GHOSTBUSTERS: Answer the Call

THIS IS A MICROWAVE REVIEW

Look, the first one was a classic; I can still watch Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II it's hard to beat classic (unless the classic was classic because of how bad it was - for example, whenever there is a remake of "Big Trouble in Little China" it would be REALLY difficult for the remake to be outshown by the original.)  But Ghostbusters is the good kind of classic.  You can watch either one of them today and they would still be good, family-fun movies.  I love Kristen Wiig (she was dope on SNL and her bit role in Knocked Up upstaged everybody) and Melissa McCarthy (she's just so likable in almost everything, except The Heat - that sucked) and Kate McKinnon (google her SNL stuff) and I'm beginning to like Leslie Jones (but I don't need to hear anymore jokes about her difficulty finding a man - her comedic aggression is a little unsettling, and I've dated women her size before... nearly her size); but this was like watching your old, lame uncle try hard to be funny in front of your friends who have never met this side of your family.

VITALS

Paul Feig (Spy, Bridesmaids) - Director
Katie Dippold (Parks & Recreation, The Heat) & Paul Feig (The Heat, Spy) - Writers
Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids, Spy) - AbbyYates
Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids, MacGruber) - Erin Gilbert
Leslie Jones (Top Five) - Winston Zedmore aka Patty Tolan
Chris Hemsworth (Avengers, Thor) - Kevin
Kate McKinnon - Jillian Holtzmann
Neil Casey - Rowan North
Steve Higgins - Dean

IF YOU MUST KNOW
4 ladies reluctantly join forces - 3 of them scientists, the other was black (I know... you do a relaunch and you still make the black one the obvious kid doing their own thing).  Okay, not to get on my Huey Newton (or even Huey Freeman), but that did kind of annoy me.  Clearly, Leslie doesn't have the comedic visual depth to look like a serious scientist, but neither did Kristen, or Melissa or whoever the other one was.  Anyway, these new Ghostbusters link up to convince the naysayers that ghosts exists. Then, almost immediately afterwards, they engage in a fight to save New York from a ghost invasion set in motion by the weird, disgruntled possibly bipolar man Rowan (played by Neil Casey). Rowan tries to bring ghosts across the inter-dimensional plane in a strange and surprisingly well orchestrated, albeit unexplained, and this batch of Ghostbusters try to stop him while avoiding .

There were a couple of laughs, but they were widely spread out and none of them were particularly hearty.  Overall, I just couldn't get with the direction of the movie, but I appreciate the effort. They had pretty good chemistry (as one would hope given that 3 of them have worked on SNL at overlapping times). There's a comedy in there, fo'sho.  Hemsworth added new levels to the dumb blonde stereotype and Kate McKinnon's role provided enough smirk-able moments that the movie was not intolerable and made for some decent laughs. But, not for nothing, I don't get how these underemployed scientists and the big black chick could afford all of the tools they had and equipment they build (even with the stuff they stole from their low-budget to no-budget college jobs).  If you're on a budget, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call is only good enough to watch on-demand although I have every confidence that they will tweak this enough to get the comedic balance right in the next one... I hope.

IMTHATDUDE gives Ghostbusters-Answer the Call: 2

RATING SYSTEM:

5 = You should be about halfway to the theatre by now… Well… GET!

4 = Definitely worth the bread. Niiice.

3 = I won’t cuss anybody out and demand my paper back.

2 = Somewhere SOUTH of under-whelmed./I know it has a pulse, but…

1 = Not a good look. They played me AND I played myself.