Review of Ghostbusters (2016) by Allan C — 21 Apr 2018

Reboots and remakes are tricky. Do you remain faithful to the source material, which then begs the question, why remake/reboot the film if it's already been done? Gus Van Sant's shot-by-shot remake of "Psycho" took this notion to the extreme, which I believe that was the point of Van Sant's remake.

Filmmakers rebooting/remaking classics are left in unenviable either changing beloved iconic films, which often offends fan sensibilities, or remain slavishly loyal to the original source material, leaving little reason for the remake/reboot's very existence.

The Ghostbusters reboot tried to do something new and found the ire of many fans. Sadly, a lot of those online fans turned out to be misogynistic trolls who hated this film simply because of it's all female Ghostbuster cast, but that's a pretty ridiculous reason to hate on this film.

Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones are incredibly talented comedians and deserve enormous respect for carrying this film. What I disappointed me about the the Ghostbusters reboot was that the script was not all that funny and it also lacked the funhouse scares of the original (you know, where it's actually scary in parts, even though it's a comedy).

I think this film also suffered because the audience already knew the origin story, so watching the team figuring out how to use their proton packs and traps really didn't have the gee whiz fun of the original.

Another element that made the original so fun was the great use of location shooting around New York City. This reboot is also set in the Big Apple, but doesn't make use of NYC nearly as well until the film's climax in Times Square.

Generally speaking, this felt like a watered down version of the original, not unlike an inferior TV series pilot for a TV show version of a popular movie. But the film does have it's pluses, which primarily are the four leads, solid special effects, and fun cameos by the three of the original Ghostbuster team, Murray, Akroyd, and Hudson (Harold Ramos has sadly since passed away).

Overall, the likability of the cast and the strong production values make this worth watching, even if the material if vastly inferior to the original.