Ghostbusters (2016)

This article is about the 2016 movie. You may be looking for the 1984 film with the same name.

Ghostbusters

Who you gonna call? Anyone else but them...

Genre:	Supernatural Comedy
Directed By:	Paul Feig
Produced By:	Ivan Reitman Amy Pascal
Written By:	Katie Dippold Paul Feig
Based On:	Ghostbusters by Ivan Reitman Dan Aykroyd Harold Ramis
Starring:	Melissa McCarthy Kristen Wiig Kate McKinnon Leslie Jones Charles Dance Michael Kenneth Williams Chris Hemsworth
Cinematography:	Robert Yeoman
Distributed By:	Sony Pictures Releasing
Release Date:	July 9, 2016 (TCL Chinese Theatre) July 15, 2016 (United States)
Runtime:	116 minutes 134 minutes (Extended version)
Country:	United States Australia
Language:	English
Budget:	$144 million
Box Office:	$229.1 million
Franchise:	Ghostbusters
Sequel:	Untitled Ghostbusters sequel (cancelled)

"There are people out there who like to pay people to shit in their face, but just because someone else likes to be shit in the face, doesn't mean that I have to like being shit in the face.
And that's the beauty of living in a free country, that some of us can be shit in the face, and be content, and that others can be shit in the face, and not be, and I was not content with this face-shitting.
I hope you don't hold it against me the way I don't hold it against you, but I do not like being shit in the face.
And that's what this film Ghostbusters 2016 reboot was. A gigantic shit in the face."
— JLongbone

Ghostbusters (later marketed as Ghostbusters: Answer the Call) is a 2016 American supernatural action comedy film and reboot of the Ghostbusters franchise and the 1984 classic film of the same name, as well as the third film, overall, in the franchise. Directed by Paul Feig and written by Katie Dippold and Feig, the film stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones as parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City. The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on July 9, 2016 and was released in the United States on July 15, 2016, by Columbia Pictures.

At the time of its release, it received positive reviews from critics. However, was panned by the fans and audiences alike, criticizing its political agenda and its SJW content. The film failed at the box office. Ghostbusters is widely considered to be one of the worst reboots of all time, forcing Sony to cancel any sequels for the rebooted Ghostbusters series and eventually opting to continue with the original Ghostbusters series instead with Afterlife, which is scheduled to be released on June 11, 2021.

Plot

Paranormal researcher Abby Yates and physicist Erin Gilbert are trying to prove that ghosts exist in modern society. When strange apparitions appear in Manhattan, Gilbert and Yates turn to engineer Jillian Holtzmann for help. Also joining the team is Patty Tolan, a lifelong New Yorker who knows the city inside and out. Armed with proton packs and plenty of attitude, the four women prepare for an epic battle as more than 1,000 mischievous ghouls descend on Times Square.

