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Paul Feig's GHOSTBUSTERS - a tragedy
10 years ago
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When I heard that we were soon to be graced by a new GHOSTBUSTERS movie, with an all-female cast, I was instantly worried. It stunk of stunt casting. Rule 63 personified. I could hear the hollywood bigshot in my head grinning over a sloppy martini glass "We need an angle. Let's put some chicks in it. Chicks are hot right now."
However....
If you've been reading the IDW comic series, they actually do an entire multi-issue story arc about the concept of an all-female team (led by Jeanine), and the hassles that go with being in it (from not being taken seriously or regarded as "real" because they aren't "the guys" to being forced to wear skimpy, impractical little fashion-model costumes, and then getting banged up and bloody when they have to battle a ghost while wearing them.)
So it's been done, and it worked.
Maybe this reboot wouldn't suck.
I allowed myself to become hesitantly optimistic. It was still a reboot, which seemed like a really DUMB idea, considering that the GHOSTBUSTERS was built on the idea of selling franchise rights to other teams, in other cities.
.....But, no.
It's going to suck.
It's going to completely suck.
So what's the problem?
Let's start with the teaser images that have been released this past week..
Proton packs that look less like functional equipment, and more like twenty minutes in the garden section of Home Depot:
http://i2.wp.com/bitcast-a-sm.bitgr.....roton-pack.jpg
(Is that a tool box lid?)
An Ectomobile that looks like they spent about ten dollars and half an hour building it:
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/.....7/p02wn7r2.jpg
(Why is the symbol on the doors bisected by the goddamn body moulding?)
And costumes that look like bad Comic-Con Cosplay:
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media.....1394766949.jpg
(What's with the Mario Brothers boots?)
I wanted to like this film, but the more they show of it, the worse it looks.
The cheaper it looks.
You can smell the lack of both money and effort.
God damn... There are porn parodies that are more faithful to their source material, and show more effort in recreating it.
But the real kicker is this interview with Paul Feig, the writer-director who foreverafter shall be known simply as "the guilty party":
http://www.theguardian.com/film/201.....-female-reboot
Here's the money quote:
he was originally offered the chance to direct a more traditional Ghostbusters sequel.
“I just kept turning it down because I didn’t know how to do it,” he told AlloCiné. “The scripts had been written, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it. I wasn’t excited about it.”
Yes, nothing says "I am the right man for this franchise" like the phrases "I didn't know how to do it" and "I wasn't excited about it."
“I thought, if I could put four women in the lead roles, that’s exciting to me,” he said. “That I know how to do, and I know how to make that funny. And there’s so many funny women I’ve been dying to work with.”
....Seriously?
Slap some tits on it? That's how you got your head around the idea?
Right. We need an angle. Chicks are hot right now. Sloppy martini on standby.
And you had the balls to call your detractors misogynist?
This film is going to be the biggest disaster. I just hope the franchise can survive it.
The worst thing about it though, is it's likely to sour the audience on the idea of putting an all-female team on the big screen. No matter how good an idea that could be, when handled by someone competent.
Which might have actually happened, someday.
However....
If you've been reading the IDW comic series, they actually do an entire multi-issue story arc about the concept of an all-female team (led by Jeanine), and the hassles that go with being in it (from not being taken seriously or regarded as "real" because they aren't "the guys" to being forced to wear skimpy, impractical little fashion-model costumes, and then getting banged up and bloody when they have to battle a ghost while wearing them.)
So it's been done, and it worked.
Maybe this reboot wouldn't suck.
I allowed myself to become hesitantly optimistic. It was still a reboot, which seemed like a really DUMB idea, considering that the GHOSTBUSTERS was built on the idea of selling franchise rights to other teams, in other cities.
.....But, no.
It's going to suck.
It's going to completely suck.
So what's the problem?
Let's start with the teaser images that have been released this past week..
Proton packs that look less like functional equipment, and more like twenty minutes in the garden section of Home Depot:
http://i2.wp.com/bitcast-a-sm.bitgr.....roton-pack.jpg
(Is that a tool box lid?)
An Ectomobile that looks like they spent about ten dollars and half an hour building it:
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/.....7/p02wn7r2.jpg
(Why is the symbol on the doors bisected by the goddamn body moulding?)
And costumes that look like bad Comic-Con Cosplay:
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media.....1394766949.jpg
(What's with the Mario Brothers boots?)
I wanted to like this film, but the more they show of it, the worse it looks.
The cheaper it looks.
You can smell the lack of both money and effort.
God damn... There are porn parodies that are more faithful to their source material, and show more effort in recreating it.
But the real kicker is this interview with Paul Feig, the writer-director who foreverafter shall be known simply as "the guilty party":
http://www.theguardian.com/film/201.....-female-reboot
Here's the money quote:
he was originally offered the chance to direct a more traditional Ghostbusters sequel.
“I just kept turning it down because I didn’t know how to do it,” he told AlloCiné. “The scripts had been written, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it. I wasn’t excited about it.”
Yes, nothing says "I am the right man for this franchise" like the phrases "I didn't know how to do it" and "I wasn't excited about it."
“I thought, if I could put four women in the lead roles, that’s exciting to me,” he said. “That I know how to do, and I know how to make that funny. And there’s so many funny women I’ve been dying to work with.”
....Seriously?
Slap some tits on it? That's how you got your head around the idea?
Right. We need an angle. Chicks are hot right now. Sloppy martini on standby.
And you had the balls to call your detractors misogynist?
