Year: 2016
Genre: Horror Comedy
When the trailer for 2016 remake of Ghostbusters went online, it went on to become one of YouTube's most downvoted clips of all time. At current count, it is listed as having 950,000 downvotes as opposed to a significantly lower 250,000 people who have upvoted it. Fans of the original were furious that director Paul Feig had recast all four male leads with women, and trolling on the videos page was rife with misogynistic comments about how the film was effectively ruined because it wouldn't be the same with women in the lead roles.
Remaking what is largely regarded as a classic of it's era, Feig was very brave to make such a huge change to the original. I'm a firm believer that if a remake is to work, is has to pay homage to it's source material, but at the same time bring something new to the table that makes it worthy of the brand. I went into the cinema knowing full well that for me, there was no way that Paul Feig was ever going come close to Reitman's original. The questions in my head were just how far off the mark was he going to be, and were the female leads going affect the overall quality of the film.
Let's get the answer to the question on everyone lips out of the way of way first. Feig's decision to play women in the lead roles does not influence the quality of the final cut in any way shape or form. I'd be lying if I said I was apprehensive before I went in, but with the exception of Kate McKinnon's utterly ridiculous Jillian Holtzman, the remaining three leads do what's asked of them admirably. I wasn't there halfway through the film thinking that their performances didn't work, because that simply isn't the case. The film doesn't suffer having females as the leads, perhaps because the characters in the film would work with either sex. I don't think you could make that statement for every film in the history of cinema though, because had they changed the four females leads of Sex and the City to males, we may be having a completely different argument.
Does this mean that the remake holds up Reitman's incarnation? Well sadly, no.
In the original, Sigourney Weaver's appartment was haunted by Zuul, a demigod worshipped as a servant to Gozer. This plotline was at the core of the original, and cited as being the reason for ghosts appeared around New York on an increasingly frequent basis. For some strange reason, Paul Feig has completely changed this in his remake, removed all of the aforementioned characters, and rewritten the plot. It just doesn't work, and characters that were so important in the original have all vanished. There is no Gozer, no gatekeeper, no keymaster, as Feig has replaced them all with a pantomime worthy villain who I personally hated.
So what about the leads? I've never been a fan of Melissa McCarthy, and find the characters she plays irritating. I've never been a fan of her humour, and she just seems to play every role exactly the same. You could have taken her Abbey Yates character out of this, dropped it back into Spy, and you wouldn't have noticed any difference whatsoever. I liked Kristen Wiig's Erin, because she wasn't given any scripted one liners, and seemed to have her feet firmly on the ground. I've already talked about Kate McKinnon (and the less said about that, the better) with the remaining 'token' black actress Leslie Jones providing what I thought, were some of the films funnier moments (which are very few and far between, trust me)
One a side note, I personally felt the way Chris Hemsworth's played the Ghostbusters dumbed down secretary was completely unnecessary. It was in no way an accurate reflection of Janine in the original, and quite frankly, annoyed me.
The only thing that this remake does better than the original is the special effects. Is this really an accolade though, considering CGI has been the norm for the past twenty years? Not really no, and it would be unfair to Reitman's classic to say they are superior when he made his film over thirty years ago.
Feig's remake pales in comparison to Reitmans iconic original. It would be unfair to call it a bastardisation, but it is so far detached from it in terms of humour, plot, and substance, that I'm only giving it a couple of stars. Ironically, it wouldn't have been any better a film were the leads all male a second time round.
A disappointing, but to be expected two stars.
Remaking what is largely regarded as a classic of it's era, Feig was very brave to make such a huge change to the original. I'm a firm believer that if a remake is to work, is has to pay homage to it's source material, but at the same time bring something new to the table that makes it worthy of the brand. I went into the cinema knowing full well that for me, there was no way that Paul Feig was ever going come close to Reitman's original. The questions in my head were just how far off the mark was he going to be, and were the female leads going affect the overall quality of the film.
Let's get the answer to the question on everyone lips out of the way of way first. Feig's decision to play women in the lead roles does not influence the quality of the final cut in any way shape or form. I'd be lying if I said I was apprehensive before I went in, but with the exception of Kate McKinnon's utterly ridiculous Jillian Holtzman, the remaining three leads do what's asked of them admirably. I wasn't there halfway through the film thinking that their performances didn't work, because that simply isn't the case. The film doesn't suffer having females as the leads, perhaps because the characters in the film would work with either sex. I don't think you could make that statement for every film in the history of cinema though, because had they changed the four females leads of Sex and the City to males, we may be having a completely different argument.
Does this mean that the remake holds up Reitman's incarnation? Well sadly, no.
In the original, Sigourney Weaver's appartment was haunted by Zuul, a demigod worshipped as a servant to Gozer. This plotline was at the core of the original, and cited as being the reason for ghosts appeared around New York on an increasingly frequent basis. For some strange reason, Paul Feig has completely changed this in his remake, removed all of the aforementioned characters, and rewritten the plot. It just doesn't work, and characters that were so important in the original have all vanished. There is no Gozer, no gatekeeper, no keymaster, as Feig has replaced them all with a pantomime worthy villain who I personally hated.
So what about the leads? I've never been a fan of Melissa McCarthy, and find the characters she plays irritating. I've never been a fan of her humour, and she just seems to play every role exactly the same. You could have taken her Abbey Yates character out of this, dropped it back into Spy, and you wouldn't have noticed any difference whatsoever. I liked Kristen Wiig's Erin, because she wasn't given any scripted one liners, and seemed to have her feet firmly on the ground. I've already talked about Kate McKinnon (and the less said about that, the better) with the remaining 'token' black actress Leslie Jones providing what I thought, were some of the films funnier moments (which are very few and far between, trust me)
One a side note, I personally felt the way Chris Hemsworth's played the Ghostbusters dumbed down secretary was completely unnecessary. It was in no way an accurate reflection of Janine in the original, and quite frankly, annoyed me.
The only thing that this remake does better than the original is the special effects. Is this really an accolade though, considering CGI has been the norm for the past twenty years? Not really no, and it would be unfair to Reitman's classic to say they are superior when he made his film over thirty years ago.
Feig's remake pales in comparison to Reitmans iconic original. It would be unfair to call it a bastardisation, but it is so far detached from it in terms of humour, plot, and substance, that I'm only giving it a couple of stars. Ironically, it wouldn't have been any better a film were the leads all male a second time round.
A disappointing, but to be expected two stars.
