Ghostbusters

Score:  ***1/2 out of ***** (B)

Directed by Paul Feig
Starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones
Running time: 116 minutes
Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  The highly anticipated - both positively and negatively - Ghostbusters reboot has arrived, and while it is a considerable success it also doesn't reach the hopes I had for it.  The hugely hilarious and talented Wiig and McCarthy are fine in relatively straight roles, while SNL's Jones and McKinnon (and costar Hemsworth) shine.  An undemanding summer entertainment, yet an important one in proving the strength of women in (in this case, literally) historically men's roles, it's recommended for all.


Once best friends, Erin Gilbert (Wiig) and Abby Yates (McCarthy) have grown apart.  Yates still works on the pair's former hobby, investigating the paranormal, while Gilbert has moved on to more prestigious studies and a post at an Ivy League school.  Coming up for tenure, Gilbert is horrified when a man confronts her with a book she thought had disappeared long ago about her work with Yates on ghosts.  Gilbert confronts Yates, who has re-released the book, and agrees to go with her and her new assistant, Holtzmann (McKinnon), to look into a possible ghost sighting if Yates will stop publishing.  To the shock and delight of all three, they do find an apparition.  When their employers discover what they were up to, though, the three find themselves with little choice but to keep chasing their unlikely yet extraordinary dream careers.

Ghosts seem to keep popping up all over New York City, and the trio welcomes one of the witnesses, MTA worker Patty Tolan (Jones), onto the team.  Their organization, the "Department of the Metaphysical Examination", struggles not only to subdue the ghosts and figure out where they're coming from, but also to work with the skeptical authorities.

The Ghostbusters reboot has a good cast, but doesn't quite fulfill on screen the brilliant potential it has on paper.  The co-leads of the film are Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, two of the funniest comedians around.  Each is known for their eccentric and/or wild characters, but each has a fairly straight role here.  They are both solid, but considering the talent each brings to the table, I was disappointed that more thought and effort (from them and/or the writers) wasn't put into creating truly unique, creative and memorable characters.  Many aspects of their typical humor is on display, particularly the banter (more on this later).  It's actually the two less well-known Ghostbusters who bring the best stuff:  SNL cast members Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.  McKinnon is unleashed here, and in a way she channels both of the stars:  Wiig's sheer creativity and McCarthy's daring dirtiness.  Leslie Jones actually tones it down a bit from her usual SNL performances, but is still the "streetwise" presence here.  Both McKinnon and Jones are hilarious, and quite comfortable in their roles.  The "fifth Beatle" here is Chris Hemsworth as the team's secretary.  He straddles the line of going over the top, but has some of the funniest parts in the whole movie and seems to have loved the role.  Finally, there are also appropriate cameos for the old cast, but I'll say no more about them.

Ghostbusters, with so many expectations both high (from fans of the new stars) to low (from fanatics and worse), turns out to be a quality but incongruently modest action comedy film.  To start, don't worry about whether you have or haven't seen the original: there are plenty of nods to it, but you won't miss any huge laughs, let alone plot points, if you haven't seen it.  The story is parallel in structure to the original; it has the same major features but has its own distinct texture beyond that. This similarity, unsurprising in many ways for a reboot, has the advantage of not treating its new stars - all female - any differently than the originals.  In not focusing on the gender swap, it does a great service to women in film, particularly those in the role of hero (similar to The Force Awakens' Rey).  The story also gets a boost from the 32 years' worth of technological advances.  The visuals manage to be both a lot of fun, retaining a slightly cartoonish feel, as well as immersive, fitting seamlessly into the live-action world.

While the new team of Ghostbusters was well-picked, it also required a little adjustment to both the major stars' typical performances, as well as to the tone of the film itself, in order for the reboot to be successful.  To a degree this happened, but a lot of (particularly comic) potential was left on the table.  The physical, gross-out humor - common to both the original film and (to a lesser degree) the stars' experiences - is among the most successful in the film.  But to make this Ghostbusters truly their own, Wiig and McCarthy needed to weave their comic and acting sensibilities into the quieter moments, and they were far less successful here.  I'm not sure if there was anxiousness, or even laziness in diverting too much from either the original film's or their own experiences, but instead of developing cool new characters, the big stars more or less play the straight ladies and banter with each other (still often funny, but limiting).  Frankly, in many recent comedies the main character isn't all that great - it's the supporting players (in this case, McKinnon, Jones and Hemsworth) who make me laugh out loud and stand out.  I'd been hoping that Wiig and McCarthy could change that here, but they didn't quite manage it.

***

Ghostbusters is a solid summer entertainment, and I'm probably being a little too critical.  Like Keanu earlier this year, I simply have such high expectations based on the stars' talent that the failure of the movies around them to live up to them can be difficult for me to get past.  Here it's a bit different in that I do think that the stars themselves were part of the problem, or at least didn't live up to my expectations.  They still do very well, compared to just about anyone else.  It's like grading a Pixar movie that doesn't quite reach Up!, Toy Story or Inside Out level; because of their closest kin they seem a bit worse than they really are.  Expectations aside, this is a perfectly entertaining, well-made film, and I urge as many people to see it (in the theater) as possible.  The studios make films based on what has made money for them in the past, so in order to get more diverse (at least, nonwhite, nonmale) casts which can provide us all new stories and perspectives, we gotta show 'em the money.  Maybe then actors like Wiig and McCarthy can have the freedom to go outside the norm and unlock their full potential.  Who you gonna call?



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