Ghostbusters (2016) has been getting torn apart online by keyboard warriors ever since the cast was announced and the first trailer was put up on youtube. The youtube comments about the film was insane, and the sheer backlash agains Sony Pictures, the cast, the director. The whole thing blew my mind. I haven’t seen any movie in the last little while get this much insane backlash, I can’t even remember if its even happened before. After I saw the first trailer for this movie, I wasn’t impressed but I wasn’t counting this movie out yet, after the second trailer was released I actually wanted to see it, as it looked like a fun summer popcorn flick. Not only that, but I wanted to see this movie for myself, to form my own opinion about, and not have some keyboard warriors or fake reviews (Yeah theres been a lot of fake reviews on IMDb about this movie, and people just voting it a 1 without seeing the movie, because they feel like they’re “entitled too.” Will this movie surpass the original movie? No… does it need to?? no. is it fun and entertaining? yes. I won’t be comparing the original Ghostbusters to this one, I don’t think I need too, they’re different movies, of course this one takes a bit of inspiration from the original, but I think there was enough changed to make it stand apart from the original.
With that mini rant out of the way, lets get down to the film shall we?
Ghostbusters is a reboot, directed by Paul Feig. Who funnily enough, played the character of Tim in the 1995 movie Heavy Weights, which was one of my favourite movies as a kid. But he was also the director Bridesmaids (2011), The Heat (2013), and Spy (2015). I think he’s an alright director, I don’t rush to go see his movies. I thought Bridesmaids was good, but a little overrated, as well as The Heat. But I thought he did a good job directing and writing Ghostbusters. He didn’t do anything crazy really, there was nothing in the movie that really stood out, direction wise, except that it was just fun and entertaining. He also wrote this movie alongside Katie Dippold, she also had a role in writing The Heat (2013).
Ghostbusters plot is as follows – Following a ghost invasion of Manhattan, paranormal enthusiasts Erin Gilbert and Abby Yates, engineer Jillian Holtzmann, and subway worker Patty Tolan band together to stop the otherworldly threat.
The film stars Melissa McCarthy as Abby Yates. McCarthy’s other roles include Gilmore Girls (2000-2007), Bridesmaids (2011), Identity Thief (2013), The Heat (2013), St. Vincent (2014), and Spy (2015). I will say I’m not a huge fan of McCarthy’s brand of comedy, it really doesn’t do a thing for me, in fact, in my opinion, I find her to be a little overrated. But I really did enjoy her in St. Vincent (2014) which was less of her comedic side and more of her drama and straight up acting side, she’s definitely a capable actor. I thought she did a good job in Ghostbusters too, she wasn’t as over the top as she usually is, which I think is a reason why I don’t like her usually, she’s way too over the top – like recent Adam Sandler movies. But yeah I thought she did a good job in Ghostbusters. Kirsten Wiig is also in the movie as Erin Gilbert. Her other roles include Saturday Night Live (2005-2014), Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), Knocked Up (2007), Whip It (2009), Bridemaids (2011), Paul (2011), The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (2013), The Martian (2015), and Sausage Party (2015). I’ve always enjoyed Wiig’s acting, I haven’t seen a bad role she’s done, and I thought she was great in Ghostbusters, she played the role of Erin well. Kate McKinnon is in Ghostbusters as well. Her other roles include Saturday Night Live (2012-2016), Ted 2 (2015), Sisters (2015), and Finding Dory (2016). I am really not too familiar with her acting, she played herself in Ted 2 and I don’t even remember where she popped up in it. But I thought she did a good job in Ghostbusters, she took over the Egon role of being the engineer character. and last but certainly not least, Leslie Jones rounded out the 4 person Ghostbusters team, playing Patty Tolan. Her other roles include Saturday Night Live (2014-2016), Trainwreck (2015), and Sing (2016). Leslie Jones was easily my favourite actor/role in Ghostbusters, I thought her character was hilarious and most of the times when I laughed, it was at the lines that she said.
My favourite part of the movie was, other than Leslie Jone’s character was the cameos from the original Ghostbusters movie, it was fun to see the old crew pop up in random places. But I really just enjoyed myself being back in that world again, I have fond memories of the original Ghostbusters as a kid, It was just a fun ride then as it is now. I liked the updated version to everything too, like the proton packs were upgraded and the new Ghostbusters team utilized more equipment and firepower. But I also enjoyed how they kept some things the same, and homaged the original. They had all the staples of the equipment, they even had a Slimer and a stay puft marshmallow man in the form of a balloon. It was just fun.
A positive about the movie is that the CGI actually was really good, the ghosts all looked really interesting and had differences. They looked like actual characters, they weren’t super cheesy or dumb looking.
My negatives in the movie really were script issues. I felt that a lot of the time the jokes fell flat. There were times where a line was delivered by one of the actors, and I was like “hmmm this is supposed to be a joke, but its not particularly funny.” I also felt like sometimes there didn’t even need to be a joke but they decided to put one in there. So the script issues for me were all over the place. Another negative I have was that some of the supporting characters, like Chris Hemsworth’s character just felt a little out of place. The main cast I feel could’ve been better. I feel like Peter Feig, just took the main cast of SNL and threw McCarthy in on top of it, just to round out his cast, and lets be honest EVERY FEIG film has Melissa McCarthy in it, whether we like it or not. I also felt like the movie didn’t take a lot of chances and played it safe, which is definitely what you need to do with an already loved and adored franchise that is decided to be rebooted. But maybe it was too safe? The direction as I previously said was alright, and very by the books.
I think thats the best way to sum up this movie, by the books. There were some parts that stood out, there were some parts that fell flat, but at the end of the day, I watch movies to be entertained and to have some fun and escape the real world. Ghostbusters allowed me to do that, it was an entertaining and fun popcorn flick.
There are plans for a sequel, I’m not entirely sure if we’ll get it because of the backlash that the movie received, I also don’t think that the movie made enough in the box office, but I’m hopeful for a sequel, I think it could be fun.
Was it the dumpster fire that people on the internet made it out to be? no. Was it the worst piece of shit to ever be on the big screen? no. Did it deserve all the negative and critical backlash? no.
Overall, I give Ghostbusters a 3.5/5.
I will pick up the extended cut, blu ray whenever it comes out in October. I’m sure it’ll look a lot nicer than the copy I have in my possession right now.
If you want to be entertained, and can forget the original movie and just have fun, then this movie is for you. If you end up watching this movie and disliking it? thats okay, because you still have the original movie. If you’ve never seen this movie and refuse to watch it.. thats your choice but if you haven’t seen it and say its awful then your opinion is invalid.
Always form your own opinion on films! If you’d like to discuss this movie with me, send me a private message if you have me on Facebook, i’d be happy to talk about it. Or answer any questions you may have about it. Or to discuss film in general, because thats what movies do, they create a great platform for discussion!
Until Next Time!
-Andrew
**my next new release review will be Deepwater Horizon, which I will be seeing an advanced screening of next Wednesday, September 28th. Stay tuned for that! I have also been working on another filmography review and marathon post, like I did with Quentin Tarantino. This new director, will be one of my favourites, if you know me already, you can probably guess who it is. And also, I will be making a new post that’ll be posted every monday called “Inspirational Movie Mondays” because lets be honest, sometimes mondays suck, they’re the first day back after a nice weekend and sometimes we need a little motivation to get us through the week, so i’m going to share with you some inspirational movies, that always get me going and keep me going no matter what!
Stay tuned for all that and more!