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The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
Ghostbusters is the best film.



No, really. You don't need a background to this film because I'm sure 99% of you grew up on it. However, what I thought might be nice is to explore this film a little more deeply than you might be inclined to because of your familiarity with it.

Re-watching Ghostbusters as an adult was eye-opening. It was my first DVD, too, so it was almost like I was seeing it for the first time. Somewhere between being a teenager and an adult, I'd developed a love for production design in film. I'm not sure what caused it - probably the brief love I had for Star Trek - but when I saw Ghostbusters on DVD as opposed to mangy VHS, I fell in love with this film and I credit this movie with pushing me into looking for a career in film.

I'm not going to run with a CGI vs practical theme because that's never really interested me. Maybe it's more of a "they don't make them like they used to" thing. Ghostbusters is one of the earliest - and arguably best - examples of the "horror comedy" genre, although it's obviously more a comedy than a horror. If anything, it's a buddy movie - 4 guys blundering through a series of misadventures and then saving the world in spite of themselves. This angle is one of the film's many strengths - you'd watch these four in a film about turnip farmers, and you'd enjoy it. So even so the roles aren't exactly stretching any boundaries - Venkman (Murray) is the hustler, Stantz (Ackroyd) is the manchild, Spengler (Ramis) is the brains and Zeddemore (Hudson) is the everyman link to the audience - it doesn't matter, because you connect with these guys straight away.



Not to mention that there's precious little actual ghostbusting in the film - in fact there's only one "trapping" sequence before the finale. Everything else is about the journey, and it's those relationships peppered with gags that make the film feel so satisfying when it's actually quite light on it's title content. So how does it manage to come together as well as it does? Well, I'm not here to talk about the comedy or even really the plot, because the roles they have in the film are obvious. What I want to write about here is the other side to Ghostbusters - it's luscious art design and just what it does for the film.

What is amazing about Ghostbusters to me is that it's a genuinely beautiful film. Although it's been "corrected" in some DVD releases, the entire film has a light purple cast over it, which, when combined with the NYC architecture, give a wonderful feel of something not quite being right in the city. Spooky, but only ever so slightly. This look was enhanced by modifications to the NYC skyline; Dana Barrett's apartment block featured a tremendous Sumerian temple on it's roof, achieved through a combination of matte painting and miniatures. Lined with gargoyles and featuring a beautiful etching depicting events of the film - which sadly can barely be seen on screen - the temple was the work of legendary production designer John DeCuir, who was probably best known for his work on Cleopatra (the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor version).





In fact, the full-size set was so immense that it was not only several feet off the ground at it's lowest point, and nearly 35ft high, but the enourmous 360 degree NYC panoramic painting that set required almost every generator the studio had to light it. No corner was cut. The best part of all of this, for me, is that so much effort was expended not only to amuse you, but also to involve you. Look at that set. It's ridiculous. But it's also beautiful. Every aspect of this film was gone over countless times - from the wild initial concept to the more grounded final story - until it was honed to perfection. The art department was no exception. Comedy film or not, the art dept produced a film that looked better than many dramas or even sci-fi epics of it's day - but never at the expense of the humour. The tone of the art design was spot on, and impeccable in every way. They were serious about being funny. For example, how ridiculous is this matte painting?



But it's also kind of understated. That's the beauty - quite literally - of Ghostbusters.

Ghostbusters is often referred to as one of the quintessential NYC films - probably only just behind the original Pelham 123 in my book - and that's because the film is stuffed full of character. You can see it in the millions of different types of extras they use, and their brash characterisations. It's there in that finely layered detail (the Stay Puft billboards), and it's also because it captures that sense of scale - a huge city, teeming with life (or death, in this case). Although not the focus of the film, and certainly not the most outright stunning camerawork you'll ever see, László Kovács' cinematography captured that NYC spirit perfectly. The frame is almost never empty, and when it is, it's for one purpose - to highlight the enormity of the challenge ahead of our heroes. There are several shots in Ghostbusters that are tremendously wide. Not only is it a nice excuse to show the NYC skyline shrouded in that gentle purple cast, but it also serves to highlight the enormity of the city vs the Ghostbusters - a nice reflection of their uphill struggle against the EPA and the Police.







