Before I begin, I would like to address a certain and potentially obvious issue: A couple of weeks back, I made a post detailing the reasons why I wouldn’t support the new Ghostbusters movie. Given the amount of information that I had at the time, I felt my conclusion was justified, and I still do. However, when the reviews started coming out on Sunday and not all of them being totally negative, I decided to give the movie a chance. I guess that would make me sound a little hypocritical, and you probably wouldn’t be wrong for thinking that, but I’m in the business of covering movies and movie news, so not reviewing Ghostbusters 2016 wasn’t particularly an option. I just want you to bear that in mind while reading this review. Thank you.
Released: July 2016
Director: Paul Feig
Rated PG-13
Run Time: 116 Minutes
Composer: Theodore Shapiro
Distributor: Sony Entertainment/Columbia Pictures
Cast:
Melissa McCarthy: Abby Yates
Kristen Wiig: Erin Gilbert
Kate McKinnon: Jillian Holtzmann
Leslie Jones: Patty Tolan
Chris Hemsworth: Kevin The Intern
Andy Garcia: Mayor Bradley
Neil Casey: Rowan North
The idea of a 3rd live-action Ghostbusters film has been floating around since the second film was released. There have been multiple stories involving the ‘Busters going to Hell or an alternate dimension. One had them passing the torch to a new generation, and one involved an all-female crew. This last one is the one that got made. However, instead of a full-blown sequel, we ended up with a reboot. The idea of an all-female crew shouldn’t have been as controversial as it was. Considering that Bill Murray was off-and-on again about another film, the whole idea was up in the air. When Harold Ramis died a couple of years back, any plans for a 3rd film went up in smoke. So, Sony brought in director Paul Feig to helm a new Ghostbusters film. Having had the opportunity to see the new movie, how does it stack up? Does it really deserve all the hate that it’s getting? Let’s find out, shall we?
The film opens as a tourist guide is taking tourists around what appears to be a haunted house, only to be revealed as a sham on his part. After the tourists leave, the guide learns that the house really is haunted. As a result, one of the owners of the mansion call upon Dr. Erin Gilbert to investigate. Initially refusing, she realizes that he’s telling the truth. She finds her former colleague, Abby Yates and HER assistant, Jillian Holtzmann. Together they investigate the house and after encountering their first ghost, they decide to start up an investigation business to locate and capture ghosts. Recruiting a local Metro guard, Patty and a dimwit receptionist, Kevin, they begin to investigate strange paranormal activities cropping up in the city. Sounds awfully like the setup for the original movie, doesn’t it? The story is pretty much a rehash of the original Ghostbusters. It doesn’t really tread any new ground, and it just feels like the movie is playing it safe.
I’m going to come right out and say it: The marketing campaign for Ghostbusters has been nothing short of disastrous. From the awful first trailer to the horrendous new theme song, everything seemed to scream, “trainwreck.” It pleases me to inform you that the new movie is not the disaster that everybody has been predicting. Yes, there are people that really don’t like it, and there are people who think it’s merely OK. Reviewing a comedy is a hard thing to do, because humor is entirely subjective. What one person finds funny, another might not. Everybody has their own things that they find funny. The new Ghostbusters is surprisingly, and genuinely, funny at times. It’s funny because the cast works. The chemistry between the main four character is legitimate. Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones all do a fantastic job, although I tend to like Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon a little bit more than the other two. Kate McKinnon’s character is kind of a cartoon, and she’s clearly having fun with it. Her character, Holtzmann, is the engineer, so she designs the weapons and the proton packs. Leslie Jones play Patty, the street-wise Metro guard. She’s loud and she’s hilarious. A lot of the jokes that didn’t seem to land in the trailers, actually land pretty well in the final film. Why? Context. Timing and context are the two most important things in comedy. Without either of those, you’re left scratching your head. That’s not to say that all the jokes are good, some really are not and just don’t work.
Chris Hemsworth plays the hunky and clearly dimwitted receptionist, Kevin. Look, I will admit that Chris Hemsworth is really funny at times here. He’s clearly having fun at his own expense and he’s got the charisma to do it. However, the joke tends to go on a little too long, and it becomes tedious. There are a lot of situations in the film where that is the case. When the joke lands, you don’t want to dwell on it. Just let it pass. That’s one of the main issues I have with the movie. The writing is all over the place. The lack of consistency is jarring. A lot of the time, the humor works, it’s just when it doesn’t, you KNOW it doesn’t. It ends up being awkward.
The stuff that works in the movie really does work. The ghost busting sequences are absolutely phenomenal. I loved those. The visual effects are surprisingly not bad. Again, context is important. Through the course of the film, the story takes it usual turns, and the ‘Busters end up having to try and save the world. The battle sequences with the ghosts towards the end of the film is nothing short of spectacular. There are some new things in this movie that I found to be really cool. Each Ghost Buster has her own proton pack yes, but each one also gets a smaller “side-arm” to go along with the main weapon. One’s a shotgun, another’s a shredder, and one is power glove. It’s all really cool. The one I like the best is the whip that Holtzmann’s character wields. I thought that was totally awesome. There’s some really good action here and it’s big, as it should be. It’s very thrilling. There are parts of the film that feel like Ghostbusters. That’s a good thing.
Unfortunately, there are a number of things that really bring the movie down. For one, the whole movie is very self-aware. What made the original film work was that it played the whole thing straight. The chemistry of the actors and their personalities are what made the movie funny. There are times when ths movie grinds to a halt and says, “Hey look at me, I’m referencing the original movie!” There are a lot of situations in the movie like that. Another thing that drags the movie down are the cameos. We have cameos from not only the three surviving Ghost Busters from the original film, we also have cameos from the old receptionist and Sigourney Weaver as well. So, we have Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Dan Aykroyd, Annie Potts, and Sigourney Weaver. These cameos don’t really do anything for the movie except slow it down, and honestly, they’re not that good. Bill Murray’s cameo is the worst offender. Ghostbusters would have been better served if it had not had those cameos. The pacing would have certainly improved. Also, there is the fact that all the men in the movie are portrayed as idiots and/or dirtbags. Gee, thanks Mr. Feig.
There is also the issue of the new theme song from Fallout Boy and Missy Elliott. Who the hell thought that Fallout Boy was a good idea? I understand that they wanted to try something new with the theme. If that was the case, they could’ve talked to Ray Parker, Jr. about helping them out a bit. To be fair, some elements of his song were used, properly of course, but that new main theme is disgraceful. So…is the new Ghostbusters movie a complete disaster? No. Hell no. I think there’s quite a bit here to like. The cast is fantastic, especially the main four ladies, but a lot of this stuff surprisingly works fairly well. Obviously not everybody is going to like it. In fact, I’ve seen reviews that were quite….scathing. You could certainly do worse than this. Improvements could have been made. Had the movie actually not bothered to reference the previous films in the franchise, it might have done better. As it stands, I don’t see this movie doing well overseas. China has pretty banned all movies involving ghosts and the supernatural due to an obscure law, so China’s out of the question. Honestly, I hope the film does well enough to warrant a sequel, because I want to see where they go next. I would like the next film to be directed by somebody other than Mr. Feig. He’s not a bad director, but he was not a great choice for this movie. My final conclusion is a decent 7/10. I actually liked it a bit. Is it a good movie? Not really, but it’s not a train-wreck either.