Jean-Luc Godard famously quipped: “The best way to criticize a movie is to make another movie.” I don’t know what anyone would have against the 1984 original Ghostbusters. The movie seems to be one of those rare lightning in a bottle movies where everything worked. Even the casting of Ernie Hudson to replace Eddie Murphy as Winston Zeddemore got a lot of praise as many people I know said they’re favorite was “the black guy.” Bill Murray only made the movie as a deal with Columbia Pictures so he could make his own version of The Razor’s Edge.
There was concerns the studio wouldn’t be able to even call it Ghostbusters because Filmation had done a 1970s forgotten TV show called The Ghost Busters and had rights to the title. John Candy had to drop out and was replaced by Rick Moranis. But can you see anyone but Moranis as the wimpy but lovable Louis Tully. It was only his third movie. I don’t think Candy’s intended sleazy conservative German-accented version would’ve worked. Everything about the movie seemed to be perfect from the casting to the storyline to the very impressive special effects for 1984.
So, why mess with perfection? Well, what’s the answer to 99 out of the most 100 asked questions? Easy, money.
A third Ghostbusters movie had been spinning around since the 1990s. However, Harold Ramis and Murray had a fallen out on the set of Groundhog Day and refused to talk to each other. (At the time of his death, Murray didn’t even know where Ramis was living.) Also, the backlash over the second movie seemed to sour some people. Also, Murray wasn’t too willing to suit up again, even chiding Dan Aykroyd, who had written a script, saying as they were in their 50s, no one wanted to see them running around chasing ghosts.
By the time Ghostbusters or Ghostbusters: Answer the Call hit theaters in the summer of 2016, remakes/reboots were everywhere. So, it was no surprise when Columbia, now owned by Sony, said they were going to reboot Ghostbusters. And they were going to use the recent success of Bridesmaid and the surprise break-out performance of Melissa McCarthy to get it going. Of course, an all-woman version of Ghostbusters isn’t a bad idea if it was done correctly.
This was reuniting McCarthy with Kristen Wiig (wearing an awful wig by the way) along with her Saturday Night Live cast members, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. Part of why the original worked is that Hudson wasn’t known for comedies even though he had a small memorable scene in Going Beserk with Candy. Aykroyd and Murray were well known off SNL, but Ramis was still known for his work behind the scenes. So, there was a feeling that cast wasn’t all well known to most audiences. It also helps because Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis and Hudson knew how to work off each other. The way Hudson says, “That’s a big twinkie” is delivered with the “I don’t fully understand it all but it doesn’t sound good” tone needed.
When you stick four comics together, you’re going to get four people all wanting the punchline. The Three Stooges worked because Moe was the serious one; Curly was the goofy one; and Larry was the reactionary. Abbot and Costello and Laurel and Hardy also had the same division of straight man and funny man. Even Martin and Lewis knew you got to give the audience what they really want. All four women can be funny and they can show range in more serious roles. But they don’t work as the straight person.
Take when Dr. Erin Gilbert (Wiig) gets vomited on with ectoplasm. She immediately looks repulsed but minutes later she’s cheering into a video camera. When Murray’s Dr. Peter Venkman was slimed by Slimer, he lied on the floor like a defeated boxer trying to catch his bearings as Aykroyd’s Dr. Ray Stanz was acting excited with little concern for his friend and colleague’s well-being. It was a funny moment.
Also, other comics are cast in roles in which serious actors should’ve been cast. William Atherton played the great antagonist Walter Peck in the first and most recent installment. He was never trying to be funny and the humor was how much of a bureaucratic jerk he was. Charles Dance appears briefly here but his role is wasted as is Ed Begley Jr. This time around Andy Garcia plays the New York City mayor but his whole thing is trying to make people believe what they witnessed didn’t happen. Also, his assistant is played by another SNL alum Cecily Strong who tries to play the role for laughs.
The late David Margulies, known for more serious roles, played the NYC mayor in the first and second movie, and he did so without trying to be funny. Yet, there’s something devilish about his smile when Venkman tells him that if city officials work with the Ghostbusters he would have “saved the lives of millions of registered voters.” It’s a reactionary role but Margulies performs it so well even if it’s just for one scene.
