Review of Ghostbusters (2016) by Steve W — 17 Jan 2019

All this movie shows is that a studio can take the skin of something much loved, hang it over the bare minimum of a script, and then stuff it out with product placement, cameos that don't really make sense, and embarrassingly clunky attempts at extended universe building.

The movie seemed to spend equal time waggling its eyebrows about the Ghostbusters brand in a vain attempt to sell me the familiar, and taking big post-ironic dumps on that same brand. It felt like I was being made fun of for liking Ghostbusters while at the same time being asked to contribute to the cost of making a Ghostbusters movie.

This film was deeply lazy, utterly transparent, and a shameful waste of proven talent. The comedic highlight was the queef joke. That was great. I really think that I wouldn't judge any other run-of-the-mill popcorn flick as harshly, but it was insisted that this film was important.

In that context, and in the context of robbing the grave of a far superior movie, I give this a lower score than I otherwise would. Sony- you took something everyone loved, and you were careless with it.