Movie Review: Ghostbusters

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Ever since it was announced a little over a year ago that director Paul Feig would not only be rebooting the classic 80’s series “Ghostbusters,” but that he’d be doing it with four women, the film has not received the warm welcome that those involved might have hoped for. It’s currently the most disliked trailer in YouTube history and the idea that four women would be donning the famous jumpsuits is one that has been labeled as an “insult” to everything the original franchise stood for. After finally getting to see the film for myself, I can tell you that while having four women take the lead doesn’t hurt the franchise in any way, the film itself isn’t anything to get overly excited about either and is simply just…fine.

Dr. Erin Gilbert (Kristin Wiig) and her longtime friend Dr. Abbey Yates (Melissa McCarthy) attempt to write a book which would set up to prove the existence of the supernatural. When the book winds up being a failure, Yates leaves to take a teaching position at Columbia University. When Yates publishes the book online without Gilbert’s permission years later, Gilbert fears for her reputation and reconnects with Yates to try and convince her to take the book offline. Before anything can happen though, Yates, Gilbert and Yates’ new partner Dr. Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) wind up encountering an actual ghost. When New York City begins to be invaded by a large number of paranormal entities, the three women, along with the help of local citizen Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones), take it upon themselves to try and save the city before it is overrun.

I’ve never been able to understand why the original “Ghostbusters” is considered a “classic.” Sure, it’s funny and has a great cast but it wasn’t really anything special, at least in my opinion. If you watch the movie today it doesn’t really hold up well at all so when I heard they were remaking it I wasn’t that upset about it and I definitely didn’t care that it was going to be rebooted with women. In fact, I thought it was a pretty clever idea and was something different. As I said though, while (most) of the women are great and offer a few well timed comedic moments, the movie itself isn’t anything special and could easily be saved for a Red box rental.

I think my biggest problem with this film was that it really wasn’t all that funny which was disappointing considering the women who were involved in it. A lot of the jokes fall extremely flat and felt really forced. None of them felt original or inventive and some of them were even recycled from the original “Ghostbusters” movie. I felt like the writers of the film were trying too hard to be funny that they didn’t really take the time to think their jokes through. There were multiple times during the movie where I felt like I was watching a number of bad “Saturday Night Live” skits in a row and honestly I think the reason most of the jokes failed so much was because they kind of seemed like they were almost childish, borderline potty humor which I felt like was an insult to the actresses talent and they definitely deserved better material.

Another thing I didn’t quite enjoy about the film were the performances given by Wiig and McCarthy. This especially surprised me because I think both of these women are extremely funny and really good actresses. I’ve seen them in a number of films where they each made me laugh out loud and I even crack up in a lot of their interviews. In this movie though, I felt like they were trying too hard and their performances seemed extremely stiff. Out of the four women in this movie, they were easily the weakest links and I felt like the only time they worked on screen was when they were together with the other women. On one hand, I can blame their failed performance on the writing and the material they were given but, I can’t really feel like I can really do that because somehow everyone else in the movie managed to pull it off. Perhaps maybe the hype was too high for these women and we’ve come to expect nothing but phenomenal work from them so when they fall short of that it shows more than it would for anybody else.

All that being said though, not everything about this film was a total waste. Both Jones and McKinnon give scene stealing performances that had me laughing quite a bit, sometimes even louder than I would like to admit. While their jokes might not have been the funniest, what made them funny was in the way they delivered their lines. It’s obvious they know what it means to have great comedic timing and almost made it look like some form of art. I’ll be honest in saying that up until this movie, I had no idea who these women were and had never seen any of their work. I’m glad though that this way my first introduction to them though because if they can make me laugh with poorly written material, imagine what they’d do to me if I was able to watch them perform in something that was actually really well written and had good quality behind it. If it wasn’t for these two, I honestly feel like the entire Ghostbusters team would have been a complete bust and would have proven all those women hating haters out there right. So props to Jones and McKinnon for stepping up to the plate and delivering solid performances.

As funny as those two were though, the funniest and best thing about this movie is the performance given by Chris Hemsworth as the women’s clueless secretary. This was not only the biggest surprise of the movie, but a surprise in general because I had no idea just how funny Hemsworth could be as an actor. Considering the women he was acting alongside, Hemsworth definitely had his work cut out for him if he expected to stand out on his own and it’s obvious he was wearing his try hard pants while making this movie. From his witty one liners, physical comedy, and will timed delivery of his jokes, he had me laughing every time he was on screen and he alone is worth rewatching this movie. The movie definitely plays up using his looks as an onscreen joke and it works really well and the only time Wiig ever really made me laugh was when she drooling over Hemsworth and his charming good looks and well-toned physique. Considering this was supposed to be a film that put women in the spotlight and was out to prove that they can be “just as funny as men,” I found it kind of ironic that the funniest performance in this film was given by a man…

The “Ghostbusters” reboot had a lot of potential to be something great but sadly it falls just a little too short. The CGI is decent, the cast is great, and the original Ghostbusters even make some well-timed cameos but, when it comes down to it, the movie is nothing special. The bottom line, if you’re looking for a nice way to kill an hour and a half of your time and want to see Hemsworth like you’ve never him then this is a good way to spend a hot summer afternoon. However, if you chose to wait until it’s available on DVD you won’t be missing out on much.

-keithariaz1@gmail.com