The rebooted GHOSTBUSTERS is a reinvention out of the original story written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, with a vital and relevant gender-swapping. And each member of the foursome posse has passed the appraisal as genuine comedienne thanks to their Saturday Night Live stint, not to mention Melissa McCarthy is presently THE most bankable US comedienne in the movie business, which has been kick-started by director Paul Feig's BRIDESMAIDS (2011).
In the remake, Erin Gilbert (Wiig), a tenured-to-be physics professor at Columbia University rekindles her passion for paranormal activities when she has to confront her school-day bestie Abby Yates (McCarthy), now a maverick researcher, for publishing the book which they wrote together about the existence of that particular subject matter years ago, behind her back. They meet a real ghost in a haunted house which thrusts them to form a "Ghostbuster" team to catch ghosts, with the participation of the technophile Jillian Holtzman (McKinnon) and the street-smart subway worker Patty Tolan (Jones, not a latecomer like Ernie Hudson in the original, she is a loudmouth and her presence is ubiquitous), who offers them a hearse-revamped automobile, plus a dimwit eye-candy Kevin (Hemsworth, who is amazingly good in his goofy and flippant dash) as their inept secretary, whom, Erin has a crush on (and who doesn't? Maybe only Holtzman, but unfortunately the lesbian undercurrent never catches on).
Pristine-looking in present-day New York, the reboot seems rather expensive, and its visual grandeur rightfully gives enough credits to the Special Effects advancement between the whopping thirty-some gap, with highlights like a green reptile ghost which is a mixture of dragon and Baphomet, running amok in a heavy metal concert, and the ultimate boss, a gigantic glowering form of Ghostbusters' trademark logo based on an unthinkable concept that a human being can be changed into an amorphous ghost simply by electrocution, that is what Rowan North (Casey), a withdrawn sociopath, manages to pull off after successfully building a portal to a ghost world.
The dutiful cameos (Murray, Aykroyd, Hudson, Weaver, Potts and even the son of the late Harold Ramis) from the original franchise are less than surprising, the real deal here is McKinnon's Dr. Holtzmann, a unique incarnation of both flamboyance and geekiness, she is in effect the life force behind their enterprise, which makes Wiig and McCarthy look rather amateurish in this peculiar line of business, although it does seem to be pretty easy for her to constantly ply the team with updated ghost-capturing weaponry.
Labelled as a faithful remake, this fantasy-comedy crowdpleaser doesn't deserve all the backlash, especially those sexist and racist ones, the problem seems to be - Paul Feig and his female- enpowering team ruefully pick a safe route to retread the old path, instead of going off the beaten track, at least for the sake of its comedic fodder, like he did in SPY (2015) last year with McCarthy, especially we are all fully aware what a superlative one-liner and deadpan impersonator Wiig is, alas, the entire project eventually settles for an unambitious aim which has been aptly executed, but, if they hope to reboot a new franchise, the first step is a middling one, and according to the financial turnover, a sequel is a long shot at this point.
In the remake, Erin Gilbert (Wiig), a tenured-to-be physics professor at Columbia University rekindles her passion for paranormal activities when she has to confront her school-day bestie Abby Yates (McCarthy), now a maverick researcher, for publishing the book which they wrote together about the existence of that particular subject matter years ago, behind her back. They meet a real ghost in a haunted house which thrusts them to form a "Ghostbuster" team to catch ghosts, with the participation of the technophile Jillian Holtzman (McKinnon) and the street-smart subway worker Patty Tolan (Jones, not a latecomer like Ernie Hudson in the original, she is a loudmouth and her presence is ubiquitous), who offers them a hearse-revamped automobile, plus a dimwit eye-candy Kevin (Hemsworth, who is amazingly good in his goofy and flippant dash) as their inept secretary, whom, Erin has a crush on (and who doesn't? Maybe only Holtzman, but unfortunately the lesbian undercurrent never catches on).
Pristine-looking in present-day New York, the reboot seems rather expensive, and its visual grandeur rightfully gives enough credits to the Special Effects advancement between the whopping thirty-some gap, with highlights like a green reptile ghost which is a mixture of dragon and Baphomet, running amok in a heavy metal concert, and the ultimate boss, a gigantic glowering form of Ghostbusters' trademark logo based on an unthinkable concept that a human being can be changed into an amorphous ghost simply by electrocution, that is what Rowan North (Casey), a withdrawn sociopath, manages to pull off after successfully building a portal to a ghost world.
The dutiful cameos (Murray, Aykroyd, Hudson, Weaver, Potts and even the son of the late Harold Ramis) from the original franchise are less than surprising, the real deal here is McKinnon's Dr. Holtzmann, a unique incarnation of both flamboyance and geekiness, she is in effect the life force behind their enterprise, which makes Wiig and McCarthy look rather amateurish in this peculiar line of business, although it does seem to be pretty easy for her to constantly ply the team with updated ghost-capturing weaponry.
Labelled as a faithful remake, this fantasy-comedy crowdpleaser doesn't deserve all the backlash, especially those sexist and racist ones, the problem seems to be - Paul Feig and his female- enpowering team ruefully pick a safe route to retread the old path, instead of going off the beaten track, at least for the sake of its comedic fodder, like he did in SPY (2015) last year with McCarthy, especially we are all fully aware what a superlative one-liner and deadpan impersonator Wiig is, alas, the entire project eventually settles for an unambitious aim which has been aptly executed, but, if they hope to reboot a new franchise, the first step is a middling one, and according to the financial turnover, a sequel is a long shot at this point.