Who ya gonna call?
Taking a break from Wrestlemania/wrestling this week to write about something that is usually covered by the more filmcentric reviewers, but I wanted to give it a shot anyway, and that’s the Ghostbusters reboots that have been making the rounds in the last couple of months.
I’m sure some of you have seen the news that Sony announced that they are working on a reboot of the classic Ghostbusters movies, with a Channing Tatum lead “male driven” movie being announced after they had already announced an all female lead movie months ago. This opens up a can of worms that I think Sony really needs to sit down and contemplate.
First, I’ll be up front. I liked the original movies. They are really good, but at the same time I’m not a super fan of them either. My only real pet peeve was that the Winston character was treated almost as an afterthought and pretty much useless, but that’s beside the point. Over all they are funny and entertaining movies. I had heard for years that there was a push for a third movie and that one was being worked on, but it wasn’t like I was sweating it out waiting for it to be made. As the decades rolled on, when the topic came up, I wondered what kind of movie it would be with the main actors 20 odd years older. Then when co-writer and star Harold Ramis died last year, I think that really put a halt to their being a really good third Ghostbusters movie.
Sony seems to have thought the same thing. This past January, it was announced that it was producing a rebooted Ghostbusters movie, featuring an all female cast. I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy. I’ve become weary when the term “reboot” is used in this day and age, usually it means “We took a script and tacked on a familiar name to it to sell tickets”. Star Trek comes to mind as the only reboot that was any good. Then it was announced that 3 of the four leads were SNL cast members, current and former. I groaned. I haven’t found SNL funny in years. Of the four leads, I’m familiar with Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, and Leslie Jones and none of them really strike me as funny. I tend to be a Tina Fey/Amy Poehler type. But a lot of the women I know heralded this as a victory for equality for women in entertainment. I’d rather wait for the actual movie to be made before I decree this a victory of anything. If you want to count casting four women in the leads of a long over due, but off the mark, reboot to a movie last seen 25 years ago with no connection to the originals a victory, than more power to you.
The plot got thicker it seems within the last few days when Sony announced it was working on another Ghostbusters reboot, this time with Channing Tatum in the lead of a more “male driven” movie, forming a Marvelesque style franchise of Ghostbusters movies for down the line.
Yeah, even I can see the flaws in Sony’s thinking in this.
First, why? The first reboot hasn’t even been made yet and you are already touting a second remake with completely different leads. Call me cynical, but that makes it feel like Sony just announced that the first reboot is nothing but a useless money grab to appease women movie goers by “throwing them a bone” and tokenly trying to look like they are being progressive. Like I said, I wasn’t expecting the female lead reboot to be a classic anyway, but pulling something like this doesn’t help the matter. All those women fans you were trying to get with that movie are pretty much turning against you already and the movie hasn’t even finished being made yet. Way to undermine your own movie guys.
Another obvious point is that Sony is describing the second movie as “male driven”. Yeah, THAT instills confidence in either movie. To me that makes it sound like the first movie is going to be a crying chick flick with rainbows and princesses, while the second is going to be full of explosions and macho one liners. Sony pretty much admitted they didn’t expect guys to want to see the first movie because of the women leads in just two words. That doesn’t sound very progressive to me does it?
Beyond that, Sony seems awfully confident that either of these movies is going to be a hit with audiences anyway to already be planning to make an entire franchise out of the name Ghostbusters. Sure, they brought in Dan Akroyd and original films director, Ivan Reitman, but that doesn’t guarantee anything (notice Sony announced involvement of these two with the announcement of the “male driven” movie). I realize this is hardly the first time this has happened, but seriously, what will happen if both movies tank? Sony will look real damn stupid if the first movie tanks and then trots out another movie that does just as bad. I’d wait until at least one of the movies comes out before I’d even think about using the franchise tag, especially when it comes to reboots. Sony in one fail swoop not only undermined its own movie, it riled up a large part of the movie going public, and showed overconfidence in itself all in one go.
But then again, I’ve always wanted more originality in movies anyway.
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