Like a parody of the original
Directed by: Paul Feig
Written by: Kattie Dippold, Paul Feig
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon
The Josh Chop: I’m gonna start off by saying I couldn’t wait for this film to come out! I was so excited despite the naysayers that claimed that the only true Ghostbusters were the men from the original film. After seeing the trailer, I put my usual feelings about reboots aside and was pretty pumped about this. Most reboots have me rolling my eyes, because they keep with the same story-line and don’t even really bother to make it an original. This film did just that and took the original concept and made it into its own. More like a parody of the original if you ask me.
The film begins in an old mansion with a tour guide telling the tale of the history of the family that owned the mansion and its somewhat eerie past. Soon we discover that it’s really just a boring old house and the guide uses prop tricks to make the house seem possibly haunted. At the end of the night, at closing time, there seems to be some paranormal shift and what once was fiction turns into a haunted reality! It’s a great scene to start the film which shows that ghosts are being released into our world from the other side.
We meet Dr. Erin Gilbert (Wiig) and find that she is days away from receiving tenure at the college where she is a professor. Unfortunately this is about the only time where you see her on her own where you get to see her personality as an individual. (I’ll explain more later) Erin seems to be so nervous and worked up all the time its hard to imagine she got as far as she did to reach a chance at tenure. She is visited by Ed Mulgrave (Ed Begley Jr.) whom the aforementioned mansion belongs to. He pleads with Erin to help him rid the mansion of his ghost problem. Erin can’t seem to understand why he came to her until he mentions that he found the book she co-wrote about ghosts and the paranormal. Furious, she storms off to visit the other co-author whom had promised to never release the book for sale.
We now meet Dr. Abby Yates (McCarthy) and Jillian Holtzman (McKinnon) both brilliant in their work and both completely obsessed with ghosts. So much so that they actively work to create devices to help see, hear, and capture ghosts. Yates and Holtzman seem to be like the two friends who are so much alike when they are together that its almost annoying (and it is). When Erin explains why she’s there and demands that Abby remove the book sales from online, Abby and Jillian are now thrilled to go see what’s afoot at the Mulgrave Mansion. Soon they are all met with, yes a REAL ghost and now Erin, Abby, and Jillian team up to find more ghosts and help people rid their homes/buildings/venues of ghosts.
They all find a place to set up office above an old Chinese food restaurant and decide to hire a receptionist to help answer phones and help with day to day reception of clients. In comes Kevin (Chris Hemsworth) a tall blonde muscular hottie, the only applicant for the job. While Erin, Abby, and Jillian drool over him during the interview it becomes quite clear that this guy is a total idiot. I mean DUMB. So dumb it’s not even funny. It was almost pathetic watching scenes with Kevin in them. I found myself absolutely cringing to have to watch the stupidity come from Kevin.
At this time is when we start to see some of the personalities of the team come out. The humor that these ladies possess really falls flat in the film. I found myself reminded of a weird uncle who does stupid dances and acts silly to make you laugh all the while you just laugh so he’ll stop.
Its not until a good 40-45 minutes into the film that we meet our final Ghostbuster: Patty (Leslie Jones), a lighthearted transit worker in the NYC subway. It’s her encounter with a ghost on the tracks that brings her to meet the rest of the crew and return with them to try to capture their first ghost to keep for proof to the rest of the world. It’s soon discovered that someone, or something, is placing devices around the city that somehow creates portals in which malevolent ghosts can come through into our world. Can the Ghostbusters come together to save themselves and the city from evil forces and hundreds of released ghosts? You can find out, when you see the film. (Probably on DVD)
The strongest thing this film had going for it was the CGI graphics. They really did an amazing job with the ghosts to make them seem real while maintaining the ethereal aura that would make a ghost seem unreal. One of the fun things I enjoyed was seeing cameos from all of our old pals from the original. Other than that, I really felt that the writers didn’t really show that this team was living in 2016.
For example: there is a scene where one of the team members has to contact the others to warn them about impending destruction and she calls the office phone with no answer. Does she text them? No. Does she call their cell phones? Nope. Kinda seemed silly to me. They really didn’t bring the film into 2016 which was kind of odd to me.
My last qualm with the film (and I could go on and on) was that there really wasn’t any individuality shown in the film for more than two minutes. I was let down that we never got to see Abby or Jillian alone to see how they act when they aren’t in front of each other trying to make each other laugh. I really hoped that the actors would create a character that was memorable and funny like the originals did, but for me, it wasn’t there.
All in all, the film was meh. The graphics were great and some parts were fun, but overall I left the theater feeling deflated as I really had high hopes for the film. I’d love to hear your reaction to the film, and maybe you can help me see the light. Or maybe I’ll hear from you in a few months after it comes out on DVD.
