How Does The Original ‘Ghostbusters’ Director Really Feel About The Reboot?

Everybody on the internet is painting it like I have been sayin, g ‘If you don’t like it, you’re against women.’ I’ve never said that, ever.

More than three decades later, that comic romp (whose critical and commercial success prompted a less-admired 1989 sequel) is still very much a part of pop culture, and “Who you gonna call?” endures as a catchphrase. “The idea that the story is continuing with these really talented people, this extraordinary cast, (is) very much in the spirit of the first movie”. The problem isn’t that Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson created characters too iconic to surpass; the fault lies in the fact that this new “Ghostbusters” doesn’t want us to forget them, crafting its new team in the earlier team’s shadow. Indeed there was free snacks and soda in the lobby! Feig made the smart decision to keep them on the more cartoony side, though they certainly can be menacing. Then we were, like, how can we have a little fun with those things in a way that fans of the original will get a kick out of and yet a new generation that hasn’t seen the original movie or doesn’t know it by heart can see these things come to fruition and how the Ghostbusters started. So literally, a crowd was pleased. So I understand – I completely get why people are nervous, so you just go… all I can ask is please, just judge the movie on its own merits.

And let’s look at the big picture. It’s not something you’d really notice in a scene that has a lot going on.

The answer harkens back to January 2015, when director Paul Feig announced the new film would star Leslie Jones, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon. Since becoming one of the go-to comedy directors after “Bridesmaids” was one of the biggest hits of 2011, he has continued to make some of the funniest movies of the last few years, in large part because he’s cast McCarthy in his movies. Subway worker Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) then contacts the newfound agency to alert them of her sightings underground, to then join the collective, and the four women become the “Ghostbusters”. The fantastic thing about the original “Ghostbusters” is it plays to every demographic. And as with Jurassic World, the charisma of the stars is what gives it a fresh coat of paint. It’s like giving a book review to an author who’s like “I haven’t written it yet”. McKinnon’s Jillian – who I’d imagine will be loved and not loved in pretty equal measure (I warmed to her) – is utterly in keeping with the tempo of things with her non-stop energy. The four leads work nicely as a team, and there’s one sequence with McCarthy in particular that’s flat-out excellent (can’t divulge more there for spoiler reaons).

Along the way we also meet Neil Casey as Rowan North, a creepy hotel employee who has some scheme to bring the apocalypse to life. Some of it is just overkill; not one but two characters deliver a variation of Annie Potts’ famous line as the Ghostbusters’ grumpy receptionist, “Ghostbusters, whaddya want?!” It’s a shame, too, because much of the movie works on paper. It’s clear from the immediate reactions online to her nutso take on the nuclear engineer that people were excited for the comedy she was performing.

“I just wanted to make the funniest movie I could and I work with the funniest women on the planet”, he said. No amount of overcompensation will change the minds of people who’ve dismissed a movie before they watch it, and viewers who are on board with the idea of a new Ghostbusters will have to endure constant reminders of the previous one.

He added: “I love the camaraderie that the women have”.

That said, when I went to the set of Ghostbusters back in September 2015, Paul Feig talked briefly about the possibility of introducing a Ghostbusters multiverse that would allow the new team to interact with the original team.

Variety’s Peter Debruge mostly took issue with the film for being too faithful to its source.