I've got a bone to pick with this new GHOSTBUSTERS! Now that I've seen it I can't seem to get the theme song by living legend RAY PARKER JR. out of my head! This has been going on for days. Help! Besides that valid gripe, I'd say this newfangled GHOSTBUSTERS is my favorite GHOSTBUSTERS movie of the three. In fact, I think new GHOSTBUSTERS makes the original GHOSTBUSTERS look like GHOSTBUSTERS 2. It's like some guardian angel knew my secret assessment of the first movie was, "Needs more ANNIE POTTS!' and totally ran with that concept. I've heard it through the whine-vine that some folks were upset about this movie being made before they even saw it but as it turns out, those people are exactly the same people whose opinions I care nothing about! That really worked out for me. While all the mouth-breathing (STRANGER THINGS shout-out!!) fan boys were busy throwing fits, I was reserving my energy so that I could fight with Aunt John over who got to be BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD in PS3's LEGO JURRASIC WORLD.
I'm not even trying to be contrary here or raddle anyone's cage. I think all four of the women in GHOSTBUSTERS are hilarious. I can't believe anyone would ever even present a spurious debate about whether women are funny. That is an insult to all the times I had to set my VCR to record SCTV as a kid. Sure, I loved every SCTV cast member but CATHERINE O'HARA and ANDREA MARTIN absolutely killed me and they still do. I can say the same thing for RADNER, CURTAINand NEWMAN on SNL and don't even get me started on the cast of MADTV because we'll be here all day (but special shout out to MO COLLINS). I know haters have other complaints involving the purity of the franchise and their oh so noble remake fatigue but I feel like I already heard all that noise when that THE THING prequel came out in 2011. I'm so glad I didn't let that nonsense curdle my experience with that flick because warts and all, I love it oh so much. If anyone should be mad it's me cuz these bellyachers are always jeopardizing my chances for sequels. Damn, I could be watching THE THING 2 or THE THING: GLOBAL CONTAGION right now!
Just so you don't think I'm overcompensating with praise, I'll throw a couple nitpicks onto the fire. I did find fault in the fact that there are not one but two scenes involving the heroes trying out new gadgets. The second one is superfluous and feels like an out of place toy commercial. Also my Jessica Fletcher detection skills are telling me that a spellbinding dance number featuring CHRIS HEMSWORTH was deemed not worthy to be included in its entirety and that hurts me, that hurts me deeply. But outside those quibbles this flick is borderline intoxicating. There's a scene in the climax in which the ladies throw down some impressively elaborate and electrifying ghost-busting as the music swells and it feels about ten times more rousing than anything in the original two. Whenever the flick stresses the value of loyalty in friendship it feels genuine and earned but its most powerful (and supremely fitting) message involves the importance of standing by what you believe in and not allowing the snide opinions of others to sway you from accomplishing your goals.
Feel free to take my opinion with a grain of salt. It's not like I ‘m a huge GHOSTBUSTERS mega fan in the first place. I certainly liked the first films well enough and I have zero problem spending as much time with BILL MURRAY as humanly possible (SCROOGED & WHAT ABOUT BOB? forever!) but there were a lot more interesting movies vying for my attention back in 1984 (like STREETS OF FIRE and HEAVENLY BODIES for example). Maybe I was a little too old to get the full fan frenzy? I have never in my life tasted a Hi-C Ecto cooler and I have zero plans to change that. Plus truth told, I enjoy the Filmation GHOSTBUSTERS cartoon way better than the "real" GHOSTBUSTERS version (OMG Tina's mom, SUSAN BLU from FRIDAY THE 13TH part VII is the voice of Belfry the bat! I love that guy and all his cousins!). In any case, if being a "real" fan means being a "real" stick in the mud you can count me out. This new GHOSTBUSTERS is a good time. It's fun. It made me laugh. It yanked me right out of the now nightmarish world we live in and set me down in a place where I could not wait to see what happened next. It's a cinematic snow cone and it does exactly what you want a summer movie to do. I can't help it! Busting makes me feel good! Oh no, that song is back…
I adored this movie. Also,if there is any justice in the world,the parade scene will go down in history as one of the best set-pieces of all time.
I enjoyed the movie- it might have been funnier but the ghost FX were very good with some effective use of 3-D- Chris Hemsworth should do more comedies- and I agree that his big dance number should at least show up as an extra on the DVD
We're playing Lego Jurassic Park World as well! Right now, we're on Jurassic Park 3.
Dr. Ian Malcolm has been my favorite. Lego Batman 3 is also pretty fun!
Yoshi's Woolly World( if you play Wii U), is also one of my favorite 2 player games, so much fun!
I'm currently watching all episodes of Millennium, so I'll have to catch Ghostbusters soon, thanks for the great review.
Why don't I comment more often? I've been reading this site for ages and it's always brilliant!
Anywayz, I really liked Ghostbusters, too! It felt a little clumsy to start with but soon found its (own) feet. And what Unkle Lancifer says at the end is exactly why I enjoyed it so much – it was a real (rare?) treat to have pure popcorn fun for two hours, that made me completely forget the horrors of real life – which is something I think we all need right now. Phew, ease up already 2016!
I enjoyed it quite a bit, as well.
Holtzman is my new favorite thing. I enjoyed McKinnon's performance so much.
I was afraid I wasn't going to like the cgi ghosts, but because of the style, I liked them just fine. The regular ghosts were nice and colorful, and the stylized ones (parade floats) were fun.
I do think that the people who want to think that this is a man-hating, feminist movie will use Hemsworth's character to prove their point. I think he was fun, and agree he should do more comedy, but the character was super, super dumb. I mean, I've known plenty of dumb people, but not that dumb.