Ghostbusters

I would give Ghostbusters a sold 7 out of 10, it wasn’t as funny as I had hoped although there were some good moments, but the storyline was good, I loved the four female Ghostbusters because there was something very powerful and moving about the uncomplicated female friendships portrayed, particularly Abby and Erin reuniting, and the film wasn’t weighed down by boring bro jokes or the sort of douchebag behaviour of the original film.

I tried to watch that recently because I couldn’t remember if I ever had, and was put off by the tawdry attempts of Bill Murray’s character to flirt inappropriately with a female student at the beginning and then his date-rape of Sigourney Weaver’s character. Yes, that’s what it is. He had sex with a woman possessed by a spirit who was coming onto him sexually and behaving in a way the normal woman didn’t, without ever getting consent from the woman herself. Yuck. None of those guys were at all likeable.

Kate McKinnon played a wonderfully zany Jillian Holtzmann, Abby’s eccentric ghost-hunting aficionado, completely unconcerned with her own weirdness, feisty, super-smart, and best of all, a gifted engineer and physicist.

Melissa McCarthy was the irrepressibly chirpy Abby, whose initially strained relationship with childhood friend Erin and their joyful eventual reconciliation was totally believable, and again, she’s clearly a sharp scientist who believes in what she’s doing and works hard.

Leslie Jones was Patty, who joins the group later but brings sassy energy, a strong grounding force and a level head, and a lot of comedy from her reactions to bizarre things.

Kristen Wiig was Erin, who I felt I understood completely in her struggle to be appreciated by staid patriarchal academic figures, a career woman who grafted hard to get where she is, but displayed she’s deeply loyal, compassionate and self-sacrificing after she decides that she’ll do everything on her own terms from now on.

Light, fluffy, lots of visual spectacle, references to the original film, a fresh new take, Chris Hemsworth as the dopey receptionist brought some laughs, overall a film very gentle on the soul without stretching the brain.