Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with some thoughts on Paul Feig's GHOSTBUSTERS. And those thoughts are complicated. It'll be clear to most that this movie isn't a home run, but there are certain aspects of it that are so damn perfect that you can't just dismiss the whole thing as a failure.
One of my biggest reservations with the movie was the foundation concept of doing a straight up remake instead of some kind of continuation. I have zero problem with the new cast and even if the original team didn't show up at all I think making it a continuation would have untied their hands a bit creatively so the movie didn't have to twist itself into knots to hit certain fan service beats and plot points.
Ghostbusters 2016 is at its best when it's not trying to remind you of the other movie. The only times that works in this film's favor is when they subvert expectations. Andy Garcia's Mayor character gets the best in terms of taking what you expect from that role and twisting it a little bit. He doesn't need convincing that ghosts are real, he just doesn't want the publicity.
Chris Hemsworth also gets to play with his image a little bit as an inversion of the “dumb blonde” stereotype. There are some legitimately brilliant gags with his character, who is so loveably stupid that you can't help but want to hear the next dumb thing that comes out of his mouth. There's a joke involving his glasses that still makes me chuckle a day later.
All the new leads are good, too. I buy them as a team and they have the heart and the funny to back it up. Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig don't get to go full on, which is when they're at their best as comedians, because they have to ground the team. Leslie Jones is ill-tempered and Kate McKinnon is pretty much on another planet, so there's got to be a couple straight laced characters in the mix or everything would just go nuts.
Speaking of McKinnon, she's going to be a fucking superstar after this movie comes out. Her Jillian Holtzmann is off her damn rocker and that unpredictability makes her absolutely magnetic in every scene she's in. She's got a little bit of Ray's enthusiasm and a lot of Egon's nerdy weirdness going on.
The reason I like the team so much is that they're not concerned about making direct “___” is Ray and “___” is Egon and “____” is Venkmann riffs. The Force Awakens did a good job of giving us new characters that had elements of the archetypes you loved in the original while not straight up reskinning the characters you already know. Same is true here.
I think McCarthy gets the short shrift a bit since she has to be the sincere one. We get a few scenes, mostly involving Deadpool's Karan Soni's delivery guy, Bennie, where she's the smart ass we know and love, but she's pretty calm from what we expect from her.
Since the core group works so well I found myself trying to forgive some of the lesser aspects of the movie, particularly the big bad guy's evil scheme. Neil Casey is the human villain here and he plays it so hammy it makes Peter MacNicol's turn as the Vigo worshipping creeper in Ghostbusters II look subtle in comparison.
The core concept of there being a mystery to solve at the center of the story is a good one. There are devices placed around New York that pull spirits through. Who is making them and why? But that's not really something the movie's concerned about. They're more an excuse to say why suddenly there are ghosts all over the city instead of making it part of the journey of the main characters.
Casey isn't given enough to do to make his character any less of a cartoon than the ghosts he's trying to bring over.
Speaking of the ghosts, there are a whole host of spooks, which is good. Lots of crazy designs and monster spirits, not just the humanoid ones featured in the first trailer, but they all look the same. By that, I mean they are almost all the same shades of blue and purple and when a ton of them hit the streets there's no real sense of awe, just a lot of business going on. I miss the different personalities of the original films. Slimer became a fan favorite, but I loved touches like the decaying cab driver.
We do get plenty of variety, but they're all painted with the same CG glowy effect so they kind of all meld together.
Another aspect we should talk about: The Music. The needle drops are okay (except for that awful Fallout Boy cover of the Ghostbusters song), but Theodore Shapiro's score is big and fun and tips its hat at Elmer Bernstein's original score and the first movie just enough to stir up those happy nostalgic feelings, but not so much that you're constantly reminded of other movies.
The movie's a mixed bag. Some gags are great, some fall flat on their faces. I'd say this is easily Paul Feig's worst movie (from this era of his career), but that's only because it felt like he was shackled too tightly to the original films. It doesn't feel like it grabs the same kind of easy coherence as Spy or Bridesmaids because he's not allowed to let go.
That's another decision that isn't happy for me, but might be for the new generation. The movie's way more family friendly than the original Ghostbusters. Don't get me wrong, Ghostbusters '84 is definitely a good movie for kids (ghost BJ or no) and one we all loved, but this one is stripped down even more to be less scary and more basic in its humor. Ow, they hit that ghost in the balls!
What we're left with is a movie that I'm decidedly mixed on. The leads work, the team dynamic is cool. I just hope that if they make a second one they feel freer to evolve into their own thing. Given the stinger at the end of the credits I'd say that might be a fool's hope, but it's a hope nonetheless.
One more thing before I wrap this up: most of the cameos from the original cast a little eye-rolling, but cute enough. I'd say how they work in a very subtle nod to Harold Ramis was my favorite. A lot of people at my screening didn't even catch it, but keep your eyes peeled during an early scene with Charles Dance and Kristen Wiig.
Anyway, those are my mixed-positive thoughts. It's a mess, but it's far from a shit-show and I'd recommend it to most people just for Hemsworth and McKinnon by themselves.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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