Movie Review - Ghostbusters (2016)

I have kept an open mind about an all female Ghostbusters since I first heard news of this film and I still kept it even if the trailers it had weren't very good. Having now seen the film, I was right to keep an open mind. Haters are going to hate things like this, its just the way the world works. But when a new idea of an all ready well established franchise comes to mind, not everyone going to take kindly to it (even some of my personal friends are being haters). But just because the trailers make it look like a bad film, it doesn't mean its going to be bad and let's be honest, the trailers are there to advertise the film and it should in no way, make you feel forced to love or hate it even before seeing it. Some of us are even catching on to the fact that some trailers are showing the entire film in just under 5 minutes and I don't think the film makers or studios are aware of this. But let's bear in mind that some female driven films and TV shows have done well. Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Orange is the New Black, Bridesmaids, The Hunger Games films just to name a few. Its also an idea that has been used many times before with DC and Marvel teams and even The Expendables (though I am aware that film isn't out yet). But there will be those that will protect their childhood and their favourite franchises until the day they die. But enough ranting, let's bust some ghosts because busting makes me feel good:

Acting as a female reboot to the film series while also giving Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Bill Murray, Annie Potts and Ernie Hudson some cameo roles (all coming from the original films and playing different characters), we meet Dr. Erin Gilbert (played by former SNL star Kristen Wig) and Dr. Abby Yates (played by Feig's most frequent collaborator Melissa McCarthy) who are the co-authors of a book which goes on the idea of ghosts and paranormal activities being real. With the book's unpopularity, this leads the two professors as it were to distance themselves with Gilbert becoming a teacher at the Columbia University (ironic because the film was distributed by Columbia Pictures) and Yates teaming up with Dr. Jillian Holtzmann (played by Kate McKinnon who I find surprisingly attractive in some way) at a technical college to continue researching paranormal activities. Years pass and the trio team up to investigate a paranormal presence in a mansion/museum of sorts on the condition that the book gets out of publication. Years of research have come to an end when they discover a ghost there and upon hearing of other paranormal activities in the New York area, they begin to form a team and hire Kevin Beckman (played by Thor, Chris Hemsworth) to be their receptionist and Patty Tolan (played by Leslie Jones, no relation) to be the 4th member in their team because of her knowledge of the New York area. But as things start to go their way, something lurking in the shadows prepares for unleashing something that could very well destroy New York and the world as we know it.

So let's talk about the things bad about the film. There is some toilet humour (though thankfully not as many as in your typical Adam Sandler film), some people in denial and acting like for lack of a better word d****bags in light of the real ghostly activities, Hemsworth looks to be just in the film for the eye candy and moments where the film tries to have you take it seriously with messages in the credits and it tries to be Marvel in that it packs in a handful of post and mid credits scenes and has a mix of good and bad variations of the Ghostbusters theme with a sample of the original and best one too. With that out of the way, let's talk about the good things. I think everyone acts their parts well, it shows that anyone regardless of age, gender, race and sexuality can be Ghostbusters and its not always a man's job. Despite the toilet humour there are some good jokes here and there and in addition to the cameos, it also gives us a good nostalgia fix when we see Slimer, the Marshmallow Man, the Ecto-2 (I think that's what its called), the original fire house HQ (which we only see twice in the film) and others and as a good touch, it pays tribute to the late Harold Ramis who was one of the original Ghostbusters. So overall, while its not a masterpiece by any means, its a good film and certainly one where haters may actually be surprised by how it turned out. 7/10