Paranormal

F**k You, Trailer Haters! Ghostbusters Killed It!

Rebooting a cult classic like Ghostbusters is as risky as crossing the streams but director Paul Feig has managed to throw in just the right amount of brilliant mixed with some throwbacks and cameos that will have fans whooping in their seats.

July 10, 2016

This page is more than eight years old and was last updated in November 2018.

The fact that the leading cast are all female makes no difference to the plot. Done.

The Ghostbusters reboot came, I saw, it kicked ass!

A whole new generation is about to become obsessed with proton packs as they search for class 5 apparitions. Kids will love this film. The special effects are beyond anything we could have imagined as children in 1984.

This time around it'll be Erin, Abby, Holtzmann and Patty figures kids'll be playing with, although they might be joined by some familiar ghostly friends.

Going in to this movie I was worried, the trailer is the most disliked trailer of all time on YouTube but I wanted to like it. My fears subsided pretty quickly when the opening line of the movie got a big laugh in the cinema. And the laughs didn't stop there, this is easily one of the best comedy movies I've seen in a long time and there were a couple of jump scares too if that's your kind of thing. In fact, it's the first Ghostbusters movie to get a PG-13 classification in the US.

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When we meet the new ghost busting team, played by Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones, their situation is pretty similar to that of the original Ghostbusters. The team's formation and the backbone of the story doesn't stray too far from the original but the plot line is a little more elaborate than the classic movie and a much better premise than that of Ghostbuster II.

The one thing the new team definitely have over the 80s quartet is that their ghost busting kit is proper kick ass but that doesn't stop one giant beast of ghost squaring up to them in the climax to the movie. In fact this big spook was a bit of an unexpected nod to the original... no, it's not who you're thinking. It's far more obvious than that, but you'll never guess.

Cameos & Homages

As well as the giant end of movie boss, for fans of the franchise there's a whole bunch of other clever surprises to look out for, including a fleeting tribute to Harold Ramis as a bronze bust in a university hallway. In total, I counted eight cameos, that includes two ghosts and a familiar building.

The cameos probably aren't what you'd expect but they're very well done and each one of them got a cautious applause from the cinema audience, trying not to drown out the dialogue with cheering. The last-but-one cameo was especially good, the set up to it was great and the audience did give a more energetic cheer when he showed up outside GB HQ near the end of the movie.

Chris Hemsworth As Kevin

Move aside Melnitz, as the Ghostbuster's receptionist, Kevin provides far more laughs. Casting a male, dim-witted, himbo, receptionist could have gone badly wrong for the movie but Chris Hemsworth's character is brilliantly funny, yet ridiculously stupid. He has some great lines including one about his pet called Michael.

Unlike a lot of movies, all of Ghostbusters' best jokes weren't ruined in the trailer, there are far too many jokes and funny moments to pack in to a two minute promo. The whole movie was a lot funnier than I thought it would be, albeit a little cruder, more slapstick and less sarcastic than the originals.

“Ain’t no bitches gonna hunt no ghosts.”

Ghostbusters Cast Interview

My favourite showbiz reporter, Kevin Hughes was lucky enough to get to chat to the Ghostbusters themselves. Check out his interview in which the girls talk about what it was like putting on those iconic brown cover-alls.

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