It's a dirty city and they're doing a dirty job - and who knows what is lurking in those streets?

Prop design is another aspect that Ghostbusters excels in. These comedy props were rigorously designed to feel tangible and real. The Proton Pack may in fact have been fibreglass castings of styrofoam shapes covered with pneumatic fittings, but they looked heavy and every bit as dangerous as Spengler implied. In fact, their design more than slightly echoes another bit of early 80's nuclear design - the plutonium reactor from Back to the Future's DeLorean time machine:





You believe in these props these comedy actors are holding. Better still, you think they're awesome and you want your own Proton Pack. A lot of this is helped not only by their solid, clunking, lock-together design, but also the sense of procedure that goes with their use. Full of fearful respect for their equipment, you're laughed through every flick of the oh-god-will-this-kill-us switch. You're enamoured with these devices capable of unleashing more devastation than any WMD - hang on, isn't this a comedy? The industrial design behind Ghostbusters was on a par with any sci-fi of the day (or since, only matched by Cameron and Scott with Aliens and Blade Runner, in my opinion). While not as well designed or as functional as BTTF's DeLorean, the Ghostbuster's car is, much like the rest of the film, larger than life.



Made from a hearse based on the 1959 Cadillac (what else), Ecto-1 is a shiny, chromed, flashing leviathan. Despite it having no real in-film function, it's tremendous presence is the perfect counterpart to the nuclear-powered chancers who drive around inside it. It has all the bravado and front of Venkman, all the technology of Spengler, and the brawn and energy of Stantz. Once you see it on screen you realise it - there is just no other car these guys could drive.

By now, you're thinking, yeah, I get it. So what? It's a good looking film and a lot of love went into it.

Well, it all comes together in the end. No-one needs to be reminded of what happens at the end of the film, but just for the sake of it, let me post this screencap.



This is a working example of what Harold Ramis refers to as the "The Domino Theory of Reality". Everything has been leading up to this one shot where a hundred-foot tall, corporate mascot rendered in malignant marshmallow appears. It's a brilliant moment, fantastically revealed, and despite being so incredibly over the top, it just manages not to break your immersion in the film. Why is this?

Gradually, things have started to fall into place. You've witnessed the impossible and downright ridiculous happen on your journey to this moment. But for every bout of insanity, it's flanked on one side by an incredulous but grounded core cast, and on the other, solid, believable art design, which puts you in a world where this can happen. You didn't think the Proton Packs and the Ghost Traps were silly. Even Ecto-1, which is best described as utterly flamboyant is presented to you in such a way that, yeah, you're laughing at it's appearance, but you're also excited for it to start doing it's thing. Every little step in the film has been leading you deeper into a world where you can totally accept the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man as being a credible threat to our heroes.

So this, for me, is why Ghostbusters is an absolute triumph of movie making. From the first scenes which mix dusty libraries with bleeping props that have waving antenna, to the midpoint with gigantic, gaudy cars and explosive backpacks inside regal hotel ballrooms, from the final art-deco-Sumerian-God-showdown - all the while strengthened straight through the middle with a rock-solid ensemble cast - Ghostbusters carefully and precisely delivers you to a joyous, over the top denouement. In that one single moment, everything you've seen, every little set-up falls into place, and you probably didn't even realise why. It's the perfection combination of all the different disciplines that go in to film-making. Better yet, it never insults the audience with it's preposterousness, or smashes down the fourth wall in order to get a cheap laugh. Sure, the joke is on you, but it's also on the Ghostbusters themselves.

Original OP courtesy of echoplex.

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The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
I just really miss having a Ghostbusters thread.

ALFbrot
Apr 17, 2002
I thought it was ok but I'm glad they cut the dance sequence and put it in the end credits.

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.
I do wonder if the Marshmallow Man works thematically as an extension of the glutton ghost (aka Slimer) that is the first ghost they do a full-on busting of, a figure that's ridiculous, surreal and more of a nuisance than a threat, but at the same time eldritch, intimidating and presenting a genuine challenge that requires the Ghostbusters to make full use of their equipment and improvise tactics and a safe environment. The supernatural is not only strange, but absurd and ridiculous, yet taken entirely seriously to show that it's no less dangerous.

