Ghostbusters

With the all-female “reboot” opening just a few days ago, we figured we ought to take another look at this one to see how it holds up, and compare it to the new one, which we will see when the DVD is released. The reviews have been mixed, but I take that with a large grain of salt, since a lot of the howling came before anyone even saw it. And it came from the miserable fanboy types who are so terrified of women that they can’t bear to have them participate in online games, or to have Charlize Theron be a bigger presence than Mad Max. Or even worse, the pathetic “Sad Puppies,” whose masculine shortcomings and subsequent whining about and sabotage of the Hugo Awards give me such a bitter taste when I look at the three Hugos sitting on my shelf. Well, the Hugos meant something back then, and I am proud to have won them, but from now on, and as long as that piece of shit who calls himself “Vox Day” wants to mock and degrade them, I fear the Hugos are a thing of the past. NO AWARD will win a lot of them, though.

Just had to get that off my chest. Now, on to the movie. It is really a comic masterpiece. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Sheer genius. They could have gone for an off-the-shelf demon. Ho-hum. It was infinitely funnier to have that giant son of the Michelin Man come waddling down Fifth Avenue. “He slimed me.” One of the most quotable lines in cinema. Sigourney Weaver looking so sexy and evil. The jaunty, toe-tapping theme song that you will leave the theater singing. “Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!!” And most of all, Bill Murray perfecting his wise guy persona. He has dozens of zingers, and just the jaundiced way he can look at something is hilarious.

I am looking forward to the reboot, something I almost never do. I will keep an open mind. I would be flabbergasted if the ladies, great comics all, turned out to make a better movie than the original. That simply doesn’t seem possible. All I can guarantee is that the ghosts and other special effects will be miles better than in the original. And so what? SFX alone can no longer sell a movie to me. And the ghosts in this one were damn good for 1984. What I hope for is that the new one is a good film. Is that too much to ask?