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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
It was ridiculous that she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in the first place. She’s clearly the protagonist and lead (or at least co-lead) performance of the film.
Astonishing. This must be the most dichotomous vote yet for a movie on IMDB. Note the average: 4.5 out of 10 (with 20,677 votes). Here’s the breakdown:
And definitely far more popular amongst the ladies:
The especially low average would be because on IMDB voting is dominated by males. More women should vote.
Incidentally, when I see such split votes, I normally eliminate the 1s and the 10s and choose the mode from what remains, which would make this 7/10, or perhaps 7.5 given that 7 and 8 get similar numbers.
Agreed.
Third
What’s a “drive in?” (Just kidding. Didn’t think there were any left.)
Why two photos of Fred?
I’m too busy waiting for the Louisa May Alcott festival where Little Women is performed by all men and Little Men is performed by all women.
Dirk Benedict is a rather conservative guy. “…during the Reagan era and Mr T played Santa at the Whitehouse for two Christmases in a row. He was the only black man I know who voted Republican. We were all conservatives on (The A-Team), which was unusual for Hollywood.”
I personally remember doing a survey in middle school about what everyone’s favorite television show was. Most of the respondents were boys. Half the respondents said, “The A-Team.” Nothing else seemed to get more than one or two votes.
I wonder if Fred or anyone else has ever read Dirk Benedict’s article “Lost in Castration” after they decided to turn Starbuck into a female.
“Once upon a time, in what used to be a far away land called Hollywood but is now a state of mind and everywhere, a young actor was handed a script and asked to bring to life a character called Starbuck. … The ‘Suits’ (Network Executives) hated it. A cigar (fumerello) smoker? The Suits hated it. A reluctant hero who found humour in the bleakest of situations? The Suits hated it. All this negative feedback convinced me I was on the right track. Starbuck was meant to be a loveable rogue. It was best for the show, best for the character and the best that I could do. The Suits didn’t think so. ‘One more cigar and he’s fired,’ they told Glen Larson, the creator of the show.
(cont.2)
… ‘We want Starbuck to appeal to the female audience for crying out loud!’ … ‘If Dirk doesn’t quit playing every scene with a girl like he wants to get her in bed, he’s fired!’ … Treating women like ‘sex objects’. I thought it was flirting. Never mind. They wouldn’t have it.
…women from all over the world sent me boxes of cigars, phone numbers, dinner requests, marriage proposals… The Suits were not impressed. … Starbuck however, would not stay cancelled, but simply morphed into another flirting, cigar-smoking, blatant heterosexual called Faceman… 40 years of feminism have taken their toll. The war against masculinity has been won.
…Witness the ‘re-imagined’ Battlestar Galactica. It’s bleak, miserable, despairing, angry and confused. … One would assume. Indeed, let us not say who are the guys and who are the bad. That is being ‘judgemental’. And that kind of (simplistic) thinking went out with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and Katharine Hepburn and John Wayne… (T)he re- imagined terrorists (Cylons) are not mechanical robots void of soul, of sexuality, but rather humanoid six-foot-tall former lingerie models who **** you to death. (Poor old Starbuck, you were imagined to early. Think of the fun you could have had ‘fighting’ with these thong-clad aliens! …
(cont.3)
The male characters, from Adama on down, are confused, weak, and wracked with indecision while the female characters are decisive, bold, angry as hell, puffing cigars (gasp) and not about to take it any more. … Starbuck would go the way of most men in today’s society. Starbuck would become ‘Stardoe’. What the Suits of yesteryear had been incapable of doing to Starbuck 25 years ago was accomplished quicker than you can say orchiectomy.
Because Harvard Business School Technocrats run Hollywood and what Technocrats know is what must be removed from all business is Risk. And I tell you life, real life, is all about risk. I tell you that without risk you have no creativity, no art. I tell you that without risk you have Remakes.
Stardoe is the best Viper Pilot in the Galaxy. And Battlestar Galactica, contrary to what your memory tells you, never existed before the Re-imagination of 2003. I disagree. But perhaps, you had to be there.” — Dirk Benedict, May 2004
What about sequels? Lee Majors did a sequel to High Noon that was .. uhhh …..
I think a lot of the negative votes were put in before the movie even came out. I’m still skeptical of the film’s quality, though. That first trailer was just very, very unfunny. The movie does have 73% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I can’t help but wonder how many critics may have given the film higher marks just because of the whole “If you aren’t excited for the Ghostbusters reboot it’s because you’re a misogynist!” stuff (I’m not accusing Fred Cole of this, btw. I trust that he really legitimately loved the movie).
For what it’s worth, my two favorite youtube film critics, Jeremy Jahns and Chris Stuckman, both said the same thing- basically that the movie’s not terrible, but it’s not good either. Some laughs, but a lot of problems as well. So, meh.
I think we got one of the few left in the country. It has two screen located at 90 degrees from each other. One screen shows kids stuff while the other screen shows more adult stuff.
