Girls Just Wanna Bust Ghosts
BY JONATHAN KANE
The news that Sony’s remake of “Ghostbusters” is pretty good can be a little bit of a shock to some people. Granted, it’s not a great film, but certainly exceeds expectations and delivers a good ol’ time fun afternoon at the movies – this despite the online attacks the film took from middle-aged male fans of the original that felt remaking the classic comedy with an all-female cast of heroines was total sacrilege.
Sony and Ivan Reitman, who directed the original and helped produce this film, made the right choice in turning things over to Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids”) as director and screenwriter. Feig knows how to do a successful comedy and seems to have a touch with the ladies – especially Melissa McCarthy. He shows his touch again in this gender-reversed reboot.
It also helps to have some serious comedic talent in the leads – here supplied by McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones, all with strong ties to Saturday Night Live.
McCarthy, Wiig and McKinnon play the scientists while Jones plays a city and street-smart transit worker that joins the team. It’s their chemistry that makes the film click and thankfully the humor comes from those characters and their relationships to each other. Rounding out the cast is Chris Hemsworth as their eye-candy secretary and cameos from the entire original cast minus Harold Ramis.
The plot is rather ordinary and revolves around a put-upon nerd that seeks to unleash a world of ghosts on New York City in a doomsday scenario. Once the ghostbusting team is formed, and located above a Chinese restaurant, the game is on and an array of ghosts and goblins are taken down. Not great stuff, but who cares? It’s enjoyable and that’s all that counts.