Ghostbusters may be the greatest film of the summer yet [Review]

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The hilarious all-female led reboot proves its worth as the newest addition to the ghost-catching comedy franchise despite the criticism the movie drew before its release

Susan Ramsay |
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Prepare yourself for a barrel of laughs with (from left) Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig and Leslie Jones in Ghostbusters.

If there’s something strange in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! Don’t listen to the haters, this is the funniest movie on the circuit this summer. How could it not be? Director Paul Feig has assembled a cast of the wittiest women in showbiz today, who each slot into their very distinctive roles perfectly. Add to the mix Chris Hemsworth for blatant eye candy and you have a brew as good as toxic green slime.

The opening sequence is the worst part of an entirely entertaining film. Part of the charm of the original Ghostbusters was that its opener delivered a real thrill, but the new one just goes completely OTT for an ear-numbing minute or two. Yet once that is out of the way, Ghostbusters rocks.

Dr Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) is about to get tenure as a science professor at Columbia University and is doing everything in her power to make herself seem worthy. She is alarmed, therefore, when a man shows up in her office, having tracked her down through a book about ghosts which she co-wrote in her past. He needs her help with a haunting problem at the museum that was the setting of the opening scene.

Mortified, Erin tracks down her former partner in crime, Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), to beg her to take the book off the internet so that she will not be humiliated by her pseudoscience moment and lose her precious tenure.

But once she tells Abby about the haunting, Erin is sucked into investigating it, alongside Jillian Holtzman (Kate McKinnon), a mad, bad engineer.  

The fourth woman to join the team, Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones), is working in a subway ticket booth. She has a ghostly encounter of her own and tracks down the trio.

The team is completed by Kevin (Chris Hemsworth) who gets the job as the manly mimbo secretary. The chemistry between the characters will have you in stitches. Bring tissues to mop up the tears – of laughter.

The music, which was an iconic part of the first two movies, is just as good. It was really hard not to rock to the beat in the cinema seat, so keep an eye and an ear out for the OST.

One can always tell how great a movie is by how long the audience stays in their seats after the credits start to roll. Last night, almost everyone was still sitting when the screen went blank.

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