Thursday, January 29, 2015

Busting Barriers

My phone buzzed with a warning tweet from a good friend of mine. "@OfficialRMorris Movie tweets are coming." He, much like me, loves film as both entertainment and a beautiful art form. Hearing this, I knew what was coming: a reaction to the Ghostbusters news. The beloved duo of movies that have evolved into one of the most iconic comedy movie series (think about it. If you say "Who you gonna call?", odds are very good that you'll get a reply of "GHOSTBUSTERS") is now officially getting a makeover, but not just a normal makeover, one with an all-female cast of Kristen Wiig (Former SNL), Melissa McCarthy (Tammy, The Heat, St. Vincent), Kate McKinnon (Current SNL) and Leslie Jones (Current SNL). So when my phone continued buzzing with Twitter notifications alerting me to the next 5 tweets voicing his displeasure, it did not surprise me. Honestly, I tended to agree right at the outset. 1) This is a blatant cash grab. 2) If you are going to do this, you should get better actresses! 3) The director Paul Fieg has not really made a movie that I thoroughly enjoy yet. I should be worried. I should be mad.

So why is it that I am strangely ok with it?

As a self proclaimed "Pastor of Cinematic Experiences"/film enthusiast/indie lover/Hollywood cynic, I should be enraged at the prospect of this! Right? Right?

This is what scares me. The more I thought about it and the more I wanted to be irritated about it, the more I began to like this. Why?

Ask yourself this question: when was the last time you watched a big time movie that gave you a primarily female cast? Scratch that: when was the last time you saw ANY movie with a primarily female cast? What about one that was more concerned with presenting the female (females if you are watching a progressive enough movie that has more than 1 female main cast member) cast as characters that were treated more like human beings and not eye candy? This film may have a chance to break this mold. We can get a movie that presents the lady cast as human beings that are legitimately funny or have some legitimate acting talent (Look up the movie "The Nines" if you doubt McCarthy as an actress).

The possibilities for this movie excite me. Will this be one of the greatest cinematic works of all time? I doubt it. Will it involve "stupid" comedy that resorts to cheap laughs from time to time? Most likely. Then again, so did it's predecessor. Before Ghostbusters, Bill Murray was the silly man in "Stripes" and the moron hitting flowers in "CaddyShack". Dan Aykroyd was an extra in "Temple of Doom", and Harold Ramis couldn't get a movie role unless he wrote it for himself. What's interesting is that the female cast proposed for this reboot has a better pre-Busters resume than the original cast did. But the possibility of getting a movie that, if smartly written and well executed, can break down some of the barriers that women in movies tend to have is awesome. I am excited to see a reboot that is a new spin on a (now) classic story, and to have the female presence take a back-seat to the laughs and good story presented.

...now if only they could get Tina Fey to co-write...

What are your thoughts? Are you ok with this news? Why/why not?

-Raymond Morris


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