{"id":13137,"date":"2016-10-16T08:54:34","date_gmt":"2016-10-16T15:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=13137"},"modified":"2021-08-30T18:25:49","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T01:25:49","slug":"review-ghostbusters2016-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2016\/10\/review-ghostbusters2016-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghostbusters (2016) Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Ghostbusters<\/em><\/strong> (2016) isn\u2019t the hot mess the trailers showed it could\u2019ve been (this year\u2019s Alice Through the Looking Glass<\/em> was far worse) and yet for all of the potential with a talented cast, the screenplay which was co-scripted by Paul Feig, was pretty bad, with the jokes falling utterly flat.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ghostbusters<\/span>
\n(2016)<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Genre(s): <\/strong>Comedy, Supernatural
\nSony | PG13\/Unrated \u2013 117 min. \/ 134 min. \u2013 $34.99 | October 11, 2016<\/p>\n

Date Published:<\/strong> 10\/16\/2016 | Author:<\/strong> The Movieman<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/td>\n		\n\n\n\n\n\n
MOVIE INFO:
\n<\/u>Directed by: <\/strong>Paul Feig
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis (1984 film written by), Katie Dippold & Paul Feig (written by)
\nCast: <\/strong>Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Charles Dance, Michael Kenneth Williams, Chris Hemsworth, Neil Casey, Andy Garcia<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DISC INFO:
\n<\/u>Features: <\/strong>Audio Commentaries, Featurettes, Deleted Scenes, Gag Reel
\nDigital Copy: <\/strong>Yes
\nFormats Included: <\/strong>Blu-ray
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Audio: <\/strong>English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
\nVideo: <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 2.40
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English SDH, English, Spanish
\nDisc Size: <\/strong>46.5 GB
\nCodec: <\/strong>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A, B, C<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\n

THE MOVIE \u2014 2.5\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Much has been made about this remake of Ghostbusters <\/em><\/strong>but I won\u2019t get into the politics and instead review based on, gasp, the movie itself. Truth be told, I didn\u2019t dig the idea of a remake (male or female leads) and once I saw the first trailer, which I felt was misleading, any expectations were dwindled. Honestly, this is kind of in the middle, not so awful I was angry and yet it\u2019s like most remakes\/reboots nowadays, no real need for it and I suspect it will be forgotten in year\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

Note: <\/strong>This review contains MAJOR SPOILERS<\/strong> concerning the plot.<\/p>\n

Abby Yates (MELISSA MCCARTHY) and Erin Gilbert (KRISTEN WIIG) are physicists and former friends, once co-authoring a research book on the paranormal. When Erin is up for tenure ship at a local university, and discovering Abby put their book back up online, asks Abby to take her name off. She\u2019s of course met with resistance and snark (per any McCarthy characters in the past) and upon visiting her lab where she\u2019s continuing working on proving the existence of ghosts, Erin meets Abby\u2019s new partner, the quirky Jillian Holtzmann (KATE MCKINNON). She tags along with them to investigate a paranormal attack at an old mansion where they meet the home\u2019s former maiden and Erin is slimed.<\/p>\n

Despite getting the ghost on video and uploading on the Net, they are met with vitriol and called fakes and when the president at Erin\u2019s university discovers it, she\u2019s denied tenure. However, with her passion for the paranormal renewed, Erin joins Abby and Erin to starting their own company as others in the public begin to believe in them.<\/p>\n

And there is something going on in the city. A mad scientist named Rowan North (NEIL CASEY) is summoning the spirits in order to bring upon the apocalypse by planting some sort of device around the city that does something or other, not quite sure what. One such device is placed on a subway line and discovered by MTA worker Patty Tolan (LESLIE JONES) and upon witnessing a ghost, she goes to the others, offering to join the team given her knowledge of the city streets and buildings. A bit of a stretch but as with the 1984 original, they need and everyman (everygirl) for the team.<\/p>\n

