By Melissa Antoinette Garza
While my brother is killing it at FOXWOODS, my husband and I are watching the new GHOSTBUSTERS. Something is seriously wrong with that!
First, all the controversy and ugliness surrounding the production of the film is well-known and I’m going to do my best not to revisit it. I’m simply going to review the movie and give my own opinion on the casting choices, plot and character development.
Full disclosure, I do not understand Kate McKinnon’s success. I hate her over-the-top, borderline racist accents and her unfunny and cringeworthy Hillary Clinton impression. Though there are plenty of other reasons, she was the driving force that made me stop watching Saturday Night Live. That said, to each their own. Obviously, she has a huge fan base.
Kristen Wiig, on the other hand, can be hilarious. She was on SNL with one of the greatest casts and she shined. Her versatility in comedies and dramas alike, generally make her performances stand out. BRIDESMAIDS (2011), THE SKELETON TWINS (2014) and the mock LIFETIME movie A DEADLY ADOPTION (2015) are all fantastic, yet Wiig’s characters are entirely different from one another and all are refreshing.
As for Melissa McCarthy, I like her more than I once did. I never watched MIKE & MOLLY and though I wasn’t crazy for THE BOSS (2016), I saw the potential it had. With a little less improv style comedy, it could have been a more adult and fun variation of TROOP BEVERLY HILLS (1989). Still, there were several moments in the film that revealed her ability as an actress.
Admittedly on SNL, Leslie Jones is generally dreadful, but I’ve learned from her other performances that the show is just bringing her down. From what I had seen prior to giving up on it, the writers seem to be determined to have her discuss weed and express anger and little else. She has great comedic timing, is versatile, and has a bold, feminine and genuine strength that is always with her. When she’s in a film like TRAINWRECK (2015) as the irritated woman driving the subway or when she was on an episode of THE LEAGUE as a stand-up comedian in training , she was awesome. In GHOSTBUSTERS she was the shining star. She portrays the most believable character and delivers her dialogue with sincerity that immediately brings the audience to her side. Whereas the other Ghostbusters were more caricatures, Jones gave Patty depth. There were only two short scenes that Jones couldn’t even save. At one point, Patty did an Oprah impression saying, “you get a car and you get a car,” which was difficult to watch. The other scene is where she slaps a possessed Abby (Melissa McCarthy) and says “the power of pain compels you.” In her defense, neither Gilda Radner or Jean Stapleton could have saved those two minor scenes. Despite those scenes, Jones did phenomenal. I hope she leaves SNL and either gets her own show or stars in more films. If there was any good that came out of this debacle, it showed Leslie Jones does have the IT factor and can carry a film.
There are so many places this movie went wrong and there were some moments where it had a chance to do something really cool. In one scene, a ghost shows up at a concert. Now, this is a reboot of an 80s film, there’s a heavy metal concert and a bat/bird apparition appears. The scene sucked, but if they had protesters outside the concert claiming the music was Satanic and have the ghost be summoned by the music, it would be awesome. Satanic Panic is something every metal fan has fond memories of, especially Ozzy fans (he makes a cameo).
The story is so muddled. I’ll try to make some sense out of it so that you can avoid the mess. Erin (Wiig) believed in ghosts as a child and even as a young adult scientist wrote a book with her best friend Abby (McCarthy). Erin has moved on from the paranormal and is an admired professor close to tenure, at an elite university, when Erin finds out Abby put their old book up on Amazon.
She visits Abby who now works with “crazy” Jillian (McKinnon). Abby agrees to take the book offline if Erin introduces her to Ed (Ed Begley Jr.) who says his museum/200 year old house is haunted. Erin agrees. The three women go there and see a ghost.
Erin gets so excited she does a YOUTUBE video proclaiming “ghosts are real” and she gets fired. She joins Abby and Jillian. Then they meet Patty (Jones) a worker on the NY subway. They get rid of another entity and Patty ends up joining in. Though not a scientist or a paranormal investigator, she knows the city and can get them a car.
They also hire a sexy dimwit named Kevin (Chris Hemsworth) as their secretary.
As for the characters, Jillian is the worst of the worst and not only because I can’t stand McKinnon. The character is less believable than DumbleThor. Kevin (Chris Hemsworth) confuses windows for doors, takes the lenses out of his glasses because they get smudged, and doesn’t know what a bathroom is or where a sink is. He goes from not understanding what the women do to wanting to be a ghostbuster out of nowhere. Still, Kevin has more integrity and sincerity than Jillian’s character.