It's maybe reflected a bit with the Ghostbusters themselves, as they're originally ejected from university as kooks, and Venkman is equally at home as a huckster and genuine supernatural investigator, because the line is so thin between kooky occult ramblings and an aspect of reality that's poorly understood to the point where most people only recognise its existence when it becomes too much of a nuisance to ignore. (Possibly summed up in his negotiation with the mayor; "If we're wrong, we go to jail. We'll go quietly, even. But if we're right... you will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters.")

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..

ALFbrot posted:

I thought it was ok but I'm glad they cut the dance sequence and put it in the end credits.

Dancing was really thematically important in the movie. It would've been nicer had they found a way to keep it in the movie proper, even if that would've required changes.

Ehud
Sep 19, 2003

football.

Ghostbusters is one of my favorite movies and I especially love the scene where Ray and Winston talk about Judgment Day in the car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK6hI423gcw

I always wondered what other conversations the guys had when they were driving around in between jobs.

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

Ehud posted:

Ghostbusters is one of my favorite movies and I especially love the scene where Ray and Winston talk about Judgment Day in the car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK6hI423gcw

I always wondered what other conversations the guys had when they were driving around in between jobs.

"Hey Ray, you ever dream about ghosts?"
"N..no."

Snowglobe of Doom
Mar 30, 2012

sucks to be right

The_Doctor posted:

In fact, the full-size set was so immense that it was not only several feet off the ground at it's lowest point, and nearly 35ft high, but the enourmous 360 degree NYC panoramic painting that set required almost every generator the studio had to light it. No corner was cut. The best part of all of this, for me, is that so much effort was expended not only to amuse you, but also to involve you. Look at that set. It's ridiculous. But it's also beautiful. Every aspect of this film was gone over countless times - from the wild initial concept to the more grounded final story - until it was honed to perfection. The art department was no exception. Comedy film or not, the art dept produced a film that looked better than many dramas or even sci-fi epics of it's day - but never at the expense of the humour. The tone of the art design was spot on, and impeccable in every way. They were serious about being funny.

The full Gozer Temple set was seriously amazing. Just look at this goddamn thing:




The practical work on Stay Puft was also pretty crazy:

egon_beeblebrox
Mar 1, 2008

WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tdyU_gW6WE

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
Spirit Halloween are doing a bunch more GB props this year.

Last year they put out an absolutely awesome 80% scale electronic proton pack that sold like absolute hot cakes. It's the one on the left:

Cage
Jul 17, 2003
www.revivethedrive.org
Listen...do you smell something?

Philthy
Jan 28, 2003

Pillbug
That song was pretty huge on the radio as well. I remember them playing it over and over because people wouldn't stop requesting it.

And you listened to it every. single. time. And loved it.

I ain't afraid of no ghost!

Yet another movie mom took me to see in the theater. I had no idea what it even was, or what we were seeing. I just remember after the "Go get her, Ray!" scene, I looked over at my mom and the look I gave her was "YESSS THANK YOU THANK YOU THIIS ISSSS AWESSSOOMMMEEEE"

Philthy fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Jul 23, 2018

deoju
Jul 11, 2004

All the pieces matter.
Nap Ghost
Ghostbusters is my favorite movie ever, and I'm glad for this thread.

I'm gonna spam some links...

*This book is great. I think I saw it for $20 at Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago.
*Check out this video about the full restoration of Ecto 1.
*If you've got $350 burning a hole in your pocket, I suggest you pick up one of these. I waited 30 years to get to have one.
* https://www.gbfans.com has tons of info and resources to nerd out over.
*There's a mobile game in the vein of Pokemon Go coming out soon.
*So this one might be a buzz kill, but I think it is worth reading. It's ok to still love the movie and the character, but Venkman was probably a sexual predator. I tend to think that to truly love and understand something you have to acknowledge its flaws. My grandma used to say some unenlightened poo poo, but I still love her memory.

deoju fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Jul 24, 2018

Tart Kitty
Dec 17, 2016

Oh, well, that's all water under the bridge, as I always say. Water under the bridge!