Why It Sucks

Despite the film being a reboot and having improvements that weren't shown in the original film, this film is almost a complete rehash of the original Ghostbusters.
Mediocre to unlikable characters.
- The main characters are portrayed as completely obnoxious and lack the chemistry and charisma the original Ghostbusters had in the original 1984 film and its sequel; for example, at one point the new team steal the equipment needed to build the Proton packs instead of building them from scratch.
- Kevin (Chris Hemsworth's character) is an annoying comic relief character.
- Rowan North is a lame antagonist and doesn't come off as scary even when in his ghost form.
- Overall, it seems as if the casting choices were made solely for the sake of having a female-led cast.
Weak writing and acting mixed with tons of pointless pop culture references to better films and TV series (eg. various Patrick Swayze films, The Wizard of Oz, Jaws, etc.)
Mediocre special effects, especially for the green screen effects for the ghosts.
Forced political agendas that make the movie blatantly misandrist, where the female characters are considered strong and smart while the male characters are considered weak, dumb and idiotic.
A variety of unfunny, juvenile humor is featured in this film, ranging from toilet humor to sex jokes. Another piece of humor that fails is the running gag of Abby whining about wontons.
Blatant product placement (e.g. Pringles, Papa John's Pizza, and Coca-Cola).
False advertising: In the trailer, the announcement text mentions the original Ghostbusters, but this film has no connections to the original films. Another misleading header is that despite the film being titled Ghostbusters, the team only busts one ghost and in the climax, the Ghostbusters shred ghosts and are somehow able to kill them.
- The film was also advertised as a letterbox film, but the green screen effects on the ghosts were put in 16:9 widescreen. There is even an entire scene in the 16:9 widescreen format, in a film that is supposed to be in the 2:35.1 aspect ratio.
It features too many unnecessary dancing scenes (as pointed out in RedLetterMedia's review) and those scenes get even worse in the extended cut that make them longer than one or two minutes.
The film even has the audacity to take shots at its detractors, which comes off as immature, disrespectful and abrasive, with there being one scene where the new Ghostbusters see a comment on YouTube that reads, "Ain't no b*tches gonna hunt no ghosts".
- That being said, the film's director (and co-writer), Paul Feig also acted rather abrasive towards criticism of the film by accusing the detractors of his film of being misogynists and labeling fans of the original films as trolls; he also showed support for Jones and criticized Twitter's handling of the situation. Feig tweeted: "F*ck the haters. And haters, attack me all you want but when you attack and insult my cast, you've crossed the line. Grow up and leave my cast alone."
The ghosts look like a poor man's version of the ones from either The Haunted Mansion or the live-action Scooby-Doo films.
- The ghost balloons also look too similar the Joker's balloons in Batman^GMW.
  - The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man looks ridiculous as a balloon.
While the theme song covered by Fall Out Boy and Missy Elliott is somewhat catchy, it was panned due to its use of pop-rock and rap that doesn't match the tone for the film.
The film overall feels more like a bad Saturday Night Live skit.
Pointless cameo appearances by the original cast, but not as their characters.
The infamous scene where the main characters shoot Rowan, in his giant ghost form... right in the groin.
This film started the trend of SJW and radical feminism propaganda films that escalated after the #MeToo movement started a year later.

Redeeming Qualities

Much of the original cast (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts) make cameo appearances, despite them being pointless.
Even through theme song was panned, there is at least a decent soundtrack by Theodore Shapiro.
- In particular, the updated theme song by Ray Parker Jr. is also decent.
A lot of good designs for the ghosts.
The action scenes are, surprisingly, more impressive than the original. The 1984 film had decent enough effects, but it was mainly them standing around and pointing their proton packs. In contrast to the original Ghostbusters, the new Ghostbusters do flips, slides, punch ghosts and even whip the ghosts into somersaults.
The scene at the end where Erin saves Abby from Rowan’s grasp within the portal is admittedly pretty awesome.
The scene when Martin Heiss (Bill Murray's character) informs the new Ghostbusters that, "You only lack the proper equipment like a garbage truck to hang onto the back of," was accurate. After all, their uniforms do look like garbage collecting-uniforms.

Controversy

When Sony announced that all four of the Ghostbusters were going to be female, the announcement sparked a big controversy. After the teaser poster of four characters was released, it received overwhelming criticism for fans and audiences alike. When the original trailer for the film was released on March 3, 2016, it got tons of dislikes and as of right now, it is currently the 19th most disliked YouTube video with 78.04% dislikes. It is important to note that although there were certainly some genuinely sexist people, a large fraction of these dislikes came from either being disappointed by the trailer's quality or feeling like the new additions were not loyal to the original film. In response to the negative reactions towards the trailer, Paul Feig accused haters of the film of being misogynistic towards the cast.