This film is going to be the biggest disaster. I just hope the franchise can survive it.
The worst thing about it though, is it's likely to sour the audience on the idea of putting an all-female team on the big screen. No matter how good an idea that could be, when handled by someone competent.
Which might have actually happened, someday.
I also agree and was about to write a similar journal since.. well.. they look to be aping he original?
In order.
Winston, Ray, Peter, Egon?
I loved how they paid homage to it in GB for PS3
a fucking hearse with a swimming pool ladder...
Hey, why not an all-female A-team? fuck.
Don't you ever make me do that again.
Have a male ghost busters movie? you HAVE to have a female one...or YOUR SEXIST against the Wumenz!
That said, I haven't got my hopes up for the film.
Example - the 2Dis from last season of Dr Who:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B0ULGQt.....L_YB.jpg:large
For that matter, the original packs were built out of bits & pieces. The crank knob. The ribbon cable, the clippard minimatic... but there was a design sensibility to them. They looked like they actually did something. There was a logic to their construction.
The original GhostBusters was about smart dialogue, one liners, and witty banter between the Ghostbusters, supporting cast, and even the villains.
However the GB Reboot stars 4 women known for slapstick humor.....
Also this is making me curious, how bad would it have been if Sandler has accepted the role he was supposedly offered.... that may have been even worse.
The actors aren't known for this type of comedy.
The writer / director "didn't know how" to make this kind of comedy.
The production design looks lazy.
It's like the perfect storm of NOPE.
You know what I'm getting? I'm get a very Knight Rider Reboot vibe off this.
They're cashing in on the name, but doing jack all to live up to it.
as for the perfect storm of NOPE .... this is hurricane NOPE
Much like the Roger Corman Fantastic Four film, this GHOSTBUSTERS project is a cheap, no-budget throwaway that is being made primarily to allow the studio to hang onto the rights.
That would explain why they aren't wasting any money or talent on it.
Besides-I love the car and think they look badass in those suits. Plus I like the gear. I mean I respect that you're not into it but it's not like there isn't tons of great GB stuff out there. If this movie does well it means we may even get more IDW stuff.
The all-female cast in the context of a reboot is dead on arrival to me. If it were a continuation of the old franchise with an all female cast replacing the old guard I'd have gladly accepetd that but as a reboot? NOPE!
I figure if they aren't going to spend any money on it, why should I?
Or at least they had help from a couple of the original cast members to write the script.
...if they had allowed their all-female team to stand on their own, as brand new characters, and not just gender-swapped parodies...
...and if they had set it in Boston as a new, separate GB franchise...
...then they'd have the potential to have made something of worth.
The screenplay and writing was finished years ago for Ghostbusters 3...
Yet this new director doesn't even have any confidence in his own damn abilities, and that is going to translate to a terribad movie.
How is it that the original scripts and such were just so beyond him that he didn't know how to do it, but then just slap some tits on everyone and it's all "full speed ahead."
What next? A politically correct "The Naked Gun" or "Airplane!" reboot with a multi cultural cast of Planeteers?
they look like they would generate way too much
heat on your back, at least with Dr. Speingler's
proton packs looked believable in a sense
that they do look like equipment made to handle
radioactive material.
this looks like a furnace glued to a stove top
and powered by burning coals.....
i think there better off with a bible and some
holy water to catch ghosts then this thing.
and yea, the cast image.....it looks cute for
cosplayers at a convention doing a Ghostbusters
theme taking a few liberties as a joke.....I dig that.....
but your right, there is money here that is being
spent.....this looks really ugly.
These new packs just look like random plumbing jammed together. They don't look like equipment.
when I heard is was an all female cast I was like "OH HELL NO"
when I heard about the new ecto-1 I has this picture of the old ecto-1 with all up to date stuff under the hood, big block over blown hemi engine, a working roofrack equipment and a whole slew of things.
when I saw it was a hearse with minimal work done to it and a big ass huge yellow light in the middle of it I was like "is this a fucking joke" I really hoped it was a joke...but nope.
the proton packs I knew would be remade for the women to be smaller and lighter ... but when I saw them I was throwing stuff out the window.
but then the outfits .... no no no no no no no no ..... they look like garbage collectors.
so the car, proton packs and outfits have all been shit on because....they are just that crap.
an all female cast ... well we know Melissa macarthy is the female ray because the male ray was short and fat.
sorry but this new ghostbusters is going to bomb faster than the Hindenburg burned..
now if it started off with the men doing it and all the ladies started to come in and finally take over then I would have given it the benefit of the doubt, but since its not .... nope.
The roof of the car is hot pink...
HOT. PINK.
All I can say is: WHAT. THE. FUCK.?
Matter of fact, your photo of the four Ghostbuster girls standing in front of the car.. shows the car with the hot pink roof if you look closely.
Really?
They might as well have gone with a guy in a gorilla suit.
http://variety.com/2015/film/news/s.....ps-1201449205/
...and they decided to start the ball rolling on this very expensive plan, by handing the reins to some jackoff who immediately invalidated their entire franchise.
In what universe was this a good idea?
where the hell is the quality control. I dont mind the idea of an all girl team...
but they need to be smart and fit into the series style. Hell Ghost busters
extreme would be a better starting point... also where IS Rick Moranas. He
Easily could reappear in the series.. but nope.. they gotta go into a new universe
because people dont want to expand a series.. just make cheapass shit versions.
its like everyone wants to be Uwe Boll