Movie Review
Siddharth Martis
3.5 / 5
Ghostbusters is a film directed by Paul Feig and is written by Katie Dippold and Paul Feig. It stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, and Chris Hemsworth, along with Bill Murray, Andy Garcia, and Neil Cassey.
Led by marvelous performances by all four of its well-matched leads and the strangely dedicated Chris Hemsworth, this new incarnation of the now iconic film series dawns a decidedly more self-aware approach to the source material.
This new found self-awareness can be a bit hit or miss, or come off as plain unfunny, however, as the film isn’t always smart enough to pull it off. With that said, it works well enough for Ghostbusters (2016) to capture the relic-like charm of the original while maintaining its modern-day varnish. Therefore forging a path for itself while simultaneously harkening back to its wonderfully nostalgic roots.
Tied together remarkably by Paul Feig, whose infectious enthusiasm and giddy excitement for the material really managed to shine through in the most unexpected places, the film is brought to life with an unusual amount of gleeful silliness and old-fashioned humor that all comes to a head in a bombastic, overlong, schmaltzy third act that is also both exuberant and visually spectacular, leaving me wanting more.
Erin Gilbert (Wiig) and Abby Bergman (McCarthy) are a pair of unheralded authors who write a book positing that ghosts are real. A few years later, Gilbert lands a prestigious teaching position at Columbia University, but her book resurfaces and she is laughed out of academia. Gilbert reunites with Bergman and others when ghosts invade Manhattan and try to save the world.In one of the most disappointing summers I have ever had to drudge through, a film arises that is ready and willing to answer the call for excitement: Ghostbusters! Though it is flawed, Ghostbusters proved to be the quintessential action-comedy that also raises the age-old question, “Who you gonna call?” My response? These girls.
Led by marvelous performances by all four of its well-matched leads and the strangely dedicated Chris Hemsworth, this new incarnation of the now iconic film series dawns a decidedly more self-aware approach to the source material.
This new found self-awareness can be a bit hit or miss, or come off as plain unfunny, however, as the film isn’t always smart enough to pull it off. With that said, it works well enough for Ghostbusters (2016) to capture the relic-like charm of the original while maintaining its modern-day varnish. Therefore forging a path for itself while simultaneously harkening back to its wonderfully nostalgic roots.
Tied together remarkably by Paul Feig, whose infectious enthusiasm and giddy excitement for the material really managed to shine through in the most unexpected places, the film is brought to life with an unusual amount of gleeful silliness and old-fashioned humor that all comes to a head in a bombastic, overlong, schmaltzy third act that is also both exuberant and visually spectacular, leaving me wanting more.