Director: Paul Feig (The Heat, Bridesmaids, Spy) Writers: Paul Feig, Katie Dippold (The Heat, Parks and Recreation) Starring: Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones
Paranormal researcher Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) and physicist Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) are trying to prove that ghosts exist in modern society. When strange apparitions appear in Manhattan, Gilbert and Yates turn to engineer Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) for help. Also joining the team is Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones), a lifelong New Yorker who knows the city inside and out. Armed with proton packs and plenty of attitude, the four women prepare for an epic battle as more than 1,000 mischievous ghouls descend on Times Square.
Rotten Tomatoes: 75% Certified Fresh
Critics Consensus: Ghostbusters does an impressive job of standing on its own as a freewheeling, marvelously cast supernatural comedy -- even if it can't help but pale somewhat in comparison with the classic original. Metacritic: 61
Melissa McCarthy, Kristin Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones make a formidable comic team in their own right - though McKinnon steals the show as oddball physics geek Holtzmann (the Egon, if you will).
Sara Stewart, New York Times
These characters might even be more fun to watch in a movie that wasn't as beholden to its source. I'm saying I want a sequel, and maybe you should too. This one's pretty good. But it had a chance to be great.
Ty Burr, Boston Globe
After setting up the slightly revised premise, though, the movie pretty conspicuously runs out of gas about halfway through, yielding lapses where it doesn't scare up much of anything, most notably laughter.
Brian Lowry, CNN
I got more excited when folks said that it kinda feels like the cartoon. I'm totally down with that. They said that about the new TMNT movie, only this one is actually made by a decent filmmaking team.
I got more excited when folks said that it kinda feels like the cartoon. I'm totally down with that. They said that about the new TMNT movie, only this one is actually made by a decent filmmaking team.
Not a big fan, but I can appreciate more than the FOB one. On a side note, I'm incredibly happy they started the credits with the Walk The Moon cover, rather than ending the film on the FOB one.
Not a big fan, but I can appreciate more than the FOB one. On a side note, I'm incredibly happy they started the credits with the Walk The Moon cover, rather than ending the film on the FOB one.
It starts shite, gets really funny when they introduce Patty and Kevin (as in laughing out loud almost constantly for a half an hour), then slowly tails off to shite again with a few really funny lines mixed in. The action is totally inept and the whole thing (with one notable, Macy's parade-based exception) looks very garish and synthetic.
I'd give it a high ** or a low ***, can't decide. The cast are great fun, all distinct characters (with development!), not aping the original actors. The callbacks to the original films actively cheapen the enterprise by serving to remind you of something superior, and I wish they weren't there.
A sequel, now that the fanwank is out of the way, would be something I'd be interested in.
Oh, and the trailers are very misrepresentative; Patty is given an excellent context for her "street smarts", as they were so heavily derided, and some of the crasser lines and gags from the previews are cut down or put into a context that makes them less egregious.
-If you take it on its own it's a decent film
-Doesn't have the same feel as the Ramis ghostbuster films
-The music sucks
-The villain sucks
-McKinnon's great
-When they go serious it's really good, but they do it waaay too infrequently.
-Pretty funny, but in a distinctly feigy style
I came back from seeing it. I must say it's not nearly as bad as the trailers made it out to be, but it's still not great in my humble opinion.
I gotta say I love the cast, I think they had good chemistry and most of the jokes worked of each and every one of them very well. Chris Hemsworth has probably given one of the best performances in his career so far, it showed that he has a knack for comedic roles. I thought I was gonna hate Melissa McCarthy in this, but she won me over.I'm glad Leslie Jones gave in a good funny performance because the trailer showed the bad gags involving her. While not every joke in the movie works, the ones that work, work very well.
However the movie does suffer from pacing issues in the middle and I think they spend way too much time on the technobabble rather than spending on plot and jokes, even though there is a smart set up in revolving a knife that I won't spoil. There are many nodes to the original and to be completely honest, they seem rather forced. Like there is one scene where
Abby (McArthy's character) says "who you're gonna call?" and a TV add right next to her says something like "Ghostdusters!" or something very similar,
it just feels inorganic and the movie would have been better without them. And BTW, there is a
female slimer
in the movie which I thought was weird. But the biggest drawback so far is that the villain is weak and very uninteresting, they tried to make him look like he shared a lot with the Ghostbusters, but it feels half-baked and his overall motivations for doing what he did just feels uninspired.
Overall, I thought the movie was not bad, it's not great either but it's at least worth a watch.
Going to see it tonight with 7 other people and I AM SO EXCITED. I've been waiting for this goddamn movie to come out for almost 2 friggin' years! ...Though sometimes it feels like a lot longer...