Ehud posted:

Ghostbusters is one of my favorite movies and I especially love the scene where Ray and Winston talk about Judgment Day in the car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK6hI423gcw

I always wondered what other conversations the guys had when they were driving around in between jobs.

gently caress yeah, dude. I was going to post this. It's an awesome scene, and really illustrates what makes Ghostbusters special: it's a loving gonzo movie with demon dogs and giant marshmallow sailors, but the characters in-universe still react to everything with legitimate respect and fear. Like even smartass Venkman gets the poo poo scared out of him when Slimer charges down the hall. Ghostbusters, while also being one of the best comedies of all time, is a movie with stakes. The Ray/Winston Judgement Day scene is an example of setting those stakes up, so that when it comes time for them to make the hero play and cross the streams at the end, there is an emotional heft to it.

deoju
Jul 11, 2004

All the pieces matter.
Nap Ghost
Food for thought post...
Read this..
Watch this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OB3279Vt8Y

Splint Chesthair
Dec 27, 2004


Counterpoint: Venkman pushed Peck into action by being an rear end in a top hat to him, the Ghostbusters' technology is dangerously unregulated, and it's pretty obvious that having all of the psychokinetic energy in NYC concentrated in a single place made Gozer's job a lot easier.

McDragon
Sep 11, 2007

The title was such a good line. Mind you, there's so many good lines you could probably throw a dart at the script of either one and hit a belter

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
That line’s from GB2, which isn’t as good, but still has some good bits. But I’ll agree the script for 1 is gold from start to finish.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe

Fart City posted:

gently caress yeah, dude. I was going to post this. It's an awesome scene, and really illustrates what makes Ghostbusters special: it's a loving gonzo movie with demon dogs and giant marshmallow sailors, but the characters in-universe still react to everything with legitimate respect and fear. Like even smartass Venkman gets the poo poo scared out of him when Slimer charges down the hall. Ghostbusters, while also being one of the best comedies of all time, is a movie with stakes. The Ray/Winston Judgement Day scene is an example of setting those stakes up, so that when it comes time for them to make the hero play and cross the streams at the end, there is an emotional heft to it.

I'm sure a lot of that is because of how young most of us were when we first saw Ghostbusters. I know personally that I was legitimately scared by the movie, it didn't seem like a comedy to me right away. When you're that young the comedy is almost more of a necessary tension release valve that gives you the courage to keep watching. I had many a nightmare about the dog chasing Louis, and that's gotta be one of the most hilarious scenes ever put on film, but if you're the right age it can be terrifying.

deoju
Jul 11, 2004

All the pieces matter.
Nap Ghost
Ghostbusters 2 was rushed up because of the release of Batman the same summer. If they had time for a few reshoots I think it could have been considerably better. Especially the "I, Ray, am Viggo" sub plot.

Timby
Dec 23, 2006

Your mother!

deoju posted:

Ghostbusters 2 was rushed up because of the release of Batman the same summer. If they had time for a few reshoots I think it could have been considerably better.

It did have re-shoots. They wrapped in early February, when Reitman and Ramis (who were editing the movie with Sheldon Kahn) realized that it had serious holes. So Ramis and Aykroyd hunkered down to put together another draft, dated February 27. They were re-shooting until early April, which drat near gave ILM's B-team a heart attack because they had no time to get the effects done (I believe they wound up drafting Apogee, VCE and Tippett Studios to offload work in order to get the movie done on time).

Re-shoots wouldn't have saved the movie, because it was fundamentally flawed at the conceptual stage: Because Ramis and Aykroyd didn't want to make the movie, they just wound up writing a beat-for-beat remake of the original.

Gatts
Jan 2, 2001

Goodnight Moon

Nap Ghost
So if Akroyd (Goddamn for reals?) didn't want to make Ghostbusters 2 of all people, where did he get the boner for 3? Trying to revisit popularity? Why did they all hate something so beloved?

I think it would have been better served if instead of a comedy, maybe we should have gotten a re-imagining of a serious horror movie the way Akroyd wanted it originally.

I, Butthole
Jun 30, 2007

Begin the operations of the gas chambers, gas schools, gas universities, gas libraries, gas museums, gas dance halls, and gas threads, etcetera.
I DEMAND IT

Gatts posted:

So if Akroyd (Goddamn for reals?) didn't want to make Ghostbusters 2 of all people, where did he get the boner for 3?

I would say that his bank account suffered a few hits over the nineties and early two-thousands.

Timby
Dec 23, 2006

Your mother!

