Sadly, instead of a Ghostbusters III, next week we’re getting a remake of the classic film with an inverted gender cast. The film’s director, Paul Feig, is making waves by screaming that the negative buzz that’s surrounded the film pretty much since its announcement and DEFINITELY after we saw the first trailer is a misogynistic response. No, Paul. No, it’s not. I love Kristen Wiig, Elizabeth Banks, Chris Hemsworth, and Melissa McCarthy (not familiar with the fourth member). The problem with the remake, and I am not going to even bother seeing it because it never needed making, is that everything about it looks stupid. It’s unfunny. It’s trying to piggyback on one of the most beloved films of the 1980’s without doing any work to justify its existence. That’s why everyone pre-hates it.
Ghostbusters is such a feel-good, comfort food film. It’s funny, totally original for its time, and has a cast of 80’s comedic all-stars. Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Dan Aykroyd and more. So many iconic scenes, but I have to go with the team’s first encounter with Slimer. No one does deadpan better than Bill Murray. He has the funniest, least expressive face in comedic history. So, ignore whatever the heck the new one is supposed to be. 1984’s holds up just fine. Plus, it gave us one of the most memorable/irritatingly catchy theme songs in movie history (for which Ray Parker Jr. was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and won a BAFTA).
If Star Wars teaches us anything, it’s that hate is harmful, even when the thing you’re hating is really awful. The appropriate response to evil is sadness. And when you look at the publicity for the new Ghostbusters reboot, you begin to realize that sadness really is the proper emotion. Goodbye subtlety, goodbye intelligence, goodbye Reitman, goodbye Spielberg, goodbye movies based on literary classics. Goodbye deadpan humor, and practical effects, and woe to the masterpiece that needed to build an audience over time to be successful. Forget Rick Moranis and Bill Murray; the actor who played the guy from the environmental protection agency showed more of an understanding of comic timing than half of modern Hollywood put together.
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The whole thing is sad, and I haven’t spoken with anyone who doesn’t wince or just not react at all to the trailers. I hardly ever wish movies ill but I want this to bomb so badly that a drop of idiocy gets knocked out of the person who greenlit it in the first place.
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Hollywood doesn’t work that way. Those kinds of lessons never get learned, and the wrong people usually get punished. I am depressed right now, because of the BFG. Spielberg’s time has come and gone, and he doesn’t deserve it. It would be bearable if someone, anyone, were stepping up to the plate to replace him, but no. No one is taking up the mantle of Tim Burton either, or Terry Gilliam. Soon, no more magic, no more darkness, no more idiosyncracy. Nothing unusual or inspiring, just homogenized product that appeals to everyone on the planet equally. Disney has its act together right now, but how long will that last? One day in the future, will I be able to gauge the descent of popular culture by measuring the quality of Star Wars as the quality goes down?
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