There's a line in Ghostbusters II, as the Titanic arrives and countless ghostly zombies exit from an ice berg-sized hole in the hull, where one dock worker says to the other with a shrug, "Better late than never". That line resonated with me as I finally caught Paul Feig's 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters yesterday for a couple of reasons; namely because I was finally seeing it more than a month and a half after its release, as it's now been deemed a failure with its $124 million + box office haul (on a budget of $144 million) and is rapidly leaving theaters -- there was only one somewhat local theater still showing it by me. And, of course, the fact that, after 27 years, we're finally getting another Ghostbusters film -- be it a reboot, remake, somewhat sequel.
Be warned: There will be spoilers here. Since the film has been out long enough and those of you who care to see it, probably already have....so, yeah...SPOILERS.
The film starts off familiar enough with a quick haunting at a historic museum, thereby setting the plot into motion. From there, the focus shifts to Dr. Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) on the campus of Columbia University, where she's aiming for tenure and to be taken seriously -- despite trying to distance herself from a book about the paranormal which she co-authored with childhood friend Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) many moons ago. It's this book that brings the two estranged friends back together as the manager of the museum reaches out to Erin for help with his haunting problem. New to the team is Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon), who is now Abby's quirky assistant in paranormal research and a Jane of All Trades when it comes building equipment. Again, things take a familiar turn as the trio see their first ghost and the seeds are planted for them to go into business for themselves.
Meanwhile, across town, MTA booth operator Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) encounters one subway weirdo too many and winds up seeing a ghost of her own. This leads her to contact the Erin and Abby for help and, in the spirit of the original, Patty ends up joining the group before they get their first call to action.
From here, the film follows some of the basic story beats of the 1984 original; the team gets their "home" (above a Chinese restaurant) and their own Ecto-1 vehicle, catches their first ghost, gains notoriety...and then is immediately debunked and silenced by the Mayor of New York and his team. Here's where the film starts to veer off into its own being which, honestly, works to its advantage in that it's not merely retreading familiar ground with the story. Sure, there are some very remake-like beats that occur -- such as the film's villain becoming the size of the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man and destroying the city -- but it's all in fun.
One interesting angle on the story that I picked up on is that, well, for this team of Ghostbusters, business isn't exactly booming. They catch one ghost, are immediately silenced and debunked in the media, and wind up letting the bastard go in error! All the while, a standard Hollywood Blockbuster villain plot forms between the lines; Rowan, a down-trodden nerdy misfit with a huge interest in the paranormal, hatches a devious plot to basically cleanse all humanity of its filth by opening a portal to the Afterlife and unleashing the undead to wreak havoc. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Although, this is probably the film's weakest piece, as it veers so much from what the original two films were about and feels too much like every other Summer Blockbuster with a Scooby-Doo villain and scheme. However: here, it works fine.
Okay my fellow thirty-somethings, let me say this: I enjoyed Ghostbusters (2016) and -- *gasp* -- my childhood is STILL intact. (read that last bit with the same intonation as Bill Murray saying "...and the flowers are still standing!") I was born in 1982 and, while I wouldn't immediately say that I grew up on Ghostbusters, I definitely grew up on the The Real Ghostbusters cartoon series and the toys . . . my God, the endless amount of toys that I had! Falling in love with the original movie was merely an extension of my love for all things Ghostbusters in the late 80s and early 90s.
For long-time fans who have been clamoring for a "proper" sequel, there are many, many shout-outs and nods to the stuff we grew up with . . . allow me to list some: a statue bust of the late Harold Ramis -- which, I'll say, is definitely supposed to be Egon Spengler, given its location -- in the halls of Columbia University, the PKE Meter that Abby uses early in the film is clearly modeled after the one from The Real Ghostbusters and so much like the role-playing toy that came with the Proton Pack accessory we all had, the familiar sound effect when the team starts up their Proton Packs, various winking lines of dialogue that hardcore fans would instantly pick up on, and of course, the cameos!
Again: Here Be Spoilers...
