Ghostbusters (2016)

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly a decade since the release of Ghostbusters (2016)... a film that shockingly became one of the most destructively divisive movies of all time. Reactions to the film were all all over the place, and it turned into a strange cultural war of words.

I still don't get it. And if anything, the fact that a Ghostbusters movie caused such a nonsensical controversy shows just how privileged a world we live in, and how backwards people's priorities are. Especially because, at the end of the day...

...it's possibly the single most "it was alright" movie ever made. Neither bad enough to justify the ludicrous hatred it conjured from a large portion of the audience, nor good enough to warrant the undying support of those who made defending it a massive part of their personality.

The film's ultimate sin is that it falls prey to one of the more annoying trends in modern comedy filmmaking - the "Line-O-Rama," where the director tells the cast to constantly improvise tons of lines to pepper in throughout the dialogue. The problem with this style of humor is that it's very particular, and just doesn't quite work with a property like Ghostbusters.

It's very easy to tell that the best jokes of the film were obviously scripted, whereas most of those "Line-O-Rama" gags fall flat because the actors don't really have anything to work off. Director/Co-Writer Paul Feig was far too reliant on them to generate humor when he should have focused on writing a script that was funnier and letting the actors simply "punch it up" with occasional improv.

That being said, despite the gags often falling flat, the beating heart of the film, and indeed the thing that often saves it during its weaker moments, is the wonderful cast and some of the comedic set-pieces. I was actually surprised that despite being the most irritating parts of the trailer, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones were probably the funniest characters. Especially Jones, who felt quite "real" in her role. Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy are also quite fun and do most of the heavy lifting plot-wise.

And there are some very decent set-pieces in terms of comedy. A scene where McCarthy Abby tries to talk someone out of killing themselves... but not being able to think of any reasons to live is genuinely one of the funniest gags of the past decade. And an action sequence near the end where the gang takes on Ghosts in Time Square while quipping is extremely well-executed.

At the end of the day, this might be the weakest Ghostbusters film... but it's still thoroughly watchable. It's nonsensical how much of a firestorm it caused when it's neither particularly great, nor bad.

It's a 3 out of 5.

TedStixon