Ghostbusters

It is with a heavy heart that I cannot give a thumbs up to the new and highly anticipated (by me) Ghostbusters. For those of you living under rocks, Ghostbusters has been rebooted with all the gender roles reversed (except for the Mayor of NYC). In this new film, Kristin Wiig is Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy is Dan Aykroyd, Kate McKinnon is Harold Ramis, Leslie Jones is Ernie Hudson, and Chris Hemsworth (aka Thor) is the secretary (Annie Potts). They have reversed gender but not race so Jones and Hudson are both African-American. Even though Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis et al. were amazing, the new cast is great too. The SNL connection is still strong. Aykroyd and Murray were on SNL back in the day as were/are Kristin Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon. The casting for the new Ghostbusters is perfect. I like Wiig and McCarthy a lot from previous movies, and I instantly liked McKinnon, who I hadn't seen before (ok I don't watch SNL anymore).

There are cameos by all the surviving Ghostbusters, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson, as well as Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver, oh, and the the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Daniel Ramis, the son of Harold Ramis does appear. Harold Ramis is missed, not just because he died and can't do a cameo, but in the writing or lack thereof in the new Ghostbusters. The original Ghostbusters was written by Ramis and Aykroyd. Reboots are always problematic because they will be compared to the original, and in this case the original is pretty damn good. Ghostbusters had great comic actors, a really funny script, and some snappy directing by Ivan Reitman. There are several lines that I still quote regularly in conversation, "Don't cross the streams." "When someone asks you if you are a god, you say yes!" "Generally, you don't see that kind of behavior in a major appliance." and my favorite quote of all time, "Cats and dogs living together!"

The new Ghostbusters has a great comic cast, but it leans very heavily on physical gags and is quite light on the brilliant repartee. The plot is a bit vague. It is more like Ghostbusters II in that there is an actual bad guy (Neil Casey), who is creating the paranormal emergency. Not that Zuul wasn't the baddest dude ever. BTW, Zuul does get mentioned in the new movie, but you have to wait for the scene at the end of the credits which indicates that a sequel is planned. Speaking of the credits, they are dominated by Chris Hemsworth, who plays the role-reversed secretary.  The writers and director seem to think that the only significant male character in this movie is the funniest thing in the movie. It's a bit creepy actually.

Where was I? Oh ya, the plot is a bit vague and tends to wander. There are some strange directorial choices. The last scene of the movie is a cameo by Ernie Hudson which ends things on a very weird note.  The new Ghostbusters only actually catch one ghost and then they let him go. And I hate to say it, but it isn't very funny. I don't think I laughed out loud once, ok once, but that was during Dan Aykroyd's cameo. The CGI is obviously better than in the original but there is no need to see this movie in 3D. With the exception of a little slime coming out of the screen they don't make much use of it.

Besides all the cameos, the hearse and the fire station return unchanged. Although, for most of the movie they are living above an ethnic takeout restaurant which is the source of several vaguely racist and extremely unfunny scenes. It was great to see the backpacks and have them "light 'em up." And there are some scenes that play homage to the original like one with Wiig that is reminiscent of Rick Moranis' scene where he is banging on the window of the restaurant. They also have a meeting with the Mayor of New York (Andy Garcia), which is much less dramatic than in the original.

I was really looking forward to the new Ghostbusters. I wanted to love this movie but I didn't. Oh well. Back off man. I'm a Scientist!