I went ahead and watched this film because the premise sounded interesting to me. Despite being wary due to the hard-to-take-seriously title and trailer, I gave it a shot. Now I wish I had my 2 hours back (or was it 3?). The movie starts off slowly and never really picks up. It felt as if an entire half of the film consisted of scenes where the main character was driving his car to rap music in the background or of scenes where mobsters watched classic cartoons. There are but 1 or 2 characters that you might actually care about, and they don't include "Ghost Dog" who pretty much always has the same expression throughout the movie. There are some funny moments thrown here and there but they are far too sparse. There isn't any character development, or plot for that matter.
Before you dismiss this review as coming from someone who seems to have a short attention span, I'd like to say I'm an avid film watcher and a huge advocate of independent and/or artistic films including 12 Angry Men and The Man From Earth, both of which are films that take place almost entirely in one room and consist of mainly dialogue. This film, on the other hand kept the word "boring" running through my mind. "Ghost Dog" is not a thriller because the "bad guys" are so inept and unrealistic that any sense of danger disappears, nor is it a drama because the characters are mostly stereotypes and show no development, nor is it action because of its focus characters sleeping, driving, watching TV etc etc. If I had to make up a genre for the film it would be "hip hop comedy spy movie that isn't that funny with cultural references." Even from a technical standpoint, the director doesn't do any interesting as far as camera shots and cinematography goes. Perhaps if this film was 1.5 hours shorter, I would have liked it.
If you read a few dozen Japanese haiku poems instead of watching this movie, you won't miss out on anything.
Before you dismiss this review as coming from someone who seems to have a short attention span, I'd like to say I'm an avid film watcher and a huge advocate of independent and/or artistic films including 12 Angry Men and The Man From Earth, both of which are films that take place almost entirely in one room and consist of mainly dialogue. This film, on the other hand kept the word "boring" running through my mind. "Ghost Dog" is not a thriller because the "bad guys" are so inept and unrealistic that any sense of danger disappears, nor is it a drama because the characters are mostly stereotypes and show no development, nor is it action because of its focus characters sleeping, driving, watching TV etc etc. If I had to make up a genre for the film it would be "hip hop comedy spy movie that isn't that funny with cultural references." Even from a technical standpoint, the director doesn't do any interesting as far as camera shots and cinematography goes. Perhaps if this film was 1.5 hours shorter, I would have liked it.
If you read a few dozen Japanese haiku poems instead of watching this movie, you won't miss out on anything.