Here’s the bottom line: I laughed watching GHOSTBUSTERS…a lot. It’s as funny a movie as we’ve come to expect from director and co-writer (with his THE HEAT writer Katie Dippold) Paul Feig and his constant partner in comedy, Melissa McCarthy. I’m bending my brain to figure out what else really matters. You are either laughing because most of the jokes are landing, or you’re not (of course, you actually have to see the film for either of those things to take place, but that’s another issue). What’s even more impressive is that the funniest jokes have nothing to do with referencing the 1984 original. I’d even go so far as to say that most of said references land with a dull splat, and I’m most definitely including the cameos by most of the original film’s cast.
This version of GHOSTBUSTERS is actually strong enough to stand on its own, but films like JURASSIC WORLD and STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS have made it necessary to lean heavily on callbacks to up the familiarity quotient for moviegoers. I like that Feig and Dippold have at least done more of a sprinkling of references (liberally, I’ll admit) rather than create modern versions of entire sequences from the original film. Beyond the cameos (Murray’s is the only one worth half a damn), you might recognize a couple of the ghosts, but rather than simply drop them in, they find ways to expand these newer takes on the apparitions. I particularly love the way the familiar logo comes to life and becomes a primary nemesis for the new, all-female team.
If there’s one overall aspect to the ’84 GHOSTBUSTERS that Feig repeats to a tee, it’s that he sketches and fleshes out his characters in such a way that we genuinely care about them and their collective fate. It’s not like we’re actually afraid someone is going to die, but we want to see the team be taken seriously and be given credit for saving New York City (assuming they do). There’s a strange subplot involving the mayor of New York (Andy Garcia) and his minions (including an assistant, played by Cecily Strong, and two government agents—Matt Walsh and Michael Kenneth Williams) wanting to keep the city from panicking by denying ghosts have been responsible for a rash of mayhem and general scariness, and while they are grateful to the Ghostbusters for their work, they are forced to paint them as quacks. That seems unnecessary and, in this age of everyone filming everything, kind of impossible to pull off.
The set up for GHOSTBUSTERS is fun as well. Former paranormal expert Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) is on the verge of making tenure at her prestigious university when she is approached about a book she wrote years earlier with former friend and colleague Abby Yates (McCarthy). Wanting to keep her crackpot past behind her, she agrees to investigate a supposedly haunted mansion if Yates agrees to stop reprinting the book, but it turns out they encounter a major ghost phenomenon, and Erin rediscovers her love for this branch of science. To round out the team, Yates is already working with a nuclear engineer, Jillian Holtzmann (SNL’s Kate McKinnon), who becomes the group’s expert in capturing and disposing of ghosts. They are joined by subway worker Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones, also on SNL), whose expertise is the city’s history and layout, both above and below ground.
So much of what makes GHOSTBUSTERS work is that it acknowledges the fact that each of these lead characters grew up being something of an outcast because of their love of the strange and unconventional. Erin saw a ghost when she was younger, and people made fun of her throughout her childhood because she admitted it. So for her, this team is about getting credit. Abby and Jillian work in a field that is rarely taken seriously, so for them, the teasing never really stopped. Patty is the most confident of the bunch, but by working for the city, she’s used to being overlooked or seen as part of the furniture. This supernatural outbreak is their chance to shine and be taken seriously, and in the process form a friendship that is bound by seeking the truth.
Of course, the film also soars when it gets as silly as possible. I’m guessing that 95 percent (a conservative estimate) of the people that like this film will place Kate McKinnon on the top of their list of the reasons why. Her nutty-professor random utterances, complete disregard for the safety of anyone (including herself) while using nuclear-fueled weapons, and no-filter approach to life in general are unlike anything in any previous GHOSTBUSTERS movie or most movies made in recent memory. She’s lightning out of the bottle, fed into a proton pack, and shot into the audience for maximum shocks and giggles. And I’ll give McCarthy credit for recognizing the talent around her and not attempting to play to the back rows as she often does. She’s a generous comic actor who let’s the funny people around her shine for the betterment of the film.
I should also mention that Chris Hemsworth does a fine job as the brain-dead receptionist who barely knows how to answer a phone or take a message. He’s objectified and drooled over by Erin especially, and if this bothers the men in the audience, too damn bad. Hemsworth’s improvised moments of beefcake dumb are exceptional and long overdue.
All of Feig’s most recent films have been female-driven, comedic takes on traditionally male-oriented genres. With BRIDESMAIDS, he gave us his version of the man-child movies of his good friend Judd Apatow; in THE HEAT, he tackled the buddy-cop film; and SPY placed McCarthy in the middle of a James Bond-like espionage thriller, with great action sequences. Although GHOSTBUSTERS is clearly a reboot at its core, it’s fairly clear to me that it’s Feig’s funny horror film, complete with dazzling and often quite scary ghosts There are actual frightening moments here, including an opening scene at the previously mentioned mansion, with “Silicon Valley’s” Zach Woods getting the crap scared out of him, literally.
The film has its down spots as well, especially in the weirdly laugh-free section of the film between when the team thinks they’ve defeated a bad guy (Neil Casey) who has been planting devices around the city to enhance paranormal activity, and the moment they realize they haven’t. I know many people have complained about GHOSTBUSTERS’ “villain problem,” but I think they’re missing the point that Casey isn’t meant to be the real bad guy; he’s just a stepping stone to who his ghost eventually inhabits during the film’s explosive and vibrant final battle. That version of this villain works just fine.
And that’s my take. If you already know you have no plans to see this film, I’m not sure why you’ve read this far. I’m not here to defend GHOSTBUSTERS; I’m simply here to lay out the pros and cons like I do with every movie. I’ll leave the bigger-picture issues surrounding this film to others. And while I could certainly write a couple thousand words on why this film isn’t as bad as you’ve presumed it would be for the better part of a year, I’ll simply leave you by saying that Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters is a really good movie that I could easily and happily sit through again and again, much like I have with the filmmaker’s other works.