With the business thriving, they hire a good looking but utter dunderhead guy named Kevin (CHRIS HEMSWORTH) as their secretary, but the guy\u2019s so stupid that I wonder how in the hell he can get out of bed, tie his shoes and make his way to work. Truly, the guy is an idiot, but I suppose it\u2019s in line with the over-the-top comedic tone for the film.<\/p>\n

The remainder of the film has them coming onto the scene, testing new devices created by Holtzmann, garnering more public support while the government, and NYC mayor (ANDY GARCIA) wanting them to remain underground as not to spook the public, and their attempts to uncover Rowan\u2019s diabolical plans which eventual, as revealed in every trailer, has a spirit taking over Kevin\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

The problem with this Ghostbusters<\/em><\/strong> incarnation that the villain was rather weak and his motives boiled down to that Rowan was angry for being bullied and looked down upon throughout his life, and that\u2019s why he wanted to bring upon the apocalypse no matter what (going so far as to sacrifice himself). However, it\u2019s not as if Ghostbusters 2<\/em> had any better of a villain but to me, the key to that film\u2019s success was with its 4 cast members (well, three as Winston was more of an afterthought) and the chemistry they shared, held over from the first film.<\/p>\n

For this film, the four key leads, talented as they might be \u2014 and admittedly I\u2019m not the biggest McCarthy fan (though I acknowledge her popularity) and Wiig has done good work in the past, namely The Skeleton Twins<\/em> and the others I haven\u2019t seen enough of (haven\u2019t watched SNL<\/em> in decades) \u2014 they\u2019re really not given much to work with in a half-baked script with jokes that fall utterly flat and in the case of a character like Kevin, it\u2019s so over-the-top and ridiculous that it\u2019s hard to laugh at someone who clearly has some mental issues (when we first meet him, they ask Kevin to leave to talk about him so he covers his eyes so he can\u2019t hear them).<\/p>\n

This Ghostbusters<\/em><\/strong> isn\u2019t all bad. While I wasn\u2019t a fan of the overly bright colors of the ghosts, the idea of the spirits on the other side of mirrors attempting to come to our realm is creepy (in theory) though unless I missed something, not entirely sure why the mirrors collected by Rowan had a link to the other side. I also thought some of the visual effects weren\u2019t bad, some nice homage to the original (although the cameos were a bit much and Bill Murray seemed utterly disinterested) and after my initial dissatisfaction with the new Ecto-1 Hertz, I kind of dig it seeing in action that said, the original old ambulance is still my favorite.<\/p>\n

Ghostbusters<\/em><\/strong> (which I guess now adds Answer the Call<\/em><\/strong> to the title) is hardly a horrible film, an atrocity to filmmaking in general and doesn\u2019t wipe out everything that made the original so great. This version however, since it is mostly a comedy first, has an issue of not being very funny in spite of a talented core cast and a completely throwaway and forgettable villain, one that makes Viggo look so much better.<\/p>\n

Directed and Co-Written by Paul Feig, Ghostbusters<\/em><\/strong> just didn\u2019t quite work. Feig, like his cast, is talented and all but certainly wrong for the project but Sony apparently really<\/em> wanted him, I suppose given his work with McCarthy and other actresses and had a solid hit with Spy<\/em> (a movie I didn\u2019t care for but was well reviewed critically and with audiences). I\u2019m not entirely sure how this movie could\u2019ve been fixed outside of a complete re-write and perhaps a director more interested in making a supernatural-comedy rather than something of a satire. As it stands, this is not the worst movie of the year (by far it is not) but it\u2019s also disappointed this is what we get after so many years of waiting for a Ghostbusters<\/em> film.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\n

SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

This release comes with a semi-glossy slip cover<\/strong> and inside is a code for the Digital Copy<\/u><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Audio Commentaries<\/u><\/strong> \u2013 There are two tracks included: 1) Co-Writer\/Director Paul Feig and Co-Writer Katie Dippold; 2) Feig, Editor Brent White, Producer Jessie Henderson, Production Designer Jefferson Sage, VFX Supervisor Pete Travers, Special Effects Supervisor Mark Hawkers. The first is more story and direction oriented while the second is more technical, however both are fairly light-hearted and informative.<\/p>\n