I try to go at least once a year for nostalgia reasons. Each year it gets seeder and I am sure it will not make another year. Each year it comes back, just a little seedier and a little more worn than last year. I am glad it is still around. I am glad kids still go and it becomes part of them. Of course it may be that the drive in is in my blood. Mother tells me that she started her labor at the drive in and they went to the hospital after the double feature, but that’s a different story.
A thumbs up for a new movie?? Thank you – the choices are terrible – anything with Melissa McCarthy has got to be funny – it is also a good example to not go with on line ratings companies – I wonder who rates them – I’ve seen poor ratings for good movies and visa versa – we need a comedy right now!!
Depends on how necessary the sequel is.
Had they made this Ghostbusters into a sequel, the odds that I would see it would have been considerably higher.
Toadying has its advantages.
Oh hey, yet another positive review with no real substance beyond “it’s funny, go see it.”
74% isn’t really that good, considering how RT rates lukewarm reviews as “Fresh”. More importantly, the Top Critics rating is only 57%, which is very close to the 55% of the user ratings. And again, many of those supposedly “fresh” reviews are rather tepid praise.
My wife read that comment and didn’t get that it was meant as a joke.
I think this will be a slow burn. It won’t gross a ton the first weekend, but as word of mouth get around, people will actually go see if instead of listening to the “You raped my childhood”crowd.
Very slow.
Star Trek and Ice Age are next week.
Then comes Bourne.
Then comes Suicide Squad.
Most of the (good) word-of-mouth I’ve heard goes along the lines of “it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.” Not exactly something that drives people to the theater.
That gave me the idea that:
Not going to see it until MST3K improves it.
It is a tentpole blockbuster designed, apparently, to lose money. The stated budget is $144MM, I’ve seen estimates that push it to $160MM. The marketing budget is unknown, but if it’s less than $100MM, then Sony gets great groupon discounts on commercials.
So let’s say $250MM, conservatively (if you’ll pardon the term). It won’t be shown in China, so that money is out the window. Moreover, the studio gets about half of the domestic take and about 40% of the non-Chinese overseas take.
So this thing has to make $500MM worldwide, conservatively. It’s on track for $45MM this weekend. This is not a sleeper word-of-mouth hit like Bridesmaids, everybody knows about it so the multiplier will be small. Say 3x for domestic.
Now, add that amount for overseas. Remember, this is a comedy (so translation is a problem) and won’t be shown in China. So a 1:1 ratio isn’t unexpected. That’s $360MM.
So it won’t spawn a franchise and Feig will probably not work for Sony for years.
Feig’s humor is awkward, cringy comedy (think, The Office, especially the British version) and potty humor. Awkward comedy is hard to make a trailer out of.
I think Feig’s problem is that this exposes him. Even if you like his movies, they’re formulaic. (1) Take a well-known genre. (2) Gender-switch the leads. (3) Do a parody. (4) Include body humor because women (particularly McCarthy) can get away with it more easily.
He was given the reigns of Sony’s last viable franchise and he did…the same thing he always does.
By the way, if you want to know the blow-by-blow of how this movie came about, I’d recommend a YouTube channel called “Midnight’s Edge”. The videos are VERY well done, you won’t be sorry.
Part of the reason for the blowback on this is the infamous North Korean Sony hack. Several emails show how (a) this was former Sony head Amy Pascal’s attempt to do a female superhero movie (tentatively titled “Glass Ceiling”), (b) she saw Ghostbusters as the opportunity to do this, (c) Pascal tried to freeze out Ivan Reitman in some of the most petty and childish ways, oh, and, (d) Amy Pascal is illiterate.
So fans knew well in advance about the gender swap gimmick and the reasons behind it. But I think the real hate came from casting Melissa McCarthy. It would have been like casting Kevin James. Her name is synonymous with low-brow pratfall comedy.
For the record, I’m not a fan of the cartoons (I’ve never seen an episode) but I am a fan of the 1984 movie. A true masterpiece. It’s not just me saying it. AFI had it as #28 on their list of best comedies of all time. Though maybe that list isn’t trustworthy because Groundhog Day is #32.
The crowd who are going to take their kids to see Ghostbusters aren’t going to see Suicide Squad or Borne. Ice Age, yes. Maybe Star Trek.
After being repeatedly told I’m a horrible sexist for daring to even question the necessity of a reboot, I think I’ll pass.
Hollywood can kick its audience in the teeth only so many times before the audience says “Nah, I’ll go read a book.”
“Buy my product, you jerk,” rarely works.
I bit the bullet and saw it. For once I agree with Fred.
I can also say your prediction is wrong: Apart from one throwaway fart joke about ten minutes in, there is no potty humor. Pretty much the only line that made me cringe was the one in the trailer when the mosh pit failed to catch Patty (the black lady.) Other than that and one throwaway line about YouTube comments, they mercifully refrain from beating the viewer over the head with feminist silliness. The humor is mostly subtle, and the actions scenes are actually very good.
Overall, I’d give it an 8/10.
Oh, and both Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd are listed as producers, so rumors of their being frozen out were greatly exaggerated.