As for the plot, the movie actually has a pretty good one. There’s an influx of paranormal activity in NYC as Gilbert and Dr. Abigail Yates (McCarthy) once co-authored a book on the paranormal. But they’ve seen gone their separate ways as Gilbert wants a serious job at Columbia University while Yates is still working in the less stellar academics. When they along with Yates’ colleague Dr. Jillian “Holtz” Holtzman (McKinnon) lose their respective jobs, they decided to go into business for themselves.
But even them losing their jobs is met with jokes that just don’t work. It’s pointless to have Gilbert walk through a hallway carrying her personal belongings acting like she’s being moved to another office instead of fired. And when Yates and Holtz also get fired because the administration had forgotten about them and just kept allocating money, the administrator does what I call the “Oh, yeah, baby!” moment. Whenever a scene is obviously going on without a punchline, an actor will proudly proclaim something loud because they think the audience will think it’s funny. Yet, it’s not funny hearing him proud about the 12 years the institute has been around. It’s basically taking from the Sean William Scott Stifler performance. Just be loud and frat-boyish.
Another issue comes later when they go on their first big bust, Michael McDonald (of MadTV, Austin Powers and Cougar Town fame) plays the manager of a musical venue where a heavy metal band is playing. He has a high-pitched scream when he sees the dragon-demon like ghost that haunts the place. That would be funny in of itself, but he mentions it to the ghostbusters earlier for no reason. There’s a big difference between setting up a joke and ruining a joke.
Jones gets some good laughs during this sequence as she makes a comment about a room of mannequins being a nightmare she isn’t going to mess with. Later when the dragon-demon is perched on her shoulders, her reaction is priceless as she knows something bad has just happened. And there’s something just funny about the metal band fans thinking it’s all part of the show.
But what’s not funny is having Murray pop up in the next scene as Dr. Martin Heiss, a man famous for debunking paranormal activity. Foolishly, Gilbert releases the ghost to prove that it’s real. When I heard the ghost throws him out the window, I thought it might be funny. But director Paul Feig, whose fashion sense Murray’s character is supposed to be parodying, just gets knocked out the window from the force. And since we don’t know the fate of Heiss, it’s even worse. What’s wrong with a short scene of Murray in traction or with a head brace being loaded into an ambulance saying, “They pushed me out the window. It was no ghost.”
Instead we get a scene of them arguing with a police officer played by Toby Huss and referencing Ghost with Patrick Swayze. Why? Because referencing pop culture has replaced humor in the modern age. I also agree with critics that they just redid the original with the same characters only as women. Why couldn’t Jones’ character of Patty Tolan been a scientist or the one who constructs all the equipment and Gilbert has to take a job working for the Metro Transit Authority.
The biggest disappointment is how little McKinnon is given to do. With her crazy hair and big glasses, it seems she should have more to do, but all she really does is just react a lot. I believe I read somewhere her character was supposed to be a lesbian as McKinnon is open about her own sexuality. I feel a lot of her scenes were cut or reshot at the behest of studio executives. In fact, I think they probably just told Feig and Katie Dippold (with who he co-wrote the script) just use the basic premise of the 1984 original the way J.J. Abrams did with The Force Awakens.
While the movie does gives us a villain, he’s mostly pointless. Rowan North (Neil Casey) is a doomsday weirdo who is setting up ionizers around locations trying to conjure up as many paranormal activity along ley lines in NYC. This is a wonderful idea that is never given much screen time. That’s because his plans are stopped and he commits suicide, becoming a ghost himself and possessing Yates briefly before possessing Kevin Beckman (Chris Hemsworth), their secretary. Hemsworth has some fun with his role mocking his “Himbo” status and Sexiest Man Alive People Cover in 2014.
Yet, there’s just so much of this movie that looks like it was chopped up and reshot to appease fans and online critics. And the blink and you’ll miss them cameos by Aykroyd, Hudson, Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver seem more like a consolation prize, something the last two movies made better on.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 