Ghostbusters

            Who knew the trailer for the reboot of Ghostbusters, directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat, and others) and starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Chris Hemsworth would be the most hated trailer in the history of YouTube? Turns out that allowing human beings to communicate with one another virtually unheeded has its upsides and downsides. One of them being the fan-boy backlash against the film. A recent analysis by Walt Hickey of FiveThirtyEight revealed that before the movie premiered, male users of the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) gave Ghostbusters a ranking of 3.6 out of 10 while female users rated it 7.7/10. A million cries of “This movie is ruining my childhood” emerged from the darkest corners of internet comment sections—an aside, if a remake of a movie can ruin your childhood perhaps you should reconsider the key moments of your childhood and your life that led you to make the comment. And here’s what really has to eat at the people who loathed the idea of a Ghostbusters remake and gave the plot keywords with labels like “male objectification” and “feminization” on IMDB, the film is really quite funny.

            From the very first joke about an old New York City mansion containing an “anti-Irish fence”—the latest in 19^th century home security, Feig’s Ghostbusters unleashes an unrelenting torrent of jokes. There’s physical comedy with the crew testing out their equipment with destructive results. There’s the jokes at the expense of Wiig’s status-seeking Erin Gilbert whose letter of recommendation from Princeton might not be enough to get her tenure. And finally, and perhaps most hilariously, is the performance by Chris Hemsworth as Kevin, the Ghostbusters’ dimwitted secretary. Kevin turns the traditional stereotype of the blond bombshell on its head. He’s clearly an idiot—hanging up on clients and removing the lenses from his glasses because they get in the way of his finger—but Wiig thinks he’s hot, so he stays around. For all those who cried out that Hemsworth, who brings a empty-headed enthusiasm, was only there as an object of the women’s sexual desire and is therefore demeaning to men, hit upon the point that the filmmakers were shooting for. This character appears in movies all the time as a woman and few people question it. When it’s a man, then suddenly it’s a problem. Welcome to institutionalized sexism fellas.

Who you gonna call? 

            The film moves along at a brisk pace as the Ghostbusters join together, get some cool equipment and defeat the villain—a maladjusted man seeking to channel supernatural energy in order to destroy the world. The film is littered with throwbacks to the original movie including cameo appearances by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and Sigourney Weaver. There’s an appearance by Slimer the Ghost, ECTO-1, and even the iconic firehouse. These throwbacks are fine tributes to the previous movie, but do little to enhance the film itself. In this age of reboots and referential filmmaking, it would be nice to have a movie that could just stand on its own without needlessly pandering to the audience. Indeed in all the internet outrage about a female led Ghostbusters, it’s telling how far Hollywood has to go in terms of overcoming its sexism that a comedy starring McCarthy, Wiig, McKinnon, and Jones couldn’t get greenlit without it being a reboot. After all, how many people want to go see a bunch of women being funny together for an hour and a half? If the 155 million dollar earnings of Ghostbusters are any indication, a lot.