Ghostbusters

It's a sad reality when a beloved movie is resurrected only to be mutilated by a misguided attempt at relevance. The remake of Ghostbusters is a prime example of how Hollywood can take an iconic property and reduce it to a soulless, pandering mess. This feeble attempt to recapture the magic of the original movie falls flat on every conceivable level, leaving fans and newcomers alike utterly disappointed.

From the outset, the movie's biggest flaw is its painfully contrived script. The weak plot feels like a sheer afterthought, serving as a mere backdrop for desperate attempts at humor. The "jokes," if they can even be called that, are painfully unfunny and rely heavily on crude humor and slapstick gags. This shallow and lazy approach to comedy lacks the wit, intelligence, and subtlety that made the original Ghostbusters so memorable.

The casting choices, touted as a progressive move, only further contribute to the movie's downfall. While the original movie had a dynamic ensemble that oozed chemistry and charisma, the remake feels like a jumbled mess. The main characters are nothing more than cardboard cutouts. The lack of depth and development in their roles is astonishing, making it impossible to connect with or care about their journey.

Moreover, the movie's blatant pandering and gender-swapping of the main characters is a disservice to the legacy of the original. Instead of focusing on crafting a compelling storyline and well-rounded characters, the movie relies on hollow gender politics as its primary selling point. This misguided attempt at social commentary only serves to overshadow the movie's flaws, and it feels like a cheap marketing ploy rather than a genuine creative choice.

Even the visual effects, which should have been a redeeming aspect, are lackluster. The CGI-heavy spectacles lack the charm and practicality of the original movie's effects, feeling more like a soulless video game than a cinematic experience. The iconic ghosts and paranormal encounters lose their mystique and become nothing more than flashy distractions.

In the end, the remake of Ghostbusters is a painful reminder of the consequences of Hollywood's obsession with cashing in on nostalgia. It fails to capture the spirit and magic of the original movie, instead opting for a shallow, derivative attempt that tarnishes the franchise's reputation. Fans of the original should steer clear of this abysmal remake, as it serves as a disservice to the legacy of the original and the beloved characters that captivate audiences worldwide.

Ghostbusters (2016)

1/2 (out of 4)

Wow, what on Earth were they thinking? I will freely admit that I love to see films remade. I mean, it gives the original some attention and in the best cases you end up with another good movie. In the worse cases, hey, you've still got the original film there. If anything this 2016 remake of GHOSTBUSTERS just makes the original all the more impressive because it's amazing how bad this thing is. And no, I'm not sexist or racist. I'm just being honest. I was okay with this film being made but it's really shocking how awful it turned out.

I'm not even sure where to begin in regards to the bad stuff. I guess we can start with the story because there really isn't a story. There's pretty much a bunch of stuff ripped off from the original movies and toned down here. The horror elements are all toned down. The sexism is toned down. There's really no "story" here outside of four women trying to capture ghosts. I kept watching this expecting something to happen but it just never did. Even worse is the fact that the film didn't make me laugh a single time, which gets us to another problem.

The four female leads here are just downright awful. I'm not going to put an awful lot of blame on them since I'm sure they'll all talented actresses but the screenplay pretty much gave them no characters. In the case of Melissa McCarthy, she's pretty much playing the same type of annoying character that she plays in all of her movies. Kristen Wiig was downright annoying, Leslie Jones was even more annoying and Kate McKinnon didn't even register on the screen.

Even the ghosts are downright pathetic and lazy. I use the word lazy because there's just nothing creative about them and once again it just goes to show how wonderful the original film was and they even make the stuff in the sequel seem better. I could go on and on about the awful stuff in this movie. I honestly had no idea the movie would turn out as bad as it did and it really makes you wonder why Bill Murray would refuse to do a sequel for so many years yet he'd sign up for this thing? I'm hoping he and the other cameos were paid quite well.

GHOSTBUSTERS is a film that could have worked and should have worked. I'm really dumbfounded as to what went so horribly wrong with this but just changing the sexes of a character certainly isn't enough to make a film work.

I will never get why you have to remake a movie if it is not to make it better. It's been a long time since I saw the Ghostbusters from 1984 but I know for sure that I liked that one better. Why would you spend so much money to a movie that is already been made before and even better? I really don't get it. This remake is painful to watch. The only decent comedian was Leslie Jones. At least she was a bit funny. But Melissa McCarthy, she's a total nightmare to watch. Why people like her as a comedian is a mystery to me. Her humor level is at zero point zero and the most annoying thing about her is her extremely irritating voice. Kate McKinnon and Chris Hemsworth were also a nightmare to watch. The special effects would have been good for 1984 but not for 2016. I so wished I would have watched the first Ghostbusters again instead of this failure.

I don't know, even after many years this one is still controversial. I think it's cooled down a lot with another "Ghostbusters" film being released since this one. The original 1984 movie is kind of a "lightning-in-a-bottle" type deal. The sequel with the original cast altogether wasn't that great. The "Force Awakens" style Hollywood nostalgia money grab wasn't pretty mediocre. This remake is awful. You can make a movie like "Ghostbusters" or "Back to the Future" that just has a very original plot and concept, and no matter how badly you want the dollars that came with it, it's always gonna be a hollow attempt.

Man, this one is very bad though. Like almost insufferably obnoxious and stupid. It's disappointing because I honestly have nothing bad to say about any of the people who worked on the film. I liked a lot of the cast members in other projects like "Saturday Night Live" and "The Office." Chris Hemsworth is really funny, but they didn't even try to give us any chemistry between him and Kristin Wiig like they were teasing throughout the whole film. Not even anything like a funny joke. Just short little jokes about how sexy she thought he was or something.

The story is more or less a retread of the original's plot points, but I can at least give them the complement that it's a different one? Like at least not a beat-for-beat remake? Kristin Wiig's character is the only Ghostbuster that I liked, all three of the other ones really got on my nerves and the actresses all seemed like they were trying way too hard to just force jokes that didn't come naturally. I was laughing at some points, but at most of the others they just fell completely flat on their face.

Really terrible special effects and awful jokes mixed with extremely obnoxious forced attempts at poop and queef humor (yes there was a terrible queef joke in this that obviously went over like a wet fart) made this one incredibly hard to watch. And for that reason I would only recommend this movie to those with a very high level of curiosity or if you're a "Ghostbusters" fanatic, which I guess by this point most of them have already made up their minds on the 2016 version. It gets relegated to a footnote in movie history, like "hey remember back in 2016 when they tried to remake 'Ghostbusters' with an all-female cast?" That's really all there is to it.

.... to quote a good Columbia (Sony) film from the classic era, trashing the fans before the film even comes out. But that was what Sony did when they got a negative reaction from their trailers and could see the train wreck that was coming that would be the release of this film.

The humor in this film is very forced, broad, and silly, where the original Ghostbusters film featured dry intelligent humor often coming from just who the characters were and how they interacted.

The villain was just awful. He seemed like he was yanked straight out of a cartoon or comic book. The scene at the rock concert - which is shown in trailers - is just goofy. It was like I was watching live action Scooby Doo. Throwing a story into the middle of a concert never really bodes well unless you want to conjure up images of rubber suited turtles doing the 'ninja rap'.

And last but not least, this film has absolutely zero problem defying the rules that are established. Proton beams hold the ghosts, the traps capture them until they're ready to be shoved off into a containment unit. They follow the same rules throughout most of the film, but then near the end, the Ghostbusters start using proton beams as if they were able to destroy ghosts, gunslinger style. What the??

Because there are fans of this franchise going back 35 years, history matters. And this installment just destroyed all of that. This is not the worst film ever made, but it is definitely not worth your time.