Ghostbusters Reboot

Times gives it 4/5:

Who you gonna call? The new Ghostbusters is a rollicking, funny delight that stays true to the spirit of the original

The new, bigger, bustier Ghostbusters is a rollickingly funny delight, paying homage to the classic film but rebooting it with four female protagonists who have the same laconic, ironic wit as the original men.

The supernatural exterminator franchise is in the safe hands of the director Paul Feig, who previously launched the comic combo of Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig in Bridesmaids.

These two are joined in the unfortunate orange-is-the-new-grey overalls and proton backpacks by Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. Like Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis from the 1984 original, the women set up as rogue parapsychologists out to prove that ghosts exist, and soon find that New York is experiencing as many pop-up apparitions as it has pop-up designer restaurants. It’s not long before Wiig, who plays the physicist Erin Gilbert, is covered in projectile-vomit green slime. She takes it like a woman: “Gets in every crack. Very hard to wash off.”

McCarthy is Abby, a paranormal researcher who initially teams up with the engineer Jillian Holtzmann played by McKinnon, who is the best new big-screen find here. McKinnon hails from Saturday Night Live and has a funny bone in every part of her skeleton: she plays the goggle and bovver-boot wearing geek engineer — and might become rather a hot lesbian pin-up in this role. In a sliming scene, she just keeps messily eating Pringles: “Try saying no to salty parabolas,” she says. The wit here is different, less boom-boom and more va-voom, and tailored by Katie Dippold (who wrote the McCarthy comedies The Heat and Spy) to each of her characters. Jones plays the transport worker Patty who joins the team, tackles a gruesome electrocuted prisoner apparition in a subway station, and when he splats off into the Queens-bound express she says knowingly: “He’ll be the third scariest thing on that train.”

Our imperturbable crew are joined by Chris Hemsworth, who plays Kevin, the traditional thick secretary role created by Annie Potts in the first movie (she also has a cameo here). As the bespectacled Kevin arrives for his interview, Erin takes one look at his pulchritude and says: “You’re hired.” The constant turning of the feminist tables is an instant franchise refresher.

The stars of the originals have come to pay homage: Murray appears in a cameo as Dr Martin Hess, a “famed paranormal debunker”, and Aykroyd drives a taxi. Sigourney Weaver is in the credit sequence and there’s also a cameo from Ozzy Osbourne at a demon-haunted death-metal concert.

Occasionally the ectoplasmic fight sequences drag on, but every time ECTO-1, the souped-up hearse, takes to the roads to the rousing Ghostbusters’ anthem, you want to shout: “You go, girls!”

Ghostbusters is released today
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Our imperturbable crew are joined by Chris Hemsworth, who plays Kevin, the traditional thick secretary role created by Annie Potts in the first movie (she also has a cameo here). As the bespectacled Kevin arrives for his interview, Erin takes one look at his pulchritude and says: “You’re hired.” The constant turning of the feminist tables is an instant franchise refresher.
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seems the right sort of sexism is allowed to be championed.
 
Uncle Petey said:
Tbh Raymond, you seem to generally get on well with these kind of comedies, so you'll probably be alright with it.
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I didn't like Bridesmaids that much...but I've booked it for a showing tonight so will report back. If it aren't for Limitless I wouldn't have bothered.
 
I suspect we're seeing Sony pull out all the stops for this one and the critics will rate it a little above average and say as many nice things as they can, and actual people will rate it much lower.
 
Meanwhile on Reddit...

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As much as we're dumping on it in here, that reddit thing is ridiculous.

Also, lol at the use of 'pulchritude' in the Times review. Dude, step away from the thesaurus.
 
Maybe it's alright after all then.

Not sure why people would be unhappy about that - surely we all want a decent Ghostbusters film?!

Need to fire the trailer guy, though.
 
Okay, I am back.

Biggest screen in the cinema, practically empty. I had the best seat in the house, dead centre, 3/4 of the way up ! I even saw it in 3D (the only showing on for after work hours and the 3D works)

Anyway, the movie. I should preface that by saying that I have seen the original, I like it, I am not a super fan like some but I do think it is a good movie.

Did I enjoy this new one? In short, yes I did. It made me smile on a few occasions. The story is similar to the original with a slight twist, the characters are quite well drawn I think, both Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy's character has history and there are some nice cameos in the movie which alway brought a smile when they come up.

The humour is not 100% slapstick but not dry like the original, it is where I think this movie stumbles, it doesn't know where to tread. It is somewhere in the middle, sometimes it is slapstick, a lot of the times actually and sometimes it is dry and that can be hit and miss.

But I would say going in with a low expectation helps, it won't set your world on fire, it won't replace the original, it isn't as good as the original, it's just a slightly different modern take on it which passes 2 hours.

Which brings me to my own test, i didn't look at my watch once.
 
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Yeah its pretty good. Plot is drab but there's enough gags in there. McKinnon and Hemsworth are the standouts, particularly the latter when he's introduced...
 
I watched the original on sky movies last night, no matter the reviews I don't want to warch this, I loved the originals so will happily stay in that bubble :p
 
I actually think the script is ok, the cast is good but the direction lets it down, I think if someone like Edgar Wright directed it, it would've been better.
 
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