Ghost Dad

Bill Cosby hasn't had much luck in his movie career, which may explain this (not unsuccessful) attempt to carry his familiar middle-class-family-man TV image over to the big screen. In the film he plays a single, somewhat neglectful father of three children who learns a few belated lessons in parenthood after a fatal taxi ride turns him into a reluctant ghost. Of course he can only be seen in darkened rooms, which leads to a lot of ectoplasmic slapstick and some predictable puns ("…over my dead body!") The film is strictly sit-com material, but at the same time is too undemanding to warrant any real criticism, and under Sidney Poitier's slick, superficial direction it moves quickly to a happy ending, with the help of a few clever (if economical) special effects. It might, however, have an unexpected side effect on a younger audience: having a dead dad is made to seem such fun that some kids might begin to want one themselves.