I've stayed out of the discussion leading up to the new Ghostbusters movie as much as I could. From my perspective, it quickly became an echo chamber of empty noise. Some people didn't like the idea of a remake. Some or many of them loudly took to the internet with sexist comments (because the internet can be an awful place). In response, countless think-pieces were written saying that anyone not looking forward to the movie was sexiest. That made the people not looking forward to it double down. Then, the entire discussion about the movie turned into a lot of yelling by a small fraction of the population. In short, the internet happened. Frankly, I'm exhausted by both sides of this.
What I heard when this movie was announced was this:
The director of one of the best comedies of the last decade (Bridesmaids) reunites with the stars of that comedy (Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy), takes a franchise that he adores with an extremely adaptable premise (Ghostbusters), and adds two of the strongest performers on SNL (Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon) for a summer blockbuster.My only hesitation was that co-writer/director Paul Feig followed up Bridesmaids with a pair of Melissa McCarthy comedies (The Heat, Spy) that weren't quite as good, and I wasn't sure how he'd handle a more overt action movie with a huge budget. Both were small concerns.
Overall, I'm very impressed.
The biggest point of confusion about the film is going to be the best comparison to make. Whether or not you liked the original Ghostbusters doesn't matter. It's whether or not you've liked past Paul Feig movies that will matter. This film is a tribute to the original. The love for that movie is apparent all throughout this one. But the humor is absolutely Feig's. He isn't aping what the Ramis/Aykroyd script did (of course, there's certain unavoidable beats), although he is acknowledging it.
That's really that last of the 1984 movie I want to mention though. What's important is that this is a wonderful cast. There's a performance for any taste. Wiig plays the straight woman on the surface. Her character is all about her madness escaping through the cracks in the wall of respectability she's tried to build around herself. McCarthy has the familiar Melissa McCarthy role. She's overly confident and very physical. So far, Paul Feig is the only director who knows how to utilize he talents so that she doesn't take over a movie in a bad way. This a great reminder why she got that Oscar nomination for Bridesmaids. McKinnon is just one big weirdo. When I first heard about the casting for the movie, I worried that McKinnon would be redundant with Wiig already there. After all, McKinnon has been used as Wiig's direct replacement on SNL. That didn't end up mattering much. While Wiig is reserved most of the time, McKinnon is just a lunatic all the way through. She ends up with the least characterization and probably the biggest laughs. If nothing else, she has the biggest badass moment in the movie by a factor of 10. It's been fun seeing Leslie Jones grow as a performer. Her background is in standup and that's always been apparent. On SNL she's much more comfortable playing herself than a character. That comes across in the film as well. She has trouble with some of the smaller moments, but blows everything away in the big moments so much that it's an acceptable trade-off. Together, they make a fantastic quartet.
Special mention too goes to Chris Hemsworth for his oddball work as the Ghostbusters' assistant. Every scene of his is layered with total absurdity and he nails it. It's all really stupid humor too, that only works because of the quantity. One gag would be stupid, but five in the same amount of time becomes hilarious. His character isn't essential for any sequels, but I'd really like to see him back.
I've put off getting it's the plot of the movie because it doesn't matter that much. Wiig and McCarthy are childhood friends who had a falling out years ago. They're both experts in paranormal science and get pulled back together when they discover a ghost in a haunted mansion. McKinnon is McCarthy's lab partner and a technical genius. Jones starts as a metro employee but joins after a close encounter with a ghost and offers her extensive knowledge of the city. There's a villain who wants to unleash a bunch of ghosts for some reason. It doesn't really matter, because this is movie a joke machine first and foremost: one that landed way more often than it didn't.
Ghostbusters is a really funny movie. It stars four very funny people with a lot of enjoyable side characters too. It's all-around silly, a lot of fun, capable as an action movie, and really not deserving of all the internet chatter it has received. If you come in with an open mind, it's hard to see how you'd dislike it.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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