Money For Old Rope

Say what you want about the 1980's as far as music and fashion goes but I think you have to agree that the decade gave us some of the most iconic and cult classic movies of all time. There were many films released in the 80's that are held dear to those of us who lived embraced them as cherished parts of our childhoods. Our love for these films is so strong that we have shared them with our children in the hope that they see in them what we did and that they will take them with them into the future when they too will pass them along to their own kids.

The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, ET, Top Gun, Back to the Future, the list is seemingly never ending but right there near the top of the pile, loved by virtually everyone who has ever seen it is a little movie called Ghostbusters. Released in 1984 Ghostbusters was directed by Ivan Reitman who was best known at that point for Stripes which had been released three years earlier. Reitman teamed up once more with Stripes writer Harold Ramis (who had also written comedy hits such as Caddyshack and Animal House) who wrote Ghostbusters with Dan Akyroyd who in 1980 wrote and starred in another comedy classic in the form of The Blues Brothers.

The early to mid 80's were a real boom time for comedy as the landscape at that time contained the likes of Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy and John Candy to name but a few. When it came to Ghostbusters Akyroyd and Ramis cast themselves as two of the four protagonists and after John Belushi fell through Bill Murray became the third member of the team, he was also a part of Stripes which led to an instant chemistry between the three. The final member was a little more out of left field as Ernie Hudson did not have the background in comedy that the other three did and had at that point worked mostly in tv playing bit parts in shows such as The Incredible Hulk and The Dukes of Hazzard. Not that he was out of place here however as he too was perfectly cast and just clicked with the others.

Filling out the cast were the likes of Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis and William Atherton all of which came together to make a film that is so beloved that it is part of an exclusive group of movies that fans declare as untouchable in regards to being remade. Which of course brings us kicking and screaming into the modern age of Hollywood where even the most sacred of cows is ripe for rebooting or remaking as a complete lack of originality has brought to to an age where the likes of Hitchcocks Psycho, Annie, Carrie, The Evil Dead, The Karate Kid all films that nobody ever wanted to see a new version of and yet all of which have been remade and all of which were not a patch on the originals and all of which did nothing to enhance the careers of anyone involved.

So here we are now in 2016, its been 32 years since Ghostbusters and 27 years since Ghostbusters 2 which whilst not as good as the original is still fondly regarded by fans of the franchise. In the years since there has been much talk of a third film starring all of the original cast but nothing ever came of the rumours as Bill Murray steadfastly refused to take part.

However in 2014 news broke that Paul Feig was in talks to direct a new Ghostbusters film which rather than being a sequel would actually be a dreaded reboot. This immediately put my back up as Feig was at that point best known for Bridesmaids and The Heat, both of which are in my opinion just not very funny. He would then in 2015 direct Spy which again starred the simply unfunny Melissa McCarthy and again was not humorous in any way shape or form. Now this is not just a dig at Feig and co, it is in fact my feelings on the general state of comedy in the 21st Century. Call me a traditionalist but the likes of Adam Sandler and Josh Rogan just do nothing for me and there is certainly nobody out there right now who is anywhere near the calibre of the aforementioned Bill Murray, but again this is just my opinion and what do I know!!

Feig went on to announce that the reboot would have nothing to do with the films from the 80's and that the Ghostbuster team would be comprised of an entirely female cast. Now let me state for the record that my issues with this film have NOTHING TO DO WITH A FEMALE TEAM, they could have cast four men, or four children, hell they could have cast Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Doug Bradley and the man himself Bruce Campbell as the team and I would still have taken issue with the film because frankly as much as I love those four actors there is still absolutely no need for a new Ghostbusters film and anyone who was involved in greenlighting this project should hang their heads in shame.

So now we get to the trailer which landed last week and which confirmed every fear that I had about this film. There is just so much wrong with it that its almost impossible to know where to begin. THe jokes fall flat, the set pieces are all virtual carbon copies of things that we have seen in the original two films and the slightly racist undertone is quite uncomfortable to watch. It's clear that the film is not for me or frankly for anyone who loves the originals, it is obviously aimed at the same audience that brought in $288,000,000 for Bridesmaids. Not that there would be anything wrong with this if it was just a standalone movie about catching ghosts but the fact of the matter is that it is pretending to be Ghostbusters and that is its biggest crime. In fact the claim that this is a new movie for a new generation and not necessarily for we franchise fans falls at the first hurdle as the trailer opens with a direct reference to what has come before and as already mentioned the film rips huge parts of what we loved from what has come before (ghost in library, someone being slimed, Slimer).

Once the trailer was released the internet exploded as fans the world over condemned it for trampling all over the franchises former glories. The official Sony channel currently has 181,000 likes for the trailer but 406,000 dislikes and Youtube is awash with reaction videos which are almost universal in their condemation. In response to this Feig came out swinging on Twitter but his rallying against those fans who had taken to social media to vent their frustrations has really only made the hatred worse. Yesterday a new international trailer was released in attempt to quash some of the backlash but that too fell flat as in my opinion it was even worse than the first one and left me even less enthused about the movies release, not that I ever had any intention of watching it anyway.

The war cry of all those involved with the film is that anyone who rallys against it is doing so because they are sexist and do not want to see women Ghostbusters. Now are there fans out there who have sexist motivation for their hatred? Yes of course there are, it would be stupid for anyone to say otherwise but the vast majority of fans (myself included) hate these trailers and pour scorn on the Feigs film not because of its use of women but because IT JUST LOOKS LIKE SHIT. And thats it, nothing more, nothing less, we hated the idea of a remake, we hated even more the thought of Feig being handed the reigns and then finally we hated the godawfulness that has been what we have seen thus far in the trailers.

Will this film make money? Honestly I hope not as should it bomb then hopefully that will be the end of the whole sordid affair. The talk is that off the back of this movie Sony intend to have an extended universe which more female driven sequels as well as a seperate set of films with a male cast, the only way this doesnt happen is if we show our distain by not giving them our money buying tickets to see the film.

Will the film actually be better than I think its going to be? Maybe, maybe not, I for one am not holding out any hope whatsoever. Lets just hope that in 12 months time we have all moved on and the name of Ghostbusters has not been tarnished forever.