Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters had it’s fair share of bad press in the lead up to the release. The general vibe seemed to be something like this: “an all-female reboot!? WHAT!? WHY!?” My favourite of which:

Putting the female cast skeptics aside, the trailers I’d seen had failed to impress, so I wasn’t too pumped to head along.

Being a fan of Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy I grabbed my popcorn and hoped for the best. I’m happy to say that the trailers really do this film no justice at all (EAT THAT @jrWRZ)! The film was gripping right from the get-go. Kristen Wiig’s character, Erin Gilbert, is trying to hide her past as the co-author of a book about ghosts in order to be taken seriously as a scientist. Melissa McCarthy is soon introduced at Abby Yates, the former best friend and other author of the Ghost book who is still fully immersed in the world of Ghost-catching and studying the paranormal. Wiig and McCarthy have their funny moments but mostly seem to serve as the main plot drivers and almost serious members of the team to keep things grounded (to a certain degree).

Leslie Jones as Patty Tolan is awesome and sassy, but not in an over-the-top kind of way. I would place her on the middle of the kooky – serious character scale, as she certainly has her ‘moment’s!
Kate McKinnon as Jillian Holtzman is representing the full blown kooky character in this one and she does it so well! Definitely my favourite character for the majority of the movie. However, I was surprised to find that Chris Hemsworth as the ‘sexy but painfully stupid’ receptionist, Kevin, gave them all a run for their money! Definitely not on point with the comedic timing all the time, and quite possibly given a little more screen time than was necessary for the character (understandable eye candy factor), Chris probably made me laugh out loud the most.

Cameos from the original cast were all done tastefully and I could never see them coming! Definitely make sure you stick around for the post-credits scene for one final cameo! I love Bill Murray, but his cameo was probably my least favourite. It felt pretty forced and he didn’t even seem to want to be there!

As you would expect from a Ghostbusters film, the action sequences and special effects were all ridiculous and awesome. The technology the team used was all suitably nonsensical and impressive at the same time and guns that would catch ghosts one moment would explode ghosts the next!

It wasn’t all good though! I can’t pin point exactly why, but my interest waned at the midway point and the villain was a little underwhelming. As you would expect, several of the one liners fell flat and occasionally the slapstick was a tad annoying, but overall I would call it a great success and something Paul Feig can be proud of!

Rating: PG Coarse language & some scenes may scare very young children.

FILMGUIDE rating:

4-141

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