Ghostbusters
New ‘busters battle hauntings and haters
More than 30 years after Murray and company made a certified silver screen classic, Ghostbusters has been brought back from the dead for Hollywood’s latest reboot – but unlike certain other recent revivals *cough* Ben-Hur *cough* this comeback definitely makes us feel good.
Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones are the new stars stepping into the overalls of New York’s finest paranormal investigators. Like the classic ’84 original, it’s an origin story, as newbies band together to stop a mad scientist breaking the barrier between our world and the deadly ghost dimension – though expect more than a few tweaks to the first film’s formula if you think this is just a straight line-for-line reshoot.
It’s a film that unquestionably has its problems – unfunny and intrusive cameos, a generic, borderline terrible shoot-’em-up showdown, a story that can’t match the iconic original – but the pros are far greater than its cons. Chris Hemsworth’s thicko receptionist and all four main cast members are hilarious, there’s heart and pathos in the relationship between Erin (Wiig) and Abby (McCarthy), and Kate McKinnon is so stupidly entertaining as Holtzman practically everything she does has already been turned into a gif and shared across the internet. Plus: very special effects.
2016 didn’t deliver many better blockbusterbudget genre movies, and even though it’s guilty of a few pancakeflat jokes it’s one of the year’s funnier efforts thanks to the direction of Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy, The Office) and writing of Katie Dippold (The Heat, Parks & Recreation). Far from a bust. Jordan Farley