Produced by Ivan Reitman, Amy Pascal
Written by Katie Dippold, Paul Feig
Based on Ghostbusters by Ivan Reitman,
Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis
Directed by Paul Feig
Starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig,
Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Charles Dance,
Michael Kenneth Williams, Chris Hemsworth
I came,
I saw,
It kicked my ass.
*cue Huey Lewis and the News… I mean Ray Parker Jr. music.*
Who am I going to call?
Kate McKinnon. The breakout performer in a rather pedestrian remake of a relatively good 80’s comedy about three scientists, and a guy looking for a job, who fight ghosts.
I am going on the record as saying I don’t think Ghostbusters (1984) is as great as everyone else thinks it is. I know there are people out there who revere this film and love it. Hell, I revere a lot of films just not this one.
Yes, I enjoyed it when it came out. It didn’t “WOW” me, though. I would rather watch Caddyshack, Meatballs, Trading Places and/or National Lampoon’s Vacatioxi rather than the original Ghostbusters. And I don’t even really acknowledge that there is even a second Ghostbusters film other than the performance by Peter MacNicol which was amazing and he walked away with that whole film.
That being said, I went into this new film hoping for the best knowing I have seen the original and I knew this wan’t going to be that film, for better or for worse.
The new Ghostbusters film, while slightly entertaining here and there, is much like the SNL sketches that spawned most of its co-stars. Occasionally, a chuckle or funny moment between long periods of either “What the hell is going on?” or sections so boring I debated about pulling out my iPhone and seeing if there were Pokemans to catch in the lobby.
Basically, the film as a whole was really not necessary and plays out like badly tuned piano playing a mediocre piece of music. What I was hoping for was a film as entertaining as the original with maybe a new take on it to make it fresh and new.
I didn’t get that.
Paul Feig, whom I will always love for his creation of the TV show Freaks and Geeks, somehow seems to be “going through the motions” of making a funny film, not really caring about either the source material that came before it or the current movie he is literally making now. In the same breath he is so heavy handed with his attempts at comedy and story that he makes Zack Snider seem like Wes Anderson in his use of subtlety and nuance.
His erratic film making and horrible pacing problems coupled with the bombastic, and over the top comedic stylings of Leslie Jones, whom I love, and Melissa McCarthy, whom I am “meh” about, almost completely overshadow the wonderfully mousy, Kristen Wiig. Her laughs, which are actually pretty funny end up getting lost in the chaos.
However, rising above all the dreck and mediocrity of the film, and really the only performance I thoroughly enjoyed, was that of Kate McKinnon as the slightly off-kilter and beautifully quirky, Jillian Holtzman. I was just talking to my editor and telling him that I have literally not seen her in anything except for this film. I had no idea who she was. I haven’t watched a full episode of SNL in over 25 years.
Looking at her IMDB I have heard some of her voice acting work in Venture Bros and Finding Dory, but nothing stood out at the time. She literally steals this entire film, for what it is worth. Much like MacNicol’s Janosz does in Ghostbusters 2, McKinnon takes every scene from the other three actresses and crushes it.
I would be remiss to not mention the other stand out of this film. Chris Hemsworth is painfully terrible and amazingly brilliant as the dimwitted and narcissistic, Kevin. The wannabe actor cum secretary who is literally the exact opposite of his OG GB counterpart the acerbic Janine, who was perfectly played by actress Annie Potts. He really needs to do more comedy.
As for the rest of the movie, writers Katie Dippold (The Heat, Bridesmaids and MADtv) and Fieg have taken Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis’ script and replaced all the subtle and smart humor that was played out with an almost strategic precision with slapstick, pratfalls, and dialog that is delivered with a sawed off shotgun.
What I do enjoy about the original is the way the four main actors played off each others strengths and weaknesses both as actors and as characters. The combination of Aykroyd’s almost innocent wonder was beautiful countered with Murray’s skepticism and scampiness. Hudson’s straightforward, blue collar charm was perfectly offset with Ramis’ weird nerd eccentricities. The fact they were chasing ghosts just happened to be what they were doing that day and oops, they saved the world.
Here, none of the chemistry works and all the characters seem shoehorned into what ends up being really uncomfortable boots. They are just trying too hard to save the day and prove themselves as Ghostbusters. a perfect example is the “not so inside” jokes in the film where they are reading negative comments about their legitimacy as ghost hunters on a video they posted.
