Review: GHOSTBUSTERS (2016)

GHOSTBUSTERS
(ACTION-COMEDY/SCI-FI)
3 out of 4 stars 
Directed by Paul Feig
Starring: Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Neil Casey, Cecily Strong, Charles Dance, Matt Walsh, Michael Kenneth Williams, Andy Garcia, Michael McDonald, Zach Woods
Rated PG-13 for supernatural action and some crude humor.
116 minutes
Verdict: Fun and uneven, the new GHOSTBUSTERS starts strong before sputtering in fits and starts toward the finish line, still keeping pace with the 1984 original utilizing broader humor and fiercer ghosts, ultimately making for a suitably entertaining summer lark.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN GHOSTBUSTERS IF YOU ENJOYED:
GHOSTBUSTERS  (1984)
BRIDESMAIDS  (2011)
SPY  (2015)
ZOMBIELAND  (2009)
INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE  (2016)

I like but don't love the original 1984 GHOSTBUSTERS.  I feel about the same in regards to the new gender-swapped reboot/remake, at least in the end.  It gets to that end though through very different means.  Like the original genre-bending blockbuster, this film is first and foremost a comedy, starring comic actors dropped into supernatural action that bears a tinge of horror.  The comedy is broader this time around, but also more accessible than the bone-dry deadpan wit of the original, which has pros and cons and a number of misfired gags, but also delivers bigger belly laughs (a certain bodily function-related gag, in particular, won my heart).  The action and the specters involved this time around are noticeably more intense, with hauntings consistently more in the vein of the original's ghostly librarian or the decaying cab driver, designed scary but with a darkly humorous twist in the style of a "spookhouse" ride and glowing like the black light-lit animatronic figures of Walt Disney's The Haunted Mansion.  In a less franchise-driven climate, it might just as well be a remake; it doesn't take place in any continuity set by previous Ghostbusters movies or media, and except for a couple of appearances by familiar ghosts, all the characters are original to this movie.  However, plot-wise, it's similar enough as the story of a fledgling team of supernatural exterminators who come together in time stop a cataclysmic event from destroying New York City, and makes plenty of callbacks to the original.  On the other hand, it's more than different enough and an attempt to springboard a franchise off of an established and long-dormant brand that I guess 'reboot' applies, too.

We're first introduced to Dr. Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig), a teacher at Columbia University who's about to receive tenure when she discovers a disreputable book, Ghost of Our Past: Literally and Figuratively, which she co-authored in her early career, has been republished, so she reconnects with the co-author she hasn't spoken to in years in hopes of burying the book.  Her co-author and former friend is Dr. Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), who is still following their old passion for paranormal research at a tech school with the assistance of the uniquely unconventional engineer Dr. Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon).  When Yates and Holtzmann get wind of a major paranormal event in a historic mansion, they go to investigate and Gilbert tags along, reigniting her interest in just in time for her, Yates and Holtzmann to lose their academic funding.  Newly unemployed, they rent out the space in a building above a Chinese restaurant and open the "Department of Metaphysical Examination" to continue their research and hire a very handsome but incredibly unintelligent receptionist (Chris Hemsworth), and soon they're contacted by a subway worker, Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones), who witnessed a spectral event down in the tracks.  From there, bringing with her an extensive knowledge as a history buff, Tolan joins the crew, and the "Ghostbusters", as they're dubbed in the media, discover a plot to unleash a horde of ghosts on the city with catastrophic implications.
The undeniable standout of the main cast is McKinnon as the gleefully bizarre mad scientist type who develops the groups proton packs and other tech, and while she plays the part well, the script by Paul Feig and Katie Dippold (reuniting after working together on THE HEAT) also gives her the best material, closely followed by Jones, who's hilarious and endearing enough to almost dismiss concerns about the one "black Ghostbuster" being the blue collar one.  I mean, I guess there's nothing technically wrong with that, but they must have known the decision would raise some eyebrows.  [Of course, the big controversy connected to this movie is the misogynist backlash by "Ghostbros" who made the trailer one of the most 'disliked' trailers in YouTube history while making the excellent case that women don't have the correct anatomy for ghost-busting, a phenomenon that the movie takes the Mickey out of with gags involving "feminized" Ghostbusters logos and scenes where the characters peruse the negative backlash on YouTube videos of them capturing ghosts].  The headlining proven comic actresses McCarthy and Wiig, meanwhile, are forced to play somewhat more straight-laced counterparts to their co-stars, and they don't bring a whole lot to those positions, so they're weirdly underplayed.  Hemsworth, who in addition to McKinnon, seems to be written as a particularly outrageous comic standout in the ensemble, and he does have some inspired moments, but ultimately the character is less successful as he seems maybe too dumb.

Feig's direction of the action is solid, with previous experience in action-comedies like THE HEAT and SPY, but he especially has a good handle on the fun, haunted house-style scenes with great little spooky gags like a man running up the stairs from a ghost and every old step collapsing under his feet, and even when things get really over the top in the climactic action (to be fair though, the original movie's climax featured the heroes going up against a several stories-tall marshmallow man, so I guess it's mostly still par for the course), there are some good moments amongst all the ghostly mayhem, and a few familiar ghost faces show up.  Beyond the basics of the team coming together and establishing themselves, gradually attaining familiar attributes like the hearse and the proton packs, the movie is very different from the original, while still fitting in plenty of homages including some well-publicized cameos, recognizable locations and scenarios just similar enough to bring to mind the original without ever retreading anything directly.
It starts very strong with unexpectedly rapid joke rate that's a lot of hit-and-miss with enough of them landing, while the first few ghosts are some of the most fun and creepy, but somewhere in the middle it starts to lose its footing and sputters, running toward the end in fits and starts, ultimately coming out on top.  It's good, colorful fun for the most part, maybe with bigger franchise ambitions than it's likely to fill, but it's definitely in that area of entertaining summer fluff.