Gatts posted:

So if Akroyd (Goddamn for reals?) didn't want to make Ghostbusters 2 of all people, where did he get the boner for 3? Trying to revisit popularity? Why did they all hate something so beloved?

Aykroyd was the most willing of the principals to make a sequel, but that's because he's bugnuts crazy. It wasn't until Columbia left dump trucks full of money on the doors of Murray, Ramis, Aykroyd and Reitman that everyone finally sighed and said, "Okay, Danny, what have you got for ideas?" (That's also why they banded together with Michael Ovitz, who had the infamous "no further Ghostbusters movie can be made unless all of us sign off on it" clause written into their GB2 deals.)

Ever since then, he's been trying to get his god-loving-awful Hellbent script made.

But Blues Brothers 2000 and motherfucking Year One should have been enough to disabuse anyone of the notion that Aykroyd or Ramis had anything left in the tank.

Timby fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Aug 1, 2018

deoju
Jul 11, 2004

All the pieces matter.
Nap Ghost
Hold it!

I want this man banned. Mod, this poster is in violation of the forums protection act. And this poo poo post is a direct result of it!

Egbert Souse
Nov 6, 2008

deoju posted:

Hold it!

I want this man banned. Mod, this poster is in violation of the forums protection act. And this poo poo post is a direct result of it!

Mods, is this true?

deoju
Jul 11, 2004

All the pieces matter.
Nap Ghost

Egbert Souse posted:

Mods, is this true?

This poster has no dick.

Just kidding, Timby. You are cool in my book. PS how do you know so much about restaurants in Madison?

deoju fucked around with this message at 05:23 on Aug 1, 2018

Timby
Dec 23, 2006

Your mother!

deoju posted:

PS how do you know so much about restaurants in Madison?

Because I've lived here for almost nine years?

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.

Liberal Idiot posted:

Counterpoint: Venkman pushed Peck into action by being an rear end in a top hat to him, the Ghostbusters' technology is dangerously unregulated, and it's pretty obvious that having all of the psychokinetic energy in NYC concentrated in a single place made Gozer's job a lot easier.

Peck pretty much handled the situation as badly as possible though; both considering the Ghostbusters dangerous AND not taking them seriously led to him making the worst possible decision. Like, if these guys are frauds, why would they even bother screwing around with high-intensity, expensive technology when hallucinogenics and stage tricks will do?

Splint Chesthair
Dec 27, 2004


Ghost Leviathan posted:

Peck pretty much handled the situation as badly as possible though; both considering the Ghostbusters dangerous AND not taking them seriously led to him making the worst possible decision. Like, if these guys are frauds, why would they even bother screwing around with high-intensity, expensive technology when hallucinogenics and stage tricks will do?

I agree with you completely - Peck is the worst type of rear end in a top hat bureaucrat through and through. My point is that you could see the scene going much differently if Ray or Egon is there to talk to him instead of Peter. Venkman is pretty much the worst possible person to deal with Peck, and Peck is the worst possible person to deal with Venkman.

People who hold the movie up as a screed for unfettered free-market capitalism tend to gloss over what a poorly-run enterprise Ghostbusters is. They operate a skeleton crew despite the demand clearly calling for more manpower. They expose the public to dangerous, untested nuclear equipment. They store exceedingly hazardous materials in a heavily populated area. They're openly antagonistic toward regulatory bodies. They pay their employees garbage (the average salary in 1984 was $15k, but Winston quips about making "eleven-five a year"). Any competition at all would sink them.

That's all fine - this is a comedy. Well-managed business plans and regulatory compliance are not funny. But it undercuts the idea that "Ghostbusters" should be read as a rallying cry for the free market.

Squashing Machine
Jul 5, 2005

I mean boning, the wild mambo, the hunka chunka
The Ghostbusters are role models, if the roles you potentially wanted to play in your life are pervert conman, oblivious obsessive, regular joe, or buffoon. Peck is essentially the bowtie-wearing kid coming by to tell you that you shouldn't be zapping ants with a magnifying glass because the park service recently bumped the brushfire warning level from yellow to orange, like he might be right but there's nothing fun about doing the things you're supposed to do. Ghostbusters does the good work by informing kids that you're better off being a potentially dangerous prankster than a complete buzzkill, which is a lesson I could've taken more to heart as a pathologically harmless teenager

sean10mm
Jun 29, 2005

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World
Has anyone done a post-mortem on what went wrong with Ghostbusters 2016? I don't mean garbage written by chuds mad that they let girls in the treehouse, but how it ended up being a mediocre movie that kind of just tanked at the box office in spite of seemingly being set up for success in a lot of ways.

