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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   Edited 1yr ago   38240 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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I didn't mind the idea of a remake of Ghostbusters with an all-female cast, but I ended up not watching it for two reasons:

(1) All the guff about sexism - the same tired attack that if you dare criticise this idea, it is because you are an -ist or a -phobe

(2) It really wasn't necessary. The original movie is not perfect by any means, but it's fondly remembered and it works. Hollywood has an awful habit of doing remakes that add nothing to the original. 'What would the Ghostbusters be like if they were all women of a different era and with different characters?' is not a bad idea, but it would have been better if they made them a new branch or set up in a different city, not a straight remake of the original NY Ghostbusters.

The movie ended up being completely awful due to other reasons. They just let the women prattle on and improvise for hours like it was a Judd Apatow movie, and a significant amount of that made it into the final cut. That just does not work in this sort of movie.

That's part of why I didn't watch it. The Holtzmann character was played by some actress who I believe is a comedienne? And the clips I saw were about as funny as my last dental appointment, so it put me right off.

The idea itself wasn't bad, but "let's remake the original only gender-swapped" instead of a new original Ghostbusters movie was the usual Hollywood poverty of imagination, and the execution was awful (unfunny actress didn't help at all).

I really like this review, if you've got an hour to spare: https://youtube.com/watch?v=AHUV8QLpEAc

It really probes into what went so wrong with the movie.

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