The joke, to me, backfires and takes me out of the film. It really comes off as them conceding to the fact that they are worried that they are not going to be accepted as Ghostbusters and now have to prove to people they can do it and hell to anyone who thinks otherwise. I don’t know if it is because I am aware of all the vitriol and hate the film has received from it’s announcement to its forthcoming release, but it definitely seems like they are both trying really hard to please, while flipping the bird to the naysayers of the film. It just doesn’t work.
Littered with cameos, both original film and Feig regulars, and throwback jokes to the original film this movie SHOULD work.
Well tested comedic director/writer/producer: CHECK
Popular comedians with star power and field tested work under their belts that people like: CHECK
A foolproof story to base your film on: CHECK
An original film loved by millions of fans who are obsessed with the Ghostbusters franchise: CHECK
Wait. “An original film loved by millions of fans who are obsessed with the Ghostbusters franchise… Hmmmm
Here’s the thing. Why did this film have to get remade? It is definitely not a sequel. It nods to the film that came before it. So why remake a film that so many people love? The two camps are this.
Don’t do it. The film is perfect the way it is. We all love it and remember it the way it is, faults and all.
Do it. There is money to be made here! Lets reintroduce “INSERT FILM HERE” to a whole new generation to it while cashing in on the nostalgia of the original for others.
I am going to sort of rehash something I said in my Terminator Genesys review as it is really pertinent here.
Basically, the remake and the remakequel are here to stay. They have been with us since the beginning of film and until there is no more money in it Hollywood will keep doing them.
With the current generation of executives and film makers out there who remember the heyday of the blockbuster kings like Spielberg, Zemeckis, Lucas and Cameron and the industry’s comedic geniuses of Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis, John Landis and John Hughes this new “Third Age of Film Makers” as I called it, are so nostalgic for the films they love they either think they can do it better or they just wish they made them themselves.
So instead of making new and exciting blockbusters of their own the execs and the film makers just churn out inane remakes or sequels. What they don’t seem to realize is that most of these films are a product of the era they were made in, more so than any other era of film making. By remaking them now without the context, they seem hollow and, sure, they are textbook blockbusters but they lack the heart or the passion of the original creators intent.
The new filmmakers are creating passionate facsimiles of films they love. They are still copies, and not very good ones. They are devoid of any real substance because, as Ian Malcolm said of the Jurassic Park scientists “(They) were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”.
They think that they have a “new angle” or can “switch things up” by just changing an aspect of the plot or the gender of characters or the motivation of someone. Much like *SPOILER ALERT* having Kirk die instead of Spock at the end of Star Trek: Into Darknesss or making the new Ghostbusters all women, there is no real tangible reason except the obvious one: Because it is different and unfortunately that reason is not the basis of good film making.
I could digress into an entire article about the lack of woman roles in hollywood films and sexism in Hollywood or the whole misogyny vs misandry debate but this is not my point. That is a whole other article.
I will only say this. If the media has tried to tell me and will keep on trying to teach me one thing it is that all men are idiots and assholes and all women are bitches and overly emotional.
Listen to any commercial, watch any TV show, movie, play. It is there.
The breakthrough films, shows, plays, etc are the ones that either break that mold or embrace it and satirize it to the extreme.
Ghostbusters does not do that at all.
In fact it solidifies these tropes so much you would have thought they came up with the whole shtick themselves. They wind up trapped in some limbo realm, neither here nor there, and not even Holtzman’s janky proton packs or the bad guy’s paranormal enhancement units can save it from this purgatory.
The movie does not fail because of the female cast.
The film does not succeed because it is based on a classic blockbuster comedy.
The film simply exists because someone decided it needed to be remade.
It didn’t.
To be clear, NOT because it is some hallowed untouchable holy thing that should be worshiped and revered but because it is a movie that the people who didn’t like the original aren’t going to go see this new version and the people who love the original aren’t going to go see it either.
Sure some people will see it. Some will love it. The crowd I saw it with liked it enough, they even clapped at the end. It has it’s moments but not enough to save it from itself.
I ain’t afraid of no ghosts but I am afraid of the state Hollywood film making right now and unfortunately Ghostbusters is hoist by it’s own petard.
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