ghostbusters
DIRECTOR: Paul Feig
CAST: Melissa McCarthy, Kirsten Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth
CLASSIFICATION: PG
RUNNING TIME: 116 minutes
RATING: 3 stars (out of 5)
Theresa Smith
THIS good-natured reboot of the ’80s film is a middle finger to internet trolls who can’t stand the fact that movies are not made with just them in mind. Guess what guys? It’s not for you.
Very much a family film for the now, it gives the kids a contemporary context and adults dollops of nostalgia.
It mines all of the paranormal bits from the old film, finds a way to reference familiar characters and then sets loose a quartet of funny women, turning it into an entertaining homage as much as a franchise reboot. This is its crowning glory as much as its Achilles’ heel – the references are amusing, but the comparisons are inevitable.
We have seen the story before – it is just that the enjoyable thing here is, we have not seen it with women leading the way before.
Special effects being much more advanced now, the scope is huge, so why redo the same imagery, like Slimer in a car or the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in exactly the same place? The jokes are funny but scattershot, and seem more the result of the comediennes giving the scriptwriter ideas than necessarily organically flowing from the story.
The film starts with two friends meeting again over some paranormal occurrences. Uptight professor seeking tenure, Erin Gilbert (Wiig), wants her scientist friend, Abby Yates (McCarthy), to remove her name from a co-authored book on the paranormal. Please. But, all concerns with what the world thinks of her fall by the wayside when they have their first real – because it was recorded and put on YouTube – encounter with a ghost.
As the two throw around scientific terms, Abby’s lab assistant, Jillian Holtzmann (McKinnon), smacks together ever more sophisticated contraptions for catching said ghosts and Jones becomes the fourth hunter of ghosts because her Patty Tolan has a car.
By the time we get to the big showdown in Times Square, the women have donned practical boiler suits because no sane scientist chases slimy ghosts in twinkly leotards and it not only makes sense and works, but you don’t even think about what they are wearing because you are simply watching the story.
As it should be.
If you liked 21 Jump Street being rebooted, you will like this.