‘Ghostbusters’ takes aim at misogyny – Four funniest people to honor original film

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Ghouls and anonymous Internet commentators — who have flocked to their thumbs-down buttons ahead of the film’s release — share plenty of characteristics. Each is likely to drool and quickly disappear when you turn on the lights. Feig’s “Ghostbusters” ain’t afraid of either.

Why should he be, anyway? In his corner he has the best comic actor of the decade, Melissa McCarthy, the klutzy wit of Kristen Wiig, “Saturday Night Live” standout Kate McKinnon and the big-screen breakthrough of Leslie Jones, the film’s secret weapon.

His “Ghostbusters” makes some winks to the uproar that preceded his gender-swapping film, but it mostly steers straight ahead, too busy being funny to worry much about misogynist detractors. It does, however, pay a lot — too much — attention to placating “Ghostbusters” fans with the familiar showdowns and iconography of the original two films.

I was proudly raised on Bill Murray comedies, but the preciousness many have over a “Ghostbusters” remake is nevertheless mystifying. This isn’t “Stripes” we’re talking about here. It’s not even “Meatballs”. Ivan Reitman’s “Ghostbusters” — equal parts spectacle and deadpan, inspired by “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” — was good, all right, but it wasn’t some sanctified ground never to be trod on again. It already spawned a mediocre sequel, after all.

Here, the iconic ambulance has been traded for a borrowed hearse and cameos from original stars (excepting Harold Ramis, who died in 2014) have been awkwardly forced in. The team, once assembled, is astonished at the sky-high rent required for the original’s firehouse and instead relocates to a Chinatown office above a takeout joint. (The film’s New York overall is refreshingly authentic.)

Sighting

After an early ghost sighting (featuring an excellent Zach Woods) and the familiar synths of Ray Parker Jr’s theme, screenwriters Feig and Katie Dippold bring the foursome together.

Wiig is a physics professor trying to make tenure at Columbia but she’s disgraced by her latent belief in the paranormal. Her old friend, Abby (McCarthy, reliably solid if somewhat restrained), has stayed on the case, though, with her eccentric gizmo-making sidekick, Jillian (McKinnon). The bug-eyed, fizzy-haired McKinnon is like a blow torch of steampunk fire to the movie.

Jones, who plays a subway worker, might have been expected to be the broadest performer of the bunch, given the knockout punch of her “SNL” appearances, but her character is impressively grounded. She’s the best of the quartet, though Feig doesn’t give her enough to do later in the film.

Murray, Ramis, et al excelled at finding laughs when nothing was happening, without seeming to be trying at all. Feig’s film never has that anything-can-happen feeling, and it suffers for it. I wish he had let his talented cast truly loose.

Big-budget special effects are the enemy of comedy: they suck the air out. In a sense, this “Ghostbusters”, which swells to a bloated CGI finale in Times Square, has overpowered one Hollywood specter — sexism — only to be stifled by another: the all-powerful force of franchise-making.

Still, the freewheeling and funny solidarity of the four leads win out in the end, even if Feig shows more timidity than he did in “Bridesmaids,” “The Heat” or “Spy”. Chris Hemsworth, playing a ditzy secretary, is one of the most clever stereotype reversals: He’s the office eye candy.

It feels a little like this “Ghostbusters” was a cultural test that we (not the movie) have already failed. Feig’s film may be a feminist milestone: a big ol’ popcorn movie taken over by women (something that should have happened long ago and engendered far less vitriol). But it’s also simply a breezy good time, one that just happens to culminate with four very funny ladies shooting a monster in the balls.

Action

“Ghostbusters”, a Columbia Pictures release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for “supernatural action and some crude humor”. Running time: 116 mins. Three stars out of four.

Meanwhile,what brings a throng of khaki-uniformed, proton-blaster-toting fans to Hollywood Boulevard? Why, “Ghostbusters”, of course.

Thirty-two years after the original rocked the boulevard, and the world, the do-over was back for its premiere at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre.

The remake had been creating waves for months before Saturday’s premiere, largely because Sony and director Paul Feig were bringing a female-powered cast to the reboot. Some fans of the original grumbled that nothing could live up to the 1984 film, starring Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson. But the opening night crowd seemed more than happy with the 21st century teaming led by McCarthy, Wiig, McKinnon and Leslie Jones.

“It’s a classic property and people guard it,” Feig said on the red carpet. “To make a new version and honor that feeling that people had for the original, I felt I had to just get the four funniest people I could. And that’s what I did.”

Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman Tom Rothman called the night “really special.” He previously had welcomed the furor about the female cast, saying he thought it would boost interest in the film. “It’s an entertaining comedy, but it’s now also an important part of the social conversation,” he said. “And you don’t get that combination too often.”

Even academia was out to cheer the film. Stacy L. Smith, director of the Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, praised the new “Ghostbusters” for depicting women in the science, technology, engineering and math fields.

“We see a dearth of women in these roles in films,” Smith said, citing a study that reviewed more than 200 films and found none with women in the STEM fields. “So I wanted to be here to support them when they got it right.”

Also:

LONDON: London commuters got a taste of the supernatural from the “Ghostbusters” world on Monday, coming face to face with a replica of the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and green slime at one of the capital’s main train stations.

The character’s head appeared to smash through the floor at London’s Waterloo station while fake green slime seemed to ooze down from the ceiling in a promotional stunt for the new “Ghostbusters” film, a reboot of the popular 1984 comedy. (Agencies)

“Ghostbusters” hits cinemas worldwide starting Monday. (Agencies)

By Jake Coyle

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