Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing

Chris Luckett

If there was ever a movie this year that seemed destined to fail, it was Ghostbusters. Long before the reboot’s dissenters became an online horde, spewing vitriol and misogyny, the long and the short is that director Paul Feig was attempting to remake what is unequivocally considered to be one of the strongest comedies ever filmed.

No property or piece of art is so sacred that it’s above reinterpretation, though, as long as the execution is strong enough to support to new angle. (West Side Story, Gnomeo & Juliet, and 1996’s Romeo + Juliet are all far cries from what Shakespeare envisioned, but each still works due to that factor.)

The fact that four women would play the busting quartet was never going to be what killed a Ghostbusters remake — particularly when they were four incredibly funny women. The key would always be whether Feig could make the movie enough of his own creation. Mostly, he does. It’s only whenever the reboot feels forced to tip its hat in homage to the original that it loses its own voice. Continue reading →