Jillian’s whole thing is she’s a badass who likes violent things. She likes hearing about people who were killed, she smashes a guitar on stage, acts cool by driving slowly and making Erin run to get into the car and she does all this while talking in a harsh whisper and widening her eyes to convey how crazy she is. That’s not character development. It’s not even characteristics. It’s just a blank outline with a few things written down. For all her supposed badassery, when faced with the ghosts, she’s scared. If you’re going to have a badass and convey it in the cheapest way possible, at least give the audience a payoff. As much as this movie made me love Leslie Jones more, it made me loathe Kate McKinnon and have bad 80s flashbacks of horrible comedians. Seriously, she reminds me of Paula Poundstone. I know Poundstone had fans too, but I hated her and at least I don’t recall her being in any big budget movies.
Erin isn’t as bad as Jillian, but she still lacks character. Wiig puts in some effort, but either she or the powers-that-be didn’t want to put anything remotely heavy into the movie. Even the scene where she gets fired, Erin makes awkward jokes attempting to be nerdy and it just doesn’t resonate with the audience. She could have either been furious with the boss and told him and her colleague/boyfriend off or she could have shown sadness and regret. Instead, we get a lame momentary fight between Erin and Abby.
I get that Erin is initially ashamed of her belief of ghosts and overcomes this. Her arc is when she grows proud of her abilities and intelligence and recognizes her strength. Sadly, it’s just not written that way. The dialogue isn’t there. There are times I see Wiig try to emote, especially when there are articles and TV shows that criticize Erin. Wiig does convey a second or two of melancholy but there’s nothing off-the-wall badass like there should be. Worse, when fighting the ghosts Erin is forced to say “Say hello to my little friend.” It’s cut off but seriously, as my husband said, it’s 2016 and we’re still using that.
Abby is second to Patty as the character with the most realism to her. She is annoying at times and there are scenes that seem as though they are ad-libbed that don’t fly. The scenes, McCarthy has with McKinnon irritate the hell out of me. They try to out-awkward the other and it seems to last forever. The only other scene with Abby that is bad is when the ghost jumps into her and her head spins around. She actually takes Patty down with her. That’s when she yells the dreaded line “the power of pain compels you.”
Come on, there are so many better ways to do that. First, the special effects looked like a B film. Second, it was just a horribly stupid premise. Still, if Abby needed to get possessed for plot related reasons, there are plenty of better ways to do it. My dream scene would have Jillian and Patty watching the conclusion of the 1974 film ABBY which was an EXORCIST (1973) ripoff Patty and Jillian could be poking fun about how fake the film is when they find out their friend Abby is possessed. The duo start paying close attention and try to do exactly what the priest in the film does. When it fails, then Patty would have reason to hit her. When that works, Jillian should be the one to say, “I guess the power of pain compelled her.” Jillian is supposed to be the odd duckling who loves violence and is crazy so that’s something she would say. Patty’s character wouldn’t. Also, having the cult classic ABBY on would’ve been hilarious and seriously, how much would it cost to have used a small clip of it? Skip the Ozzy cameo and you’re there. For movie buffs, they would have appreciated the cleverness of the title matching the character’s name. I would’ve appreciated it anyways. (Watch the film ABBY. It’s the best EXORCIST ripoff)
That said, McCarthy expresses Abby as a strong woman who is ready to fight and is pretty fearless. She’s smart and doesn’t care what people say. She comes out even stronger and McCarthy shows the metamorphosis of the character despite the dialogue being horrible at times.
With the main characters out of the way, let me mention the cameos. They all were awful except Annie Potts and Ernie Hudson. Annie is always great. I love her. As for Ernie Hudson, I’m pretty sure he’s God.
The conclusion is meh. The villain, Rowan (Neil Casey) is the typical bullied guy who feels isolated and hates women. He ends up being a scientific genius who is able to engineer this huge plan by using a method people have doubted. It works and the ghosts are unleashed.
One of the major flaws with the movie is that it was dampened by the controversy and the idiot punks who got off on calling women the C word and raging over female Ghostbusters. I didn’t want to talk about this, but the film forces it. It’s constantly referenced and it unintentionally makes the viewer unable to suspend disbelief. We suddenly think of the idiots who didn’t want women as Ghostbusters. The first joke, I let slide but the whole film was about men degrading women.
