Believe it or not, it’s been 30 years since the original Ghostbusters burst onto the big screen, and this weekend, a new rebooted version makes its debut. This horror/comedy is an entertaining, although forgettable romp for roughly two hours.
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Ivan says that he tried to make a more traditional follow-up in which the old team of Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson and the late Harold Ramis handed over the reins to a new generation of Ghostbusters, but the sequel was sunk by modern comedians’ fears of not living up to their predecessors.
Most important, though, is the fact that I watched the movie with a wide-eyed wonder I haven’t felt since the first time I watched the original “Ghostbusters”. I think some of the men in the audience may cringe, but guys – women have had this done to us in thousands of movies. They’re assisted by an eccentric engineer played by Saturday Night Live cast member Kate McKinnon and a former subway station worker played by fellow SNL veteran Leslie Jones.
Spooky circumstances soon have Erin and Abby patching up their differences and teaming with Jillian to track the numerous ghosts that have suddenly started popping up around New York City.
The plot is pretty straight forward and won’t offer any big revelations or twists that you weren’t expecting. McKinnon and Jones took turns alternating as the best parts of the film, with Holtz’s offbeat wackiness balanced out by Tolman’s “sane woman in a horror movie” approach.
Mind you, it could have ended up as bad as Reitman’s recent movies My Super Ex-Girlfriend and No Strings Attached, which no doubt replaced his desired Ghostbusters project. Whether this is your type of humor or not will heavily determine your enjoyment of the movie. It’s amusing. I mean, really amusing. Because despite all these criticisms, I actually enjoyed the movie, and I didn’t even mention how great Chris Hemsworth is as the extremely dumb receptionist Kevin. That’s not to say Wiig and McCarthy don’t have their moments, but some of their jokes are fairly hit and miss throughout. Patty doesn’t know anything about the science behind trapping ghosts, but she’s well-versed in the history of Manhattan which proves helpful when freaky things begin happening around town. Hoping for the best but anxious about the worst (again, thanks to that terrible trailer), GHOSTBUSTERS lands on the positive side in the middle. Rowan is not a memorable character in any way and it’s pretty obvious that he’s meant to be the physical embodiment of all the haters that this film has required. We’ve seen the two do this before in Feig’s Bridesmaids, and that chemistry has obviously spilled over onto Ghostbusters. They also show a bunch of cluttered visuals packed with CGI ghosts that inexplicably look faker than the analog ghosts in the original.
With more and more reports of ghosts, the trio form their Ghostbusters business. This isn’t “Stripes” we’re talking about here.
If true feminism is about real equality, then Ghostbusters is – at least from this reviewer’s limited male perspective – a home run for the cause. It’s understandable where such an idea can come from though, as female action leads are quite scarce, even with the massive boom in superhero franchises.
The much-anticipated “Ghostbusters” reboot hits theaters this weekend with four very amusing women at the helm.
Unfortunately, “Ghostbusters” isn’t great. In a summer movie season where many movies seem to go on and on, this one feels over much too fast.
Few films released over the last several decades have embedded themselves as firmly in the public consciousness as the 1984 comedy “Ghostbusters”.
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