Bill Murray shows up first as Martin Heiss, a noted skeptic and "debunker", who appears as though he raided Jon Pertwee's wardrobe from The House That Dripped Blood. Murray, as Heiss, has more than just a mere cameo though, which was surprising and it was great to see him in another Ghostbusters film! And no, despite what the film portrays, Heiss does not die . . . he's revealed to have live and even writes a forward to the film's tie-in version of Erin and Abby's book "Ghosts from Our Past: Both Literally and Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal", where he mentions the medical bills he received at the hands of the team. The next cameo starts with a voice and, as soon as you hear it, you know it's Annie Potts; she appears as Vanessa, the front desk clerk at the Mercado Hotel who snaps Janine Melnitz's classic line, "What do you want...". Next, Dan Aykroyd shows up as a gruff, NYC cabbie who drops a clear Ray Stanz line and then caps his bit with a "I afraid of no ghosts!" In the film's final moments, Ernie Hudson shows up as Patty's Uncle Bill, the undertaker whom she borrowed the hearse to use as the Ecto-1. And, finally, during a mid-credits sequence, Sigourney Weaver shows up as Dr. Rebecca Gorin, mentor to Holtzmann, while discussing a rough prototype for a containment unit.
I'm sorry, but I loved these cameos and had an ear-to-ear grin the entire time they were on-screen! With each cameo, the actors appear to be having a blast in their scenes and I, for one, was grateful that they weren't presented as their original characters training/hiring a new team of 'busters and literally passing the baton -- which would likely have been as forced and painful as it was to write that! Seriously though, how can even the most jaded Ghostbusters fan not enjoy these cameos?
The ghosts themselves are actually kinda cool and, again, reminiscent of something from The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. Most notably, when Rowan takes the form of the ghost from the Ghostbusters logo in the film's climax (yeah, I rolled my eyes when I saw the action figure of Rowan and said "That's stupid that he's the ghost from the logo!"); it works here and is also a nice wink to fans of the cartoon series, where we saw this character walking down the street, be-bopping and dancing to the theme song during the opening credits. Of course, Slimer shows up, too and again, I had the biggest smile on my face! Early on, when I read that Slimer has a girlfriend, female version of himself in this movie, my eyes rolled so far into the back of my head, it's a wonder I can still see. However, it works . . . Slimer steals the Ecto-1 from the team and proceeds on a joyride through the city, picking up a crew of ghosts and his love interest, who looks suspiciously like Mandy Pepperidge from Animal House -- perhaps a subtle wink and nod to John Belushi as well? Again, only the stoniest of hearts wouldn't be able to at least chuckle or smirk at this.
The main cast itself is great; Wiig is perfect as Erin, portraying her with a bit of a stick up her butt, though still displaying that trademark humor and comic-timing she's known for. McCarthy is great, too, and not as typical "Melissa McCarthy" as the audience would expect; there was only really one scene that felt like it could have been out of any other one of her films, as she tries out some new equipment and winds up being thrown all over an alleyway. Also, at her most "McCarthy", there's a running gag with the Chinese food delivery guy where she rants and raves at him about her order in a fashion and improve tone you'd expect from her. All in all, though, she was actually pretty level-headed and anchored the estranged friendship between Abby and Erin. McKinnon steals the entire movie though; seriously...every single time she's on-screen or says something, it made me smirk, chuckle, grin, and laugh. Her enthusiasm for the role and the material is so infectious that she just brings so much joy to the film. If anything, the trailers and promotional material sort of do McKinnon a disservice, almost portraying Holtzmann as someone who's trying to be cool, when in the film's reality, she IS cool as hell and one of the most likable characters!
Jones is great as well as Patty; the trailers also doing her a disservice by portraying her character as "the black girl", that ramps up a few stereotypes and, honestly, hurts the film. Patty is a great character and Jones brought her all to the role. Much like Winston Zeddemore in the previous films, Patty is the civilian of the group, who the non-scholar audience can identify with. Her dialogue and reactions to several sequences seemed pretty plausible for someone like you or me! And, I'd be doing Jones a disservice as well if I didn't comment on the recent rash of online attacks she's been facing because of this film; that shit is completely uncalled for and nothing more than the sentiment of a few, narrow-minded individuals who are upset that someone made another Ghostbusters movie and it wasn't "right" to their hopeless fanboy specifications. To prove how narrow-minded they are (and their hopes for a "true" sequel), they resorted racial hatred and disgusting online attacks. Stay classy nerds...
Also along for the ride and flexing his comedic muscles is Chris Hemsworth. Known to most audiences as the Asgardian god of thunder himself, Thor, in the Avengers films, he can come off as a serious, beefcake action hero. Here, Hemsworth very nearly steals the show out from under McKinnon as he displays hilarious comic-timing and some great physical comedy bits! In the role of the villainous Rowan, Neil Casey is good, if not a little Scooby-Dooish and cartoonish, but I think it works here just fine.
For me though, Ghostbusters (2016) wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, as I had a few problems with the film . . .