Even when the Ghostbusters symbol comes to life it makes a reference to people wanting things as they were before. It was out of left field. Sadly, I think Paul Feig was attempting to be sly and subtle but he bashed the viewers over the head with the premise. His anger and discontent with the morons online, played a big part in ruining the picture.
If Feig wanted to make a point, but wanted it to work, there were a few great ways to do it. If he wanted to have a “boys vs. girls” style film, there were so many opportunities. One my husband mentioned was the fake paranormal TV show crew giving the real Ghostbusters a bad name, playing the core villains. Why not have the paranormal show be mostly men, with one token woman? While networks praise the fake show because of ratings, they only talk trash and poke fun at the female crew and Kevin’s stupidity only fuels the flames. When the ghost attack happens and it’s being filmed for the world to see, it’s the fake boy crew vs the real woman crew.
There were so many lost opportunities. I don’t even think Paul Feig is a bad director. I think he let the naysayers mess with his mind. I get Feig’s anger and the crew being pissed off, but it unfortunately ruined the film and most likely any chance of a sequel.
One major aspect of modern comedies that needs to stop is something I call the Will Ferrell syndrome. It’s the allowance that filmmakers give to their stars to go off script and improvise constantly. Another example is Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. The two women are hilarious, but the movies they do together tank because half of it is the two going back and forth saying the same joke a different way, trying to out-do each other. No one wants to see it. They may find it hilarious, the audience finds it dreadful.
People need to stick to the script. Once in a while if someone improvs something phenomenal, sure keep it, but someone with clout needs to tell these comedians “NO” and “BAD IDEA.”
Otherwise, we have either one person or a group of people saying the same joke 200 different ways, and every single one is kept in the movie. I want to hear a joke once. I love banter between friends, but banter is a fun discussion and different jabs.
A lot of comedies will show the outtakes at the end, and it’s sad to see the failure of the film play out as the actor laughs through lines that would only make a drunk frat boy laugh.
As for GHOSTBUSTERS, I hope there is a sequel. If it were up to me I’d outright replace McKinnon. I suggest Jessica Williams from THE DAILY SHOW, Chelsea Peretti, Natasha Leggero or Anna Kendrick. The list goes on and on as to who would better fit a GHOSTBUSTERS sequel. There are plenty of great comedians who could bring a character to life and would fit great with the other three.
I’d also suggest Kevin having a smaller role or having him replaced. If there’s going to be a male ghostbuster or even secretary, you need one with a little pizazz. Hemsworth is great as Thor, but this character was written poorly and needs to just go away. I picture the male Ghostbuster as one of the women’s cousins who just shows up. No one likes him because he’s a bit cocky and sarcastic. Nonetheless, he’s smart and an asset. This would need someone with a certain arrogant flare. Sam Rockwell would be amazing. Ice Cube, Russell Brand, Giovanni Ribisi, Jason Mantzoukas, or Terrence Howard would be other great choices. For a slightly different direction, Aziz Anari, Kevin Hart or Noel Fielding would all be fantastic options that would add a fun intensity.
If a sequel is made, the most important thing is to make sure that the filmmakers don’t Adam Sandler it. Steer clear of Kevin James, Daniel Tosh, Joe Rogan, etc. Don’t get the sexist scumbag guy who steals the food from the women. Get a man who has a certain level of intellect, but is annoying.
The viewers are thirsty for something that feels real. When you watch the film critics online, the actual viewers, they typically have similar opinions on content. They may disagree on whether a movie is good or bad overall, but the methodology and formula desired is the same. We want a smart, entertaining film with a great plot, good acting and a great cast. It’s simple, but not easy. I get it’s harder than making something like JACK AND JILL (2011), but it’s worth the time and effort.
This is a much longer review than I anticipated, but before I end it, I want to say one last thing. Only morons believe that GHOSTBUSTERS underperformed because of gender! It underperformed because the filmmakers allowed the morons to dictate the course of the movie. There were so many moments added just to poke fun at the idiots. It may have felt good at the time, but it lowered the quality of the film.
It really could’ve been something and I hope SONY gives it another shot with a sequel.
Scared Stiff Rating: 5/10: It’s worth the $2.00 Rental
