Movie Review: Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters/Columbia Pictures/116 min./Dir. by Paul Feig/Rated PG-13 for supernatural action and some crude humor

Summer 1984, Blackfoot, Idaho, Plaza Twin Theater, screen #2.  What was a fun movie experience for many became really a pivotal moment in my personal development.  You see, as a kid, my highly active imagination was a double-edged sword.  On one hand I was able to lose myself in hours of joyful flights of fancy.  On the other, everything scared me because my imagination would add about a thousand more points of horror to any already terrifying thing.  Be it a story or a news report on nuclear war or a snake in the garden, everything was exaggerated in my mind.  A commercial for a scary movie could keep me up all night, yet I was oddly obsessed with scary things too.  I wouldn't watch scary movies, but I would make people tell me about every frame, which I would then magnify in my mind to horrors not achievable by a mere movie.

Then came 1984, my 13th birthday, and Ghostbusters.   I wanted to see it because all of my friends had and, since it was a comedy, I thought I could handle it.  Of course, the original Ghostbusters had some pretty effective scares.  Ghost librarians screaming and turning into skeletal specters, giant four-legged demons, horrific possessions....this movie had some legitimate jumps accompanying the laughs.  However, I was doing OK.  Then at the end of the film, when the demi-god Gozer, she of the gelled-hair, skin-tight Solid Gold dancer outfit, and glowing red-eyes, arrived to release the Destructor on New York City and Ray Stantz accidentally thought of a form in which the Destructor would appear, I was getting scared.  The music was tense and there was some terrifying visage moving in between skyscrapers.  Then Dan Aykroyd uttered the words, "It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man" and that giant, smiling anthropomorphized tower of sugar rounded an intersection, and I laughed.  I laughed harder than I had ever laughed in my entire life.  I laughed for at least ten minutes straight and I remember laughing still as my family walked, somewhat embarrassedly, out of the theater.  That day, I didn't just watch a movie that I would love for decades to come, I learned that my fears had less power than my joy.  Much like a real-life riddikulus spell from Harry Potter, I learned that laughing at my fears robbed them of their power.  This was also around the time that I began to lucid dream, giving me control of the terrors in my subconscious as well.

After having seen the remake of Ghostbusters, I could easily see this film serving a similar function in a similarly minded youth of today.  Is it a classic?  No, but the main thing that makes the original a classic is nostalgia.  While this incarnation isn't quite as good, it's very close, and it's a very fun time at the movies.

Of course, this movie has been surrounded by controversy ever since it was announced.  Some of the outcry against it was clearly a misguided, misogynistic reaction to the announcement that the new team would be comprised of very funny women instead of very funny men, but mostly people didn't like the idea of a remake of Ghostbusters.  They wanted a straight-up sequel, and at the time, I felt the same way, or at least some kind of a reboot that didn't erase what came before, much like the new Star Trek movies had done.  However, now I'm delighted by the change.  Seeing this group come together, find their purpose, and build their own different, but equally funny chemistry is a joy and I hope we get to see them do it in more stories to come.

Scientists and friends Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) and Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) have been estranged for years after co-writing a book on the paranormal (the hilariously titled "Ghosts From Our Past (both literally and figuratively)") which widely discredited them as quacks.  Erin distanced herself from the book (claiming to have burned "both copies") while Abby embraced their work and moved forward with their research.  However, a haunting at a historic mansion in N.Y.C. brings them together, along with Abby's live-wire colleague, Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) and sets them on their new career path in paranormal investigation and elimination.  After a brief flirtation with a familiar firehouse (turns out such a large piece of real estate is a bit pricey in current day New York), they end up setting stakes in a space above a Chinese restaurant, hire a new secretary (Chris Hemsworth, whose take on the antiquated blonde, bimbo secretary archetype steals the show), and bring on a new partner (Leslie Jones, whose presence and performance is much stronger than they appeared to be in the trailers).  Things start to get heated when the group discover machines scattered throughout the city that magnify paranormal activity, the end result of which leads to a fantasmagorical Times Square battle in which buildings, billboards, and advancing spooks emerge through the mists of varying time periods to confront the jump-suited soldiers of science and paranormal metaphysics.  

The key ingredients for a good Ghostbusters movie are humor, cast chemistry, and convincing special effects/scares.  This is a good Ghostbusters movie.  Not all of the jokes land, but the ratio is strong.  It's the most I've laughed during a movie in a very long time and it's not simply because of the quality of the jokes themselves, but because of the strength of the performances and the characterizations.  The cast feels like they're having the time of their lives throughout.  While McKinnon and Jones get more of the conventional jokes, Wiig and McCarthy still get their fair share of the funny and, as I mentioned, Hemsworth steals every scene with an quirky combination of ineptitude, naivite, misplaced-cockiness, and utter obliviousness.  In fact, many of Wiig's funniest moments involve him, and her take on the 50's stereotype of the boss making inappropriate advances on the ditzy secretary.

The scares are there, but they're not quite as potent as the first film (however, pretty much everything here is an improvement on the second Ghostbusters film, especially considering the weakly written finale of Ghostbusters II), and the special effects are very effective.  The 3D version is quite well made, using a changing film ratio to allow spectral vapors and spraying ectoplasm to seemingly spill beyond the limits of the screen.

Another fun addition is the proliferation of new ghostbusting tools.  Whereas the original film was just about capturing the ghosts, this team has an arsenal of weapons that can not only capture the malevolent phantoms, but can shred, gooify, and sock them on their paranormal kisser.  McKinnon gets an especially memorable butt-kicking glory moment using all of the new toys.

There are many elements that were in the trailers and tv spots that were handled far better in the film than the advertising presented them.   Yes, Mr. Stay-Puft shows up, but in a way that pays tribute to the original film without ripping it off.  Yes, the ghost from the famous logo shows up, but the narrative makes his appearance not merely palatable, but seemingly inevitable.  Yes, Slimer shows up, but his glorified cameo (and the baffling appearance of a Ms. Slimer) actually lead to a pivotal plot point.

Director Paul Feig clearly has a respect and affinity for the original film, in fact, sometimes maybe a little too much so.  Most of the original cast shows up in cameos (except for Rick Moranis, who passed) and those cameos are varying levels of successful (Bill Murray's was the most delightful for me).  The original Ray Parker Jr. theme song shows up performed by no fewer than three artists and multiple orchestral cues in Theodore Shapiro's score (which was otherwise more dramatic and tense than Elmer Bernstein's jaunty work in the first film).  Hopefully, if the film is successful enough to warrant a sequel, Feig, or whoever is at the reins, will feel more a sense of moving forward than looking back.

So, in summation, rest assured.  This film will rob no one of their childhood.  It is neither a travesty nor an abomination.  What it IS is a fun, breezy summer popcorn movie that pays tribute to the past while creating a world and an energy all its own.  Plus, it proves the same thing that the original did to me all those 32 years ago: it's more difficult to be afraid when you're laughing with pure abandon.

Grade: B+

P.S.  Stay through the credits.  Not only is there a fun song and dance bit throughout, but after the final credit rolls, there's a juicy hint as to where the series could go from here that will be especially meaningful to fans of the first movie.