By Geno McGahee
In 1984, GHOSTBUSTERS was released and became a huge hit and it was only a matter of time before a remake or reboot would happen. In 2016, the reboot was released and it didn’t do the business or leave the impression that they had hoped for and there were many reasons for it. The top complaint seemed to be the casting with the all-male cast being replaced by an all-female cast, but there were bigger issues than casting.
Erin (Kristen Wiig) is a college professor hoping for tenure , but she has a past she’d like to hide. Years before, she co-wrote a book about the paranormal with her old friend, Abby (Melissa McCarthy), and it has the potential to ruin her aspirations. She goes to visit Abby and her partner, Jillian (Kate McKinnon), and this is where the biggest problem is on display.
Kate McKinnon is not a comedian. She has no clue. She has this whole “look at me, I’m being funny,” thing that Adam Sandler does from time to time, and it never works. It’s never funny. McKinnon apparently thinks that making funny voices and faces will make the crowd laugh, but it doesn’t work on SNL and didn’t work here. Wiig and McCarthy both have great talent and can be very funny and we see it here at times.
After being fired, Erin decides to team up with her old pal and her friend to create this incarnation of the Ghostbusters. They hire a secretary named Kevin, played by Chris Hemsworth, and I heard a lot of negative things about him in this. I thought he was one of the funniest parts of the film. He is an intellectually challenged guy and they add some funny moments to make it work. Every time there’s a loud noise, he covers his eyes. That was pretty funny.
Erin, Abby and Jillian get a new team member with subway employee, Patty, played by Leslie Jones. Jones really does well in this role and adds to the team with her one-liners. There still isn’t much to work with here as far as a comedic screenplay, but Jones, McCarthy and Wiig are using every tool in their toolbox to make it work.
The Ghostbusters are dealing with a lot of paranormal activity and there is a reason why. Rowan (Neil Casey) is a man that is sick of being bullied and wants to release all of the ghosts on the city and destroy all the people that were cruel to him over the years. He becomes aware of the Ghostbusters and the war has begun and so as the really bad CGI, which is another issue we have here.
Watching GHOSTBUSTERS, I kept thinking about the SCOOBY DOO live action movies with the CGI. It’s the same complaint that most people have about modern films compared to classic films that used practical effects, but the CGI in the 2016 GHOSTBUSTERS wasn’t very good and the film is loaded with it. They really wanted to make this action-packed and they did, but much of it feels green screen with the actors not having anything to work off of.
The film is nearly 2 hours and it runs out of steam less than half way through. It’s easy to see why this is the ignored entry in the GHOSTBUSTERS series and it has nothing to do with the casting as much as it has to do with the mediocre screenplay. There is so much over explanation and wasted time in this film and the jokes linger.
The good outweighs the bad here and the film isn’t an insult to the 1984 film, but it does nothing to stand out and is not a foundation for a sequel. I only recommend it if you loved GHOSTBUSTERS and are curious to see what they do with the source material. Other than that, it’s not worth two hours of your time.
