I would give some thoughts about this, but the 90% of disproving voices on Twitter with regards to an all female team for the new ‘Ghostbusters’ film pretty much sum my thoughts up and in many cases go a lot further than I would personally.
Either way the new cast for the all – female led ‘Ghostbusters’ movie was announced yesterday with much fanfare from the studio and the director, but much derision from fans of the original ‘Ghostbusters’ films, who were hoping for something a little closer to the original format.
The new cast is made up of Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon.
From what little I have seen there is no doubt that these four ladies have the comedic elements down for the key roles in this movie. I.E. the female equivalent of the four main players from the original movies. But the question is do we really need an all female led ‘Ghostbusters’ movie?
Now this where I will have to be careful when writing this article because have seen a lot of fantastic films over my life time that have been led by a female lead or mainly female cast. The wonderfully funny ‘Nine To Five’ from the 80s being my earliest exposure and the fantastic ‘Hunger Games’ movies that we have seen in recent years. But I stand by my question.
The thing is in the original it was all male cast members with the exception of the love interest and the receptionist. And have to admit that as a guy I was more interested in the receptionist in a lot of ways than I was in the main love interest, but that’s just me yearning for something different to the eye candy that Hollywood was presenting me with.
Admittedly like the derisive voices on Twitter. I’m disappointing at the decision to go with a cast made up of four female leads for this film. It seems kind of short sighted in some ways, but also to much estrogen for one movie, which I would think Hollywood are hoping to get a big mainstream audience from.
I’d have been happy if the team of ‘Ghostbusters’ was a mixed sex affair of maybe two males and two females so you could at least have some equality between the sexes, but also a little more comedy coming from the age old conflict between the sexes. You could still have reversed it somewhat by putting one of the women in charge of the team and having the love interest be hers in the film.
For me there is sadly little appeal in going to see a ‘Ghostbusters’ movie with four female leads. Not really anything in that for me to relate to. So if I do eventually wind up seeing it. It will not be at a cinema or via pay on demand. It will likely be if it happens to be on television in four or five years time.
I personally think it is a huge mistake to make this film with an all female team – and think it is most likely going to tank at the box office.
All that said. I actually find it pretty tough to watch the classic ‘Ghostbusters’ movies now. Mainly because they were hammered to death by network television in the 90s, but also because they kind of look dated now.
One of the writers arguing against this reboot of ‘Ghostbusters’ sums up the feelings of most people with the following quote.
“After years of rumours and buzz about a second Ghostbusters sequel (Is Bill Murray in? Is he out?), I can’t help but feel underwhelmed by the prospect of a reboot – and I have a feeling that would be my disposition no matter who was directing or starring.”
Personally I am just sick and tired of the Hollywood Studios rebooting pretty much every successful movie series or television property in sight. It’s getting old. Especially when you consider the amount of great books and new comic books stories out there, which are just ripe for the picking.
No matter how you try to justify it. This new ‘Ghostbusters’ film will be a pale imitation of the original. I will not count the 1989 sequel in that statement because I felt that was a low point.
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