I finally got around to seeing the new GHOSTBUSTERS the other day. Several weeks of travel this past month, while quite fun, kept me from seeing a few movies that recently came out that I really wanted to. So I was really happy to be able to catch this one.
So how was it?
Really, really entertaining. Easily my favorite film so far this year.
Other than keeping to the same general premise — three nutty scientists and a black civilian prosper off the extrajudicial imprisonment of the spirits of the dead — the movie charts its own course plot- and tone-wise. These are all good things for this film, which helped to keep the pacing brisk and the jokes funny. Highlights include a bit of role reversal with Chris Hemsworth as the team’s beefcakey secretary, several amusing sequences of the team testing out new ghostbusting implements, and Kate McKinnon’s Dr. Jillian Holtzmann, who is brilliantly quirky and hilarious. I hope to see a lot of kids cosplaying her for many years to come. Hell, I would go as her for Halloween.
I’ve seen this movie take a lot of shit online, largely because it stars a cast of — gasp — all women. Women who are smart, capable, and funny in a film that pretty much passes the Bechdel Test with flying colors. Apparently there exists a certain class of dude who felt that remaking GHOSTBUSTERS with an all-female cast was so terrible that it was going to ruin their childhoods. Well, good. If the adventures of lady ghostbusters is the sort of thing that is the Ruiner of Childhood to you, then you’re probably an entitled manchild with a chip on your shoulder, and not meriting of much sympathy. Get over it.
Anyways, to sum up: GHOSTBUSTERS is a ton of fun. You should go see it, if for nothing else that to become acquainted with Jillian Holtzmann.