Reception

Critical and audience response

Despite getting lambasted by fans and audiences alike, Ghostbusters received positive reviews from critics with praise for the cast, direction, humor and visuals, but criticism for the script and visual effects on the ghosts. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Ghostbusters has an approval rating of 74%, based on 384 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Ghostbusters does an impressive job of standing on its own as a freewheeling, marvelously cast supernatural comedy -- even if it can't help but pale somewhat in comparison with the classic original.". On Metacritic, the film has a Metascore of 60 based on 52 critics and received mostly negative reviews from fans and audiences alike. The user score on Metacritic is a 2.9/10. However, on IMDb and Letterboxd, the film received a score of 6.5/10 and 2.5/5. Film critic Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film with a "D-", a one-star rating and described the film as "a horror from start to finish." ^[1]

Box office

Ghostbusters opened up at #2 on its opening weekend with a domestic gross of $46 million. In foreign markets, it grossed a total of $100,796,935^[2]. Following the #2 opening, the film later dropped down to #5 in week three, then to #7 in week three and at week four it dropped to #9. The film bombed at the box office after getting a box office return of only $128.3 million in the U.S. against its $144 million budget and overall, the film made $229 million worldwide. ^[3] Sony, which distributed the film, spent over $100 million on marketing and lost at least $70 to $75 million following the film's poor performance at the box office.^[4] The film contributed to the $1 billion write-downs of the value of Sony Pictures in January 2017.

Future sequel or sequels?

Sony announced that if the film was a hit, there would be sequels. Due to the poor box office results, however, Sony decided to cancel further sequels to the reboot. Despite the cancellation of the sequel, Feig stated in an interview that he still expresses interest in making a sequel.^[5]

On January 15, 2019, Sony announced that Ghostbusters: Afterlife (or Ghostbusters III) is finally going to be released on March 5, 2021, and as a result, the rebooted Ghostbusters franchise was officially rendered dead and became non-canon to the franchise. Shortly after the announcement, Smooth Jazz Waluigis and actress Leslie Jones criticized the third Ghostbusters film, claiming it's "sexist" to refuse to acknowledge the reboot, though Jones eventually praised the approach.

One year later

On June 4, 2017, almost a year after the film was released, Dan Aykroyd spoke out against Paul Feig in an interview and said that he had skipped key scenes from the film assuming they weren't needed and required $30 to $40 million worth of reshoots when test screenings showed they were indeed needed. He later stated that Paul "will not be back on the Sony lot any time soon." ^[6] In April of the same year, Paul Feig issued an apology on feeding Internet trolls.^[7]

In November, Feig expressed regret about the negative impact Ghostbusters had on the public and stated, "I think it kind of hampered us a little bit because the movie became so much of a cause. I think for some of our audience, they were like, 'What the f*ck? We don't wanna go to a cause. We just wanna watch a f*ckin' movie'"; at the same time, he is still satisfied with his work on the film and continues to defend it, explaining "It was a great regret in my life that the movie didn't do better, 'cause I really loved it. It's not a perfect movie. None of my movies are perfect. I liked what we were doing with it. It was only supposed to be there to entertain people."

Trivia

Bill Murray didn't want to return in the original version of this film unless his character was killed off.
Rick Moranis was the only original cast member that refused to appear in the 2009 video game, the cancelled third film, as well as this film since he retired from acting many years earlier.
The film wasn't screened in China because films involving ghosts are not permitted by the strict Chinese codes on film content.
A bust of Harold Ramis is seen in the film.
Before the film was made, Amy Pascal, the co-chairman of Sony at the time of the Sony Hack of 2014 asked Paul Feig to make the film, but he declined the offer numerous times.
Co-writer Katie Dippold stated that Sony disliked the film in an interview.^[8]
The plot was leaked due to the Sony Pictures hack of 2014.
Paul Feig reportedly had a meltdown on set while making the film.
The film made an appearance in LEGO Dimensions.
- In fact, once completing the Ghostbusters Story Pack levels, you can access the Ghostbusters World by using Peter Venkman, Stay Puft and Slimer from the classic Ghostbusters film.
  - The same works in reverse being able to access the classic Ghostbusters World by using Abby Yates.