The idea of a reboot of Ghostbusters
did not thrill me. When I saw the
commercial it looked gimmicky and screamed “cash-grab.” Still, I went in hoping
for the best from this movie that stared a group of funny women and headed by a
competent comedic director. The movie is
okay but flawed. There are some funny moments that make the film likable but
they are marred by an underwhelming story and poorly written characters.
Dr. Erin Gilbert, played by Kristin Wiig, is a physics
teacher attempting to gain tenure. A former book she published with Dr. Abby
Yates, played by Melissa McCarthy, is causing problems with her credibility.
When Gilbert confronts Yates they team up with engineer Holtzmann, played by
Kate McKinnon, to investigate a haunted mansion. Upon discovery of the ghost,
they work to trap the spiritual entities. Patty Tolan, played by Leslie Jones,
an MTA worker that has witnessed the paranormal first hand, eventually joins
them. Together they must face an evil
nerd who wants to create an undead apocalypse.
In the original film, the Ghostbusters had quirky
personality types that play well against a world that plays it straight through
the film. In the Paul Feig Ghostbusters
world everybody is quirky so the main characters need to be VERY quirky. This
aspect comes off a bit annoying. The character of Holtzmann was painful to
watch. This was disappointing since McKinnon is amazing on SNL. The secretary Kevin,
played by Chris Hemsworth, is hunky and over-the-top stupid. Considering that Ghostbusters has a very strong girl
power message it felt out of place by having Erin drool over the pretty but
incompetent secretary.
The acting was enjoyable. Abby and Erin do their parts well
but the character of Patty was surprisingly good. She was upbeat and the
character was not too intense. The evil nerd that causes all the spiritual
mischief is amusing as well, though his motivation was a bit trite. He is
basically evil because he was picked on. The idea of a vexed, angry geek is a
lot less threating than a Babylonian god. There are many cameos, which
sometimes work well and fit into the plot and other times take you out of the
movie by knocking you on the head as if saying “Remember Ghostbusters!”
As a whole this version of Ghostbusters is okay. It might be worth a rental if you are really
curious. It is not nearly the caliber of the original. It feels a lot more like
an SNL sketch that was stretched for time. It has moments that make it
enjoyable but it still comes off as a gimmicky as a concept as Blues Brothers 2000. If the mood “meh” had a face it might look
like the reboot of Ghostbusters.
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