Ghost (1990)

Ghost has three movies fighting over one body: a weepy romance, a murder mystery and a comedy, and only the comedy fully works. Patrick Swayze plays Sam, a banker who dies and sticks around to protect Molly, and he’s earnest to the bone. Demi Moore mostly cries in close up. The mystery is thin, and you’ll spot the bad guy from the lobby. Then Oda Mae Brown shows up. Whoopi Goldberg plays a storefront psychic who’s been faking it for years and discovers, to her total horror, that the dead are real and they won’t leave her alone. Every scene she’s in turns into a comedy duet with a man nobody else can see. Vincent Schiavelli’s furious subway ghost, who teaches Sam to move things, is the other highlight. The big special effects look like an old screensaver now. It made $505.7 million worldwide. A 6.6 because the heart and Goldberg carry a creaky plot. $4,389 says you sign up for a pottery class this year and quit after one lopsided bowl.

What works: Goldberg’s Oda Mae is a comic gift, and the simple love story behind her still lands hard.

What doesn’t: The mystery is obvious from early on, and the shadowy creature effects look cheap and dated now.

Who it’s for: Romantics who want a good cry with a few big laughs mixed in, and anyone who has ever answered I love you with ditto.