‘Who you gonna call’
Ghostbusters is a 2016 American supernatural comedy film directed by Paul Feig (who began his movie career in 1987 as an actor in Zombie High) from a screenplay co-written with Katie Dippold.
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The movie stars Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth (Thor; Cabin in the Woods), Neil Casey and Andy García.
Plot:
Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) and Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) are a pair of unheralded authors who write a book positing that ghosts are real. A few years later, Gilbert lands a prestigious teaching position at Columbia University, but her book resurfaces and she is laughed out of academia.
When ghosts invade Manhattan, Gilbert reunites with Yates, plus Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon), a nuclear engineer, and Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones), an NYC subway worker, to save the world…
Reviews:
” … the truth is that it can only be called the third best Ghostbusters movie. That’s its cross to bear. But it also builds with solid pacing, features crafty and entertaining filmmaking style, and has a number of consistently funny performances from actors delivering lines you’ll be quoting and chuckling about days later.” CinemaBlend.com
“Paul Feig’s female-led reboot of the long-dormant franchise is thrilling, hilarious, lovingly crafted and the wild, colourful, giddy blockbuster this otherwise staid summer movie season so desperately needs.” The Globe and Mail
“While both funnier and scarier than Ivan Reitman’s 1984 original, this otherwise over-familiar remake from “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig doesn’t do nearly enough to innovate on what has come before, even going so far as to conjure most of the earlier film’s cast (including Slimer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man) in cameos that undercut the new film’s chemistry.” Variety
“Short on both humor and tension, the spook encounters are rote collisions with vaporous CG specters that escalate into an uninvolving supernatural cataclysm unleashed upon New York’s Times Square. It’s all busy-ness, noise and chaos, with zero thrills and very little sustainable comic buoyancy.” The Hollywood Reporter
” … the ever-growing number of cameos are wasted opportunities, while the final battle is oddly tension free, despite the stakes, as the group mow down ghost after CG ghost with their various toys. Still, the film works for the most part, and even though the laughs notably dry up as the CGI spectacular kicks into gear, its feelgood vibes will most likely have already won you over.” Empire
“Perhaps there’s not enough in there to fully dispel the hate that a subset of the audience are bringing to the film (although there’s an argument that it’d need to be Citizen Kane to do that in some quarters), but particularly when it finds its own footing, this new Ghostbusters is a really fun night out at the movies in its own right.” Den of Geek
“Part of what makes “Ghostbusters” enjoyable is that it allows women to be as simply and uncomplicatedly funny as men, though it would have been nice if Ms Jones had been given more to do. (If this were a radical reboot, she would have played a scientist.) In the end, these are Ghostbusters, not Ghostbusting suffragists, even if there’s plenty of feminism onscreen and off.” The New York Times
“Fun oozes from almost every frame; likewise the energy of a team excited to be revolutionising the blockbuster landscape. Let’s just hope everyone will enjoy the view.” The Guardian
“When these Ghostbusters are labeled delusional by a skeptical public and smeared by a city government that slanders them for the greater good, they’re not just crazy people—they’re crazy women, a pejorative far more loaded than it ever is when foisted on men. As the Ghostbusters have always been, they’re heroes who must prove themselves not just to their peers, but also to their audience.” The Daily Beast
“Jones, McCarthy, McKinnon, and Wiig are so good together – and in ways that are distinctively theirs and not recycled from the past – that their message of not giving a damn resonates better than the movie’s underwhelming climax.” BuzzFeed News
” …quickly became excruciating, with everything feeling so strained you wonder if on-set enemas might have helped. The ending was so poke-in-the-eye tedious Stephen Sommers must have been grinding his teeth with jealousy that someone had managed to come up with a hollower, emptier, more superficial piece of tedium than he could ever hope to.” House of Mortal Cinema
Cast and characters:
- Kristen Wiig as Erin Gilbert, a published author on the subject of the paranormal and professor at Columbia University
- Melissa McCarthy as Abby Yates, who co-authored the book with Gilbert
- Kate McKinnon as Jillian Holtzmann, a nuclear engineer and Yates’ new partner
- Leslie Jones as Patty Tolan, an NYC subway worker who stumbles across the main supernatural threat in the film.
- Chris Hemsworth as Kevin, the Ghostbusters’ receptionist
- Neil Casey as Rowan, the villain
- Andy García as the Mayor of New York City
- Elizabeth Perkins
- Cecily Strong
- Michael K. Williams as Hawkins
- Matt Walsh as Rourke
- Pat Kiernan as a News Anchor
Filming locations:
Principal filming took place in Boston and New York City from June to September 2015.
Box office:
The film’s box office performance was disappointing. The Hollywood Reporter commented:
“As of Aug. 7, Ghostbusters had earned just under $180 million at the global box office, including $117 million domestic. The film still hasn’t opened in a few markets, including France, Japan and Mexico, but box-office experts say it will have trouble getting to $225 million despite a hefty net production budget of $144 million-plus a big marketing spend. The studio has said break-even would be $300 million.”
Home viewing:
The film was released digitally on September 27 and on 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, and DVD on October 11 via Sony. The releases include the extended edition, featuring 15 minutes of new footage, in addition to the theatrical cut.
