Mostly Ghostly: Who Let the Ghosts Out? (PG)
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This was released on DVD in September 2008, and aired on Disney Channel a month later, which is where I first saw it. It's based on the first in a series of books by R.L. Stine, which I haven't read. When the movie first came out, it was just called "Mostly Ghostly", but in the years since then "Who Let the Ghosts Out?" has been added to the title. (That was also the title of the book.) I guess I didn't think much of the movie when I first watched it, and I don't recall having seen it again in the years since, but I feel like if I ever did watch it again, I might rate it slightly higher than I did originally. And there have been a coule of sequels I'd like to check out.

Anyway, there's this kid named Max, who is practicing a magic act for the school talent show, which will be on Halloween. He has an older brother who likes to mock and scare him and stuff, and a dad who is constantly trying to get him interested in sports (like his older brother), but Max just isn't into that. There's also a bully at school who, you know, bullies him. Meanwhile, there are two ghosts, siblings named Tara and Nicky. Max's family now lives in their house, which surprises them, as does the fact that they're ghosts. They don't know what happened to them, or where their parents are. Plus, there's an evil ghost named Phears, who wants to release a bunch of evil spirits on Halloween. But he's concerned that Max may be able to stop him. It also seems there's some connection between him and the missing parents of Tara and Nicky.

Well, Max is always chanting a line for his magic tricks, something which I guess was on a scrap of paper his dog found. It turns out it's half of a spell needed to banish Phears and the other evil ghosts. And Max meets Tara and Nicky, and agrees to help them out, since only he can see and hear them, and only someone living can enter some tunnel which contains something that's needed to banish Phears. Meanwhile, Tara and Nicky help him out with his magic (and with the school bully). There's also an older girl at school named Traci that he likes. He wants her to become his assistant in his magic act. Which she eventually does.

And I dunno what else to say. For the most part I thought the movie was pretty lame, and there was a point early on when I seriously considered just shutting it off, but I got through it, anyway. And it did have a few mildly amusing moments, I guess. Nothing particularly scary, though. I think a lot of the time Max was scared was just impossible to believe anyone would be scared, but then there were times I suppose anyone would be scared, if they were living it instead of watching it on TV. But definitely not if they were just watching it. Anyway, whatever... it has a happy ending, of course. Evil banished, successful talent show, Max gets his dad's respect, Tara and Nicky plan to look for their parents... So that's kind of open-ended, should be more to the story.

Well, there have been a couple of other "Mostly Ghostly" movies: "Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?" in 2014, and "One Night in Doom House" in 2016.