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
It’s something I keep meaning to write. There’s lots to like in GB2016, but it just doesn’t quite gel.

Iron Crowned
May 6, 2003

by Hand Knit
One of these days I'll get around to watching GB2016

Squashing Machine
Jul 5, 2005

I mean boning, the wild mambo, the hunka chunka

Iron Crowned posted:

One of these days I'll get around to watching GB2016

Make sure to get yourself a piping hot Papa Johns and several cans of Pringles so you can really get the full experience on your Sony television

sean10mm
Jun 29, 2005

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World

Iron Crowned posted:

One of these days I'll get around to watching GB2016

It's basically watching an A grade comedy cast wrestle with a C grade script. It's not terrible, but there are long stretches where it seems like the writers forgot to even try to be funny, and the actors are just trying to power through dialogue that's just sort of there. Nothing is scary even on the level of the librarian ghost scene, nothing is really threatening and nothing seems to matter very much. By the end of the movie the heroes have saved the day, but the characters themselves don't seem that happy about it. I wanted to like it but really struggled to maintain interest.

At least that's my hot take.

Iron Crowned
May 6, 2003

by Hand Knit

Squashing Machine posted:

Make sure to get yourself a piping hot Papa Johns and several cans of Pringles so you can really get the full experience on your Sony television

Pringles are good though

Squashing Machine
Jul 5, 2005

I mean boning, the wild mambo, the hunka chunka

Iron Crowned posted:

Pringles are good though

They were, until GB2016 made them bad

sean10mm posted:

It's basically watching an A grade comedy cast wrestle with a C grade script. It's not terrible, but there are long stretches where it seems like the writers forgot to even try to be funny, and the actors are just trying to power through dialogue that's just sort of there. Nothing is scary even on the level of the librarian ghost scene, nothing is really threatening and nothing seems to matter very much. By the end of the movie the heroes have saved the day, but the characters themselves don't seem that happy about it. I wanted to like it but really struggled to maintain interest.

At least that's my hot take.

The biggest problem I can see is that Feig just isn't comfortable with dead air and doesn't seem to understand the concept of a beat. Everyone has to be talking all the time, to the point where everyone's practically tripping over each other to get their lines out. It's a shotgun approach to joke-writing that speaks less to crafting specific jokes that you know will land and more to just throwing poo poo out there and hoping something works. It trades the confidence of the original for a wall of noise that just levels everything.

Squashing Machine fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Aug 1, 2018

Splint Chesthair
Dec 27, 2004


The remake is okay, but it suffers from that loose, sloppy feeling that so many comedies have today. That wouldn't be as much of an issue if it wasn't a movie that depended so heavily on the concept and the special effects. So much of the comedy in Ghostbusters 2016 comes from situations that have almost nothing to do with the supernatural elements, which leads to the ghost stuff feeling tacked on. It's at odds with itself.

That's not to mention that they had a ready-made peg to hang the whole movie on in the form of Wiig and McCarthy's relationship and they did nothing with it. Feig had a chance to make a movie with a real emotional core - setting it apart from the original - and he biffed it. It's why the pushback against the misogyny from him and the studio rang so hollow to me. Yeah, it's great that they made a big-budget, four-quadrant franchise movie centered around four women, but it was played so safe and by-the-numbers that there was no compelling reason for the movie to exist other than extending the brand.

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ConfusedUs
Feb 24, 2004

Bees?
You want fucking bees?
Here you go!
ROLL INITIATIVE!!





My take on GB2016 is that the first act is pretty good, the second act is serviceable, and the last act is utter garbage.

I loved pretty much any moment when it was just the crew hanging out together, reacting to weird poo poo, and investigating said weird poo poo. It went to hell the moment the big threat started driving the plot.

Also, this is the movie that proved (to me) that Chris Hemsworth is hilarious. There were always hints of it in his other roles, but I don't think he really got to cut loose before GB2016.

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