![]() ![]() wasn’t alone in that resistance to the brave new ghostbusting future. See for yourself this weekend.)Ĭlearly Fleming Jr. (A version of “Animal House at a sorority,” by the way, is kind of what this week’s Neighbors 2 did in turning the 2014 bro-centered hit comedy into a shockingly thoughtful sequel about campus gender inequality. “What’s next, a Goodfellas redo with female mobsters pulling off the Lufthansa heist? A Raging Bull redo with Rhonda Rousey? Brian’s Song, set in in the WNBA? Animal House at a sorority?” “ that give them the right to take Ghostbusters from knuckle-dragging Neanderthals like me who have little else going for us but our all-time top 10 or 20 favorite guy movies, and the prospect of a revamp that feels like the original guy version of one of the films on that list?” he wrote. led the charge in 2014, unapologetically bemoaning the notion of a woman-led Ghostbusters because it ran contrary to the “guy comedy” classic he felt ownership over as a male fan. ![]() Unfortunately, it’s a sentiment expressed loudly and controversially by established male film journalists from the moment the new Ghostbusters was announced.ĭeadline Hollywood’s editor in chief and self-described “knuckle-dragging Neanderthal” (and my former boss) Mike Fleming Jr. ![]() It’s a childish demand that a movie be made exactly for one kind of fan, exactly to specifications that acknowledge and validate his or her own fandom and reasons for loving the original. “It makes us feel like WE went home, back to our childhoods. “That’s all you need,” Rolfe lectures with a self-satisfied grin. should have taken a cue from The Force Awakens, which force-jammed a single line of fan service into its marketing material, right out of Harrison Ford’s mouth: “Chewie, we’re home.” In the very least, he adds-again, without having seen the actual finished film-Feig and Co. Instead of a remake or a reboot, let’s call Ghostbusters (2016) a “name-make.” Ghostbusters: The Next Generation would be better, he even argues, adding his own dubious suggestion. One wonders if Rolfe wishes he waited a day to launch his crusade.īut wait! The real problem, he says, is the title. Because that’s how you make informed judgments: You have to actually watch a movie to know what happens in it, and in turn pass judgment on how said things occur. Will it be good? Well, we won’t know until we see it. So it’s not as if the studio and filmmakers have completely forsaken Ghostbusters fans, farted out some completely unrelated plot starring heroes who have vaginas, and slapped the same name on purely to cash in on brand recognition. Older fans, however, will-if anything the parade of shameless references was designed for them, not for newbies. Ghostbusters like Rolfe did may not recognize all of these obvious throwback signposts to the Ghostbusters of yore. The youth of today who didn’t grow up with the O.G. theme song, um, Slimer, and the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man come to life. may not be back strapping on the proton packs, but nothing in Ghostbusters the remake is like Ghostbusters the original… except for those shapeless khaki suits, the ecto-slime, the general group dynamic (all the way down to, alas, Jones as what the trailers make out to be a token African-American Ghostbuster), and the gender-flipped Boy Friday.Īnd as a new trailer reveals: a skeptical city bureaucracy that will most undoubtedly doubt the team before it relies upon them to save the day, that revamped but unmistakably iconic Ray Parker, Jr. 1980s New York, has no connection “to the original story or characters,” he argued. The new story, which tracks McCarthy, Wiig, McKinnon, Jones, and their male secretary Chris Hemsworth in modern-day New York vs. Instead, the makers of the new Ghostbusters had the gall to update a 32-year-old franchise in a way that does not reflect what he, a Ghostbusters fan, loves about the original. “We wanted to see the original cast back together for one last time, while they were still alive,” he said, speaking for untold tens or hundreds of angry nerds, “and then maybe introduce a new younger cast, work them in, win us over, and then pass it on for a new generation.” ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |