next time it's raining and you're stuck indoors, and if anyone from the BBC is reading, please put it on next bank holiday!!

High Spirits fmovies. I agree with Claire Walkden. High Spirits is just the tonic for a blustery afternoon or an evening by the fireplace.

The setting is authentic and O'Toole is at the top of his form. The wonderful mother (who tipples) is married to a ghost, AND SHE STEALS EVERY SCENE SHE'S IN!

People who don't like this film are trying too hard to make it into Shakespeare. This is not Macbeth. High Spirits is to be taken with a grain of salt and enjoyed.

Liam Neeson and Beverly D'Angelo are wonderful together! Just the difference in their height is hysterical.

Some of the jokes are a bit labored and I could have done without the ghost-buster, but he was very funny with his fried hair!

Not a great film, but a genuinely funny one and O'Toole is priceless!

High Spirits turned out to be a pretty good comedy. Peter Plunkett (Peter O'Toole), and his gang of merry Irishmen are facing foreclosure on their grand castle resort. The old fashioned castle needs a clever advertising gimmick to entice visitors. After talking with his looney, but sincere old mother who always claims that she talks to his dead father and the rest of the poor spirits looming around the dark castle, Plunkett decides that the castle ought to be haunted. And so, the guests are invited to stay among the spirits of the Plunkett family. Of course, Plunkett doesn't believe in the existence of ghosts, especially when he hasn't seen any for himself, despite his mother's attempts to convince him that they're everywhere. No, Plunkett's plan involves a few crappy props and some cheap scare tactics to thrill their small group of American guests.

But Plunkett and the gang (nor their furious guests) would ever have imagined real ghosts showing up. And this is where the movie really starts to get funny because everyone, after their various confrontations with the undead and all the strange things that start to happen in the castle, start to become so neurotic as they try to figure out what's going on.

The movie is a romantic comedy, of course, though it could've worked simply as a story of the funny occurences in the haunted castle as Plunkett and his frantic guests scurry about trying to deal with the situation any way that they can. Guttenberg is Jack, a sorry guy who's married to a real dull lady (Beverly D'Angelo) that really can't stand to know him, especially when he drags her out to some stupid castle. Jack actually starts to fall in love with one of the ghosts, a Plunkett ancestry named Mary (Daryl Hannah), a sickley looking young girl who died by the knife of her husband (Liam Neesom). The ghosts keep playing out the murder over and over again, and Jack, accidently intervening in one of the reenactments, somehow frees Mary from the murder. And so, now she's in love with Jack. But how does a ghost and a human end up together (and they have to end up together...after all it's a Hollywood love story)? Well, that's why you have to watch the movie.

Everyone in the movie is fantastic because, though some may start out to be quite annoying (such as the self-declared "professional parasychologist" or the cynical Sharon (D'Angelo)), they eventually come to be very entertaining as the movie goes along. I especially like the goofy interaction between Meg Tilly as the nympho and Peter Gallagher as the soon-to-be Priest. Peter O'Toole is wonderful. He is also the last to realize what the heck is going on.

It's definitely a comedy worth watching.

What the hell, its quirky, and yeah OK not always highly acted, but I utterly love this movie, it is hilarious, and Peter O'Toole is magical, truly a must for sitting down and watching on a cold wet evening. Set in Ireland, it does prove to be a little on the stereotypical side towards the Irish but again, who cares, Whiting Bisque etc. Some of the effects are a little on the dodgy side, but with Peter O'Toole acting as brilliantly as ever they seem unimportant. I saw this movie when I was 10 or so and always loved it, remember the scenes with the nuns gave me a few nightmares as a child. Funny to rewatch and see how silly things seem now in adulthood.