Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Go See Ghostbusters! It’s Awesome!
At long last, the new Ghostbusters reboot is out. As a kid who loved the original, and is a fan of the four comedians who star in this reboot, I had high hopes. (Although I lowered my expectations after the abysmal first trailer.) While I didn’t want to skew my first viewing by reading reviews ahead of time, I heard they were terrible.
Well, I have just come from watching the movie and I and pleased to report that it is great!
It’s important to know going in that while it’s based on an existing property, this is a reboot, not a remake. So while the general story is the same (four people come together in New York City to fight ghosts) and the logo is the same, this is a wholly new story, not dependent on the previous ones. There are cameos sprinkled in (of actors and ghosts), and there are some echoes and callbacks, but this movie stands on its own.
As of this writing, the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 74 percent fresh rating from the critics (which is largely positive). The audience rating is 50 percent good. There’s a reason for that. If you look at the audience reviews, they’re either five stars or half a star (which indicates a divisive film). All the negative reviews are along the lines of “This movie is terrible! How dare you reboot Ghostbusters! You raped my childhood!” But those who took the film on its own merits gave it positive reviews.
And that’s what I suggest you do. Let go of other people’s baggage, let go your own expectations, and just enjoy the movie. As you might expect when you combine four excellent comedic actors, Kristin Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, and Leslie Jones, and let them do what they’re good at, you get a movie that’s both funny and joyous. The latter quality being one missing from far too many movies lately.
It’s also a movie that you can take your kids to. The MPAA gave it a rating of PG-13 for “supernatural action and crude humor.” (They fight ghosts and there’s a small bout of toilet humor.) This movie might have one or two bad words, but other than some light flirtation, it was devoid of sexual content; ditto for drug references. All I can say is that kids might be frightened, because there are some spooky ghosts.
But that’s part of the fun, right?
Published in Entertainment
I recall seeing the original in a theater and saying, “This is going to be big.”
Good to know, Fred. Thanks. Maybe I’ll go see it on the big screen instead of waiting for the DVD.
I can’t believe it: Fred Cole sells out to the man.
I’m old enough that it was hardly my childhood.
I have a policy of not watching a reboot of any properties; I’ll admit I’ve probably violated it at some point, but not that I can recall.
Edit: Right, the new(ish) Planet of the Apes. I can see why I didn’t remember that at first.
Fess up now, how much were you paid for this ?
Pardon?
** shudder **
Just having fun with you, Fred.
I’ll still wait for it to come on Netflix, I won’t be able to enjoy it basically because I also think they are messing with perfection. Plus I think those actresses are overrated
Really, you’ve never seen You’ve Got Mail? or Scarface?
I was waffling on whether to see it. The second trailer actually looked pretty good, but the SJW marketing, especially allegations of Sony censoring substantive critics while promoting misogynist critics, turned me off.
I’m pretty sure Fred is not an SJW, so I’ll consider this a mark in the movie’s favor.
If you pay money to see an American movie, you’re funding the leftwing hate machine. Steal it if you must, but don’t pay to see it. It’s not socially responsible.
I have not. Although I hadn’t heard that either of those were rebooted.
Both of those are remakes of earlier films. It would probably surprise you how many movies, even old movies are remakes of earlier movies. John Wayne even remade his own movie with Rio Lobo and El Dorado basically remakes of Rio Bravo. Several iconic western movies are adaptations of japanese samurai movies. Its not always a bad thing. Admittedly its not always a good thing either.
As for Ghostbusters, I watched the new one last night. It was pretty good. I liked the original better. I think the original actors/comedians were better at being funny while playing it pretty straight, and the new comediennes/actresses don’t have the same style. Also I thought there seems to be a difference in New York in the movies. Admittedly I’ve never been to NYC, but one of the sub-jokes of the original was that NYC was already a weird place with a lot of quirkiness. You don’t get that in the new movie because NYC is a whole different place now. That being said, there were some very funny scenes in the new movie, and it was an enjoyable movie.
For my purposes at least, a “reboot” is different from a “remake” in that the former consists of taking the specific property and making a new movie with it, such as Planet of the Apes, Total Recall, Psycho, or for the John Wayne example, True Grit. I’m not particularly worried about a new movie taking a story from an existing movie, but I do get annoyed when they do it using the same name.
You all laugh at Fred, but when Ricochet gets its first “Pull Quote” on a movie poster, he’ll get the last laugh.
The new Grit was awful. And it was almost a shot for shot remake. The original was fairly faithful to the original material except it didn’t use Mattie Ross as narrator or the stupid scene with the guy in the bear skin.
The Hollywood leftist media loved it because it gave them the chance to trash the original and it’s star.
Ha! I’m just now listening to one of the negative Youtube videos about it.
I think I’ll start calling it New Grit to distinguish it.
I read some reviews from non-leftist sources that praised it, but I’ve not seen it and I think I’m good with that.
Personally I really liked New Grit. It’s been a long time since I saw the original, and I still need to read the actual novel, but I thought the new one was very well-directed and acted (stellar performance by the actress playing Mattie).
According to my dad, the new one, “doesn’t have Glenn Campbell,” and that alone makes it better.
I am a born and raised New Yorker and yes NYC in the 80’s is different from now’ that is a really good observation actually regarding the old movie. I never thought of that but. It’s true
Did we see the same new True Grit? It was not a shot for shot remake, the new one was more loyal to the source material, and the guy in the bear skin was awesome.
My son saw it yesterday and told me “Dad, it’s basically raging against the Patriarchy, only with proton packs”.
Well if you’re gonna rage against the Patriarchy might as well do it with proton packs.
It sucked.
BitTorrent is your friend.
When she didn’t get Best Supporting Actress, the Academy should have been arrested for screwing a minor.
Well there was $35 and 2 hours of my life wasted. We saw it at the drive in as part of a 2 movie feature. About 20 minutes in people started driving off, skipping the rest of the movie and the second movie also. I hung around waiting for the good part the Fred talked about to happen. I am home now and still waiting on that good part. Maybe it is in the sequel?