Ghostbusters (2016) – The City of New York is confronted by a threat from a supernatural invasion of ghosts. Two estranged friends come together, then team up with a nuclear engineer and a transit worker to create the team you want to call.

Directed by Paul Feig

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth

Why I Liked It – It’s good enough.

I went into this movie with a strong desire to like it. I’d been hearing all the man/child whining about casting women in the lead roles of a classic movie. It’s a stupid argument. This is a talented cast that could bring a different look, feel, and understanding of the story.

That’s what I hoped for.

It’s not what I got.

Sadly, WAY too much of this movie was literally “find a woman who can do the Bill Murray character, and one for the Dan Ackroyd character…” et cetera. While the return to the fire station was a sweet nod to the original, I LOVED the shocked reaction to the rental price. Big laugh. Cool, we’re moving on to something more new with this one.

Again, sadly, no.

There were a lot more flashy CGI effects. As is my usual reaction, the first third are interesting, the second third are…OK, and the final third isn’t needed at all. Too much of it ALWAYS ends up there for the flashy/bangy quotient with no relationship to the actual story. It felt like the original was more about the relationships between characters rather than the special effects. My feeling was reversed on this one.

Overall, the cast did a nice job. I liked everything I’ve seen McCarthy in (which isn’t a huge amount, but again, when I see her work, I like it). Wiig is fine in the demented footsteps version of Murray’s role, and McKinnon is fine as well. The real performance nod here goes to Jones, who brought something more to her role as the Ernie Hudson stand-in. My one strong dislike in the cast was Chris Hemsworth. It was funny seeing him play the dumb blonde at first, but the joke wore thing quickly. The one place they stepped away from the original in a big way turned out to be a major turdburger.

In the end, there’s a fun movie here. It shows how wonderful the original is, and the lack of courage of the … studio/ director/cast to take a risk to do something original. They settled for a tepid imitation and then got rightfully skewered for creating a tepid imitation.

But the problems with this movie have nothing to do with the fact that women led the cast.

Some guys need to get over themselves.

Rating – *** Worth A Look