Ghosts of past just add to the comedy

To a child of the 1980s like myself, this is a movie that shouldn’t exist. The original 1984 actioncomedy is one of that era’s kidult classics, along with Gremlins, Back to the Future, The Goonies, E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Films that should never be remade.

And yet, Paul Feig and his quartet of female Ghostbusters have won me over. They’ve somehow managed to tune into the feelgood vibe of the original and yet also give it a 21st century makeover and convincing gender switch.

As well as making full use of three decades of visual effects progression, they’ve also managed to iron out some of the Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis’s screenplay’s narrative kinks.

Gone is the convoluted ‘‘keymaster’’ and ‘‘gatekeeper’’ scenario and absent is the vital plot point about not ‘‘crossing the streams’’ (a device which launched a thousand boys’ bathroom gags).

Instead, Gotham’s ghostly infestation is the result of one man’s attempts to bring on the fourth cataclysm (our villain and his sketchy motives being perhaps this film’s weakest point), a storyline more akin to the muchderided Ghostbusters 2.

But to be honest, this Ghostbusters’ strength is in its characters.

And despite all the online haters (addressed directly at one point in the movie) during the production’s rocky road to cinemas, the central quintet are uniformly brilliant.

Melissa McCarthy (Spy) delivers her best cinematic performance so far, Kristen Wigg (Bridesmaids) is an engagingly awkward presence, while Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon display why they’re regular fixtures on Saturday Night Live, the latter threatening to steal the whole shebang as the deliciously unhinged nuclear engineer Jillian Holtzmann.

She’s actually rivalled in that honour by a surprisingly hilarious Chris Hemsworth (Thor), whose portrayal of the paranormal investigators’ ‘‘big dumb dude’’ of a secretary (whose pronouncements include suggesting that an aquarium is a ‘‘submarine for fish’’) will definitely make you see him in a new light.

Throw in a cadre of cameos from the original cast, as well as the likes of Andy Garcia, Charles Dance and Ed Begley Jnr, and clever riffs on and nods to the progenitor and other Hollywood blockbusters, and you have this big budget season’s first real surprise.

Just cover your ears when they play the new version of the theme song.

Ghostbusters’ new awesome foursome successfully battle the twin spectres of New York’s undead and the online haters in a surprisingly witty ‘‘reimagining’’ of the 1984 hit comedy.