Ghostbusters 2016 is, in the long chain of 80s and 90s remakes and reboots, not a bad movie. It’s not a great movie but it’s a decent to good movie. If Ghostbusters (1984) is a 10 and Ghostbusters 2 is a 1, this is far closer to the pretty brilliant original film than it is to the tedious and plodding Ghostbusters 2.
This is a reboot of the franchise in that it doesn’t take place in a New York that did not experience the events of the first two films. This is an origin story starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthey, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. Of these four ladies, Wiig and McCarthey don’t make a huge impression specifically though that’s good with McCarthey because she’s not doing her usual schtick. They aren’t bad though. Leslie Jones is not the shouty stereotype she appears to be in the awful trailers. Kate McKinnon is pretty hilarious doing whatever weird stuff she seems to be want to do in the movie. Which is basically mugging at the camera, but in a funny, kind of maniacal way.
And that’s one of the big changes in this movie from the original. Ghostbusters 1984 was largely funny based on the dialog… whether it was Murray dead-panning everything or Aykroyd and Ramis playing their nerdy ghost mythology stuff completely serious. This new movie is much more slapstick and over the top. This doesn’t make it bad, but it does place the movie in a more cartoony universe than the original did with its everything-else-is-serious gritty 80s NYC.
But if you can get over that, I’ll say the first 30-40 minutes of this movie are genuinely very funny. I laughed out loud a number of times and had big dumb grin the rest of it. But then the movie’s actual plot takes over and it gets less funny and the end devolves into a great big FX-ridden fight scene that doesn’t even take its nebulous foundation of ghostbusters equipment seriously (the internernal logic of what a proton pack does get chucked out the window and it turns into video game logic). None of this was BAD but when you realize your ghost comedy has just turned into another big action set piece that isn’t funny and doesn’t seem to be trying to be funny, that’s kind of a problem for, you know, a comedy.
That said, Kate McKinnon does get a pretty cool slow mo hero sequence that percolated to the top of the movie’s best scenes within one of its worst.
But, yeah, the strong foundation the movie sets us up with is lost in the second half. Not disastrously so but enough to ratchet down my opinion of the movie quite a bit. And it looks like a lot of the movie was chopped down as there are set-ups for jokes that only pay off during the credits. Maybe it wouldn’t have worked but at least it would have been comedy where it was needed.
Speaking of credits, the credits are worth sitting through. Yes, there are opening, mid, and after credits scenes but the credits are just chock full of little humorous moments and sight-gags. Something is always happening, including the characters on screen interfering with the credit scroll.
And I will make note of the controversy the film has had. A lot of trolls online have been hating on the movie for being feminist and the feminist backlash to the backlash had turned anyone who hates the movie isn’t a misogynist. It’s a terrible environment to open in, especially after the legitimately terrible trailers and the backlash on both sides those caused (me? I thought the trailers were bad because they weren’t funny – no agenda otherwise). This movie barely cares for the controversy only including a few subtle moments that reference the hubub that you wouldn’t notice if you weren’t aware of all the hate. This is also one of the least girl power / feminist movies there is in terms of waving an agenda flag. It’s about four ladies who bust ghosts… not four feminist icons who stick it to the man or the system or whatever. And, yes, it’s also only a decent to good film that doesn’t deserve the hate or the excess love.
Anyhow, that’s the long and short of it. A good enough but very uneven film. Even when it was off the rails, it didn’t bore me and I was moderately engaged through to the end. It’s not good enough nor bad enough… it’s largely just inoffensive and watchable. And one of the better unnecessary remakes in that it’s good at all.
Score: 82