- the pointless cover of Ray Parker Jr's "Ghostbusters" by Fall Out Boy and Missy Elliot. Not only does the original song actually play at the start of the film, this cover only pops up during a brief montage and, I think, over the credits. In a world where compilation albums akin to Now That's What I Call Music are disguised as movie soundtracks bent on wringing every last dollar from the audience, this is a song that feels so completely forced and full of set-up failure. Missy Elliot's rapping over the track pales in comparison to the similarly forced version of the theme by Run-DMC from Ghostbusters II. At its best, the song will be a hit with "the kids" today (for those of them who still know who Fall Out Boy and Missy Elliot are) and, at its worst, it'll perfectly cement Ghostbusters (2016) to this time period.
- The trailers really, truly hurt this film in every way imaginable. They made the film look like a stereotypical Paul Feig directed, Melissa McCarthy starring, Kristen Wiig written (yes, I know she didn't write this) zany comedy with pseudo gross-out humor and ridiculous CGI-physical comedy gags...but with ghosts and under the Ghostbusters brand. They failed to garner much interest for me initially because, well, I've already seen Bridesmaids, Spy, and The Heat and I've seen Melissa McCarthy get thrown around the living room by a hide-a-bed in a couch in The Boss and hit by a car in Tammy. Surprisingly, there was very little of Feig's trademark style/humor in Ghostbusters (2016), but when it cropped up -- such a the scenes where the team is confronted by a community college Dean and the Mayor of New York and it feels like Feig let the cast improvise their dialogue -- it worked.
- The whole villain plot with Rowan felt forced and too gimmicky and, although I hate to use this analogy again, it felt way too Scooby Doo-ish. The original film didn't need to have a central villain orchestrating the entire plot, with Gozer only showing up in the last reel an no one complained. This one didn't need Rowan acting like the sort of antagonist you'd find in a cheapo comic book film.
Another fun element to this film was the various gadgets and weapons that Holtzmann came up with throughout; I'll admit, I was a bit skeptical in the trailers, seeing her with two handgun versions of the proton packs . . . but, within the film and knowing her character, they worked and were a refreshing bit of "wow factor". In fact, if this had been a traditional sequel with the original cast or if these weapons had been introduced in a video game based on the original movies, fans would be raving about them.
All in all, Ghostbusters (2016) worked for me. It invested me in its characters and made me want to see more of them, so it's a shame that, as of now, the planned sequel has been scrapped -- especially since the film more than sets things up for a proper sequel. Is it the third, proper Ghostbusters film that fans have been clamoring for for decades? Of course not, because those impossible expectations are difficult to meet. Did I have a good time with it? Absolutely. Hey, it could have been worse . . . Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Jonah Hill could have been involved, with the team being stoners and cracking dick jokes for 2hrs.
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Oh wait, there's one other elephant in the room that I forgot to address: female Ghostbusters. Holy Hell did the internet lose its collective mind over this small, seemingly insignificant factor in Ghostbusters (2016)! I went into the film with a completely 100% open mind and enjoyed it. Lots of headlines and articles paint the film as some sort of Girl Power reboot, making the gender swap one of the key points to the film . . . sure, yes, this is a film with a Ghostbusters team that happens to be all female, but I don't think it's quite as on the nose and over the head as naysayers and critics would lead one to believe. It'd be one thing if the characters were female versions of the original film's heroes -- Patricia Venkman, Rayanne Stanz, Egon (er, what IS the female equivalent to the name Egon?) Spengler, and Winnie Zeddemore -- than I could understand the term "gender swap". However, this film is more or less a sequel (though it's not really clear if it's set in the same universe as the original movies and the cartoon) that just happens to be a different team of 'busters...who happen to be of the female persuasion.
Guys . . . big deal! Really, it wasn't worth getting all worked up about. Again, with an open mind, I had a lot of fun with this film. was it "perfect"? No, of course not...but when is a film "perfect"? Was does that even mean? When is a film "done"? Nevermind... Come on boys, where is this vehement hatred for all things of the opposite sex coming from? Your childhoods are not ruined because there are suddenly female Ghostbusters -- hell, I'll bet you even had one of the Janine Melnitz figures from The Real Ghostbusters, didn't you? Seriously though, of all the things to get worked up over and dedicate time and energy to, we chose to be upset about a movie and down-voting its trailer on Youtube? From the moment I sat down to watch the film, I didn't see any gender barriers or identifiers . . . they were just simply Ghostbusters. FFS man!
1 comment:
Not a fan. Only great GHOSTBUSTERS pictures are I and II.
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