Ghostbusters all-female reboot – a potential hit or miss?

By Tribute on June 18, 2016 | 12 Comments


GhostbustersGhostbusters 2016 poster, the most controversial movie of the summer, is set to hit theaters in a little under a month, and it’s not breaking news that the 2016 reboot of the 1984 classic Ghostbusters has received a ton of backlash from the public.

With the help of social media’s powerful megaphone, a minority of individuals have been able to express their disappointment with the new Ghostbusters film in a big way. The official trailer has a whopping 877,109 thumbs down votes on YouTube, making it the worst voted trailer in the video streaming site’s history.

Amidst several critiques that die-hard fans of the classic Ghostbusters film have, the most popular seems to be the fact that the new cast — Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones — are prominent female comedians.

The cast has not been shy when it comes to responding to haters.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Saturday Night Live actress Leslie Jones acknowledged that some fans have an issue with the reboot itself, instead of it being a simple issue of a gender role reversal, saying, “When people started asking me about the gender stuff, I would say, ‘It’s not a man thing, it’s not a woman thing. It’s a Ghostbuster thing.”

During her interview with The Guardian, The Boss and Bridesmaids star Melissa McCarthy retaliated against the negativity by saying, “All those comments – ‘You’re ruining my childhood!’ I mean, really, four women doing any movie on earth will destroy your childhood? I have a visual of those people not having a Ben [Falcone, her husband of 11 years], not having friends, so they’re just sitting there and spewing hate into this fake world of the Internet. I just hope they find a friend.”

The women aren’t the only ones sticking up for the film. The cast of the original film — Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts — united with the new leading ladies on late night talk show Jimmel Kimmel Live, on which Bill Murray (who starred as Dr. Peter Venkman in the original) made it perfectly clear that he knew about the heaping pile of negatively surrounding the film and wouldn’t stand for it.

After showing a clip of the film, Kimmel asked Murray why, after numerous pitches in the past, this particular idea for a Ghostbusters reboot was appealing. Murray responded to the comment with, “It was only ’cause I knew these girls were funny.”

Murray added, “When you see the film, and you’ll delight in the film, it sort of rumbles along in the beginning and you’re thinking ‘Oh god, are they going to pull this thing off?’… but there is no quit in these girls. This is a tough movie to pull off…there’s a lot of expectation.”

He concluded by stating that he “was screaming, cheering like we were at a sporting event. Just kept screaming.”

It’s pretty clear that regardless of the pessimistic feedback, the public will be heading to theaters on July 15, 2016 to see the ladies in action and lay the skepticism to rest.

We ain’t afraid of no change. ~Emily Hatfield

What do you think about the Ghostbusters all-female reboot – will it be a hit or a miss? [poll id=”1045″]



Comments & Discussion

  1. Rob • June 18, 2016 @ 7:35 PM

    The most prominent critique is not “The cast is female”, it’s that it’s a cash grab that looks like s**t. Do you really think repeating that ridiculous charge and deleting comments will fool anyone?

  2. John Banks • June 18, 2016 @ 8:05 PM

    It will probably do as good as the Karate Kid reboot did with Jaden Smith.

  3. Rick.h • June 18, 2016 @ 8:50 PM

    This could be a disaster of a movie..I read the story a few weeks ago that the trailer was not being well received.

  4. Brian H Ramsey • June 19, 2016 @ 10:00 AM

    I saw the trailer, and it was bad and the movie looked bad too. Even if the movie itself isn’t bad, I won’t be going to see it. I will not be bullied by being called a misogynist because I don’t think a movie is good be used to make me go to see a movie. The movie wouldn’t be entertaining for that reason alone.

  5. Saw • June 19, 2016 @ 12:23 PM

    This movie is just flat out sexist!

  6. greg • June 19, 2016 @ 3:17 PM

    There are multiple problems with this catastrophe. Firstly, yes it is miscast. There’s a reason they won’t put woody allen in the next predator film. He’s just not right for the part. Middle aged, obese, women, are not a good fit for ghostbusters. Second, the leaked story is terrible. It doesn’t matter what the budget is, who directs, or whom is cast. If the writing is bad, then it will be bad. Lastly, the whole vibe is off. Ghostbusters 84 was funny, but at Its heart it was dark. This movie with Its pastel colors and slapstick comedy is not Ghostbusters. Its an Adam Sandler, ram the comedy up your rear, badly acted, poorly written, poorly executed piece of trash. Don’t get me started on the marketing!

  7. MightyMad • June 20, 2016 @ 8:43 AM

    Regardless of Sony’s current spin-machine using supposed sexism as a marketing tool to push their movie, failure for this production is unavoidable. The true, hardcore fanbase has already, loudly spoken against this remake (Ms Hatfield can claim whatever she wants, but almost a million dislike for a trailer cannot regenerated by ‘a minority of individuals’); and its current defendants may show up to support this film on its first weekend, but will definitely disappeared on its second one, given that most of them aren’t that interested in this type of entertainment to begin with, and are only backing this project as a political statement.
    Everybody wanted a continuation of the original story… but we got a remake instead… and, because we’re not willing to support it and fork our 20 bucks blindly, we’re all sexism… Sure, Sony, sure. Keep telling yourself that, while my business goes somewhere else.

  8. Jenn • June 20, 2016 @ 10:24 AM

    Remakes rarely ever work..they just are not as good as the original! Point Break that came out 2015 is a perfect example of why you don’t do remakes….you can’t live up to the cast and character of the original classic cult movie!

  9. neil • June 20, 2016 @ 11:47 AM

    I would have given this movie a chance if Melissa McCarthy hadn’t been in it.

  10. CDubya • June 20, 2016 @ 1:46 PM

    The Hollywood re-boot machine is hard at work. It does seem a case of even bad publicity is still publicity. People will want to see it just to see how it compares. There might be the odd funny parts in the movie, but like most re-boots, I have a feeling it might fail. Obviously I’ll save judgement to an actual home viewing of the movie next year (not actually going to pay big money to see in theatres) instead of 30 second commercials.

  11. Nomis G.N. • June 21, 2016 @ 11:19 AM

    Looking forward to this movie with the great cast selection. Really hoping for cameo appearances from the old Ghostbuster gang!!

  12. I like turtles • July 12, 2016 @ 10:36 AM

    Should of had a Ghostbuster team of men and women working together.


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