I ain’t ‘fraid of no girls

‘Ghostbusters’ reboot is perfectly fine

Trolls aren’t always hulking monstrosities that hide under bridges, catching and eating hapless passersby. Sometimes they come in the entitled, pathetic Men’s Rights Activist variety, hurling digital bile on subreddits at anything they perceive to be a threat to their God-given, impotent male superiority—especially when it comes to the beloved pop culture properties of their apparently sheltered youth.

Hence, they were enraged by “Mad Max: Fury Road,” where Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa kicked as much if not more ass than Tom Hardy’s titular Max. And, of course, a female-led reboot of “Ghostbusters” sent them, sight unseen, into a frothing, apoplectic fit that would be hilarious if it weren’t so dumb. “Ghostbusters” is definitely going to suck because…girls. I’m sure Sony appreciated all the free publicity, guys. Good job. You’re the new Catholic League. 

I thought it was going to suck because the trailers didn’t make me laugh—an actual affront considering this is the team behind the hilarious “Bridesmaids.” That it was yet another reboot of a well-known franchise didn’t really help to inspire excitement, either. The song, the story, the characters—the same, yet different. A shiny, new paint job on a classic car replica. Being attacked by assholes doesn’t instantly translate into greatness. 

The truth, however, lies in the middle. “Ghostbusters” is neither the disaster those MRA d-bags wished it to be, nor is it the giddy reinvention for its defenders that might have made all the flying fur worthwhile. It’s good. It’s entertaining. And, thankfully, also pretty funny.

Physics professor Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) is going for her tenure at Princeton when she’s approached by the owner of a haunted New York mansion (Ed Begley Jr.), who’s holding a book she co-authored on ghosts—a book that she never realized was on Amazon, and which could get her laughed out of academia.

She tracks down her co-author, Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), who with her proton pack-building R & D girl, Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon), ropes Erin into investigating the mansion. They find that not only are ghosts real, but they’re becoming ever more numerous thanks to the nefarious machinations of a weirdo doomsday nerd, Rowan North (Neil Casey). Joining forces with history-wise MTA employee, Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones), they get down to the business of saving the Big Apple from annihilation by supernatural hordes from beyond the grave.

Co-written by Katie Dippold and director Paul Feig, the script offers a mash-up of the first two films with a slickly modern veneer. The familiarity of the plot is “Ghostbusters” biggest disadvantage. 

The obligatory cameos from much of the still-living cast, most notably Bill Murray as a ghost-debunking television personality, as well as fan-favorite creatures Slimer and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, aren’t utilized in any way particularly funny or inventive—but they’re there. The heavy product placement is annoying. Which sounds like a weird complaint (product placement is ubiquitous in modern studio films, after all) until the prolific Sony logos take you out of a moment. Seriously, the characters are in New York City, a place legendary for their pizza, but they’re eating Papa John’s. That’s more implausible than the existence of ghosts.

“Ghostbusters” looks gorgeous. Specters, creatures, and sets, some of which owe a big debt to Tim Burton, are excellently designed. Despite the “been here, done this already” vibe, Feig knows how to make an attractive, well-paced film, and the cast’s chemistry makes all the retreading worthwhile. Wiig and McCarthy, reinventing the Venkman/Stanz dynamic, feel like old friends because they are old friends, like molecules combined on the elemental chart of hilarity. McKinnon, this film’s Egon, delivers my favorite performance as the spazzy, eccentric weapons geek. Jones, in the Winston Zeddemore role, brings a ton of heart to what could have been a generic, sassy black girl sidekick, instead imbuing her character with a depth and charisma that perfectly melds with that of her co-stars.

Among the fellows, Neil Casey is effective and creepy as Rowan, though his role’s inspiration will be forever defined by Peter MacNicol’s Janosz Poha in “Ghostbusters II.” The biggest surprise is Chris Hemsworth as Kevin Beckman, a hunky mimbo who inverts the original’s Annie Potts character, as the ghost girls’ dim-witted secretary. Hemsworth lands his jokes with Zen-like charm. 

As a remake, I’m not sure this movie needs to exist, but Feig makes a case for it whenever he lets the wonderful cast just riff on each other. It’s in those comedic interludes between the broadly phantasmagoric set pieces that “Ghostbusters” strikes gold.

For more from Joe, read his review of "Swiss Army Man."