Gag Reels (15:29; HD)<\/u><\/strong> \u2013 There\u2019s so much footage, there\u2019s two \u201crounds\u201d worth of line flubs and character breaks.<\/p>\n

Deleted Scenes (9:22; HD)<\/u><\/strong> \u2013 We get four scenes that got cut, nothing noteworthy, however.<\/p>\n

Extended & Alternate Scenes (21:14; HD)<\/u><\/strong> is some more footage (11 scenes in all) that didn\u2019t make the theatrical cut.<\/p>\n

Jokes A Plenty (34:30; HD)<\/u><\/strong> is basically a line-O-rama; maybe the term is trademarked? But yeah, there\u2019s a s-ton of footage, damn.<\/p>\n

Meet the Team (8:04; HD)<\/u><\/strong> is a profile featurette on the lead actors and includes interviews with Paul Feig, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones as they discuss their respective characters and working with one another.<\/p>\n

The Ghosts of Ghostbusters<\/em> (13:57; HD)<\/u><\/strong> looks at the variety of spectral spooks featured in the film and includes some behind-the-scenes footage on how they were shot.<\/p>\n

Visual Effects: 30 Years Later (15:16; HD)<\/u><\/strong> is about the advancement of effects from the first movie to this.<\/p>\n

Slime Time (5:15; HD)<\/u><\/strong> is a featurette on the slime used and created.<\/p>\n

Chris Hemsworth is \u201cKevin\u201d (7:42; HD)<\/u><\/strong> \u2013 This featurette is on the casting of Hemsworth as the dimwit Kevin.<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Previews<\/strong> \u2013 The Shallows<\/em>, The Magnificent Seven<\/em>, Inferno<\/em>, Kingsclaive: Final Fantasy XV<\/em>, Billy Lynn\u2019s Long Halftime Walk<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\n

VIDEO \u2013 4.75\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Ghostbusters<\/em><\/strong> scares up on Blu-ray presented in its original theatrical 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and given a nice looking 1080p high-definition transfer. I might not have been a fan of the neon colored ghouls but they certainly pop off the screen quite well with vibrancy while detail looks sharp and well defined throughout. There were no issues of banding, aliasing or artifacting making for one heck of a great transfer.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\n

AUDIO \u2013 5.0\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

The disc comes housed with boisterous DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and although I would\u2019ve liked either a DTS: X or Atmos track, or at least 7.1 channels, this one is still well done providing for both clear dialogue levels for the talky scenes to nice depth and great usage of the surrounds during the action-centric sequences, especially the finale.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\n

OVERALL \u2013 3.0\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Overall, Ghostbusters<\/em><\/strong> (2016) isn\u2019t the hot mess the trailers showed it could\u2019ve been (this year\u2019s Alice Through the Looking Glass<\/em> was far worse) and yet for all of the potential with a talented cast, the screenplay which was co-scripted by Paul Feig, was pretty bad, with the jokes falling utterly flat. I doubt this will have much staying power but might be worth a rental. The Blu-ray released by Sony offers great video and audio transfers and a respectable selection of bonus features.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ghostbusters (2016) isn\u2019t the hot mess the trailers showed it could\u2019ve been (this year\u2019s Alice Through the Looking Glass was far worse) and yet for all of the potential with a talented cast, the screenplay which was co-scripted by Paul Feig, was pretty bad, with the jokes falling utterly flat.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2082,1293,1502,1927,722,2102,4327,2783,4866,2342,3722,4867,2384,452],"class_list":["post-13137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","tag-andy-garcia","tag-bill-murray","tag-charles-dance","tag-chris-hemsworth","tag-dan-aykroyd","tag-ghostbusters","tag-kate-mckinnon","tag-kristen-wiig","tag-leslie-jones","tag-melissa-mccarthy","tag-michael-kenneth-williams","tag-neil-casey","tag-paul-feig","tag-sigourney-weaver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13137"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26955,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13137\/revisions\/26955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}