What's the best movie you saw in 2016, Jacob? I don't know, here's a few.

Every year, on every corner of the net, various websites post their “top # lists” of what they believed to be the best films released during the last calendar year.  Unfortunately, they’re never subjective like they claim to be.  These lists seem to all include the same movies, just re-arranged.  They usually feature movies that just made a lot of money, but maybe weren’t really that great in retrospect (I’m looking at you, Civil War).  So I decided – along with the requests of so many people – to release my list of the objectively best films of 2016.  Be prepared for controversy.

NOTE: If you don't see certain academy award nominees, it's probably cause I hadn't seen it yet.

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The Top 21 Movies of 2016.

Tier 5 – The actual honorableist of mentions

21. Hush – Seen on October 30^th

This one’s set up like a typical slasher flick: a masked killer terrorizes a girl in her house out in the woods.  Where this film differs is in its unique twist: our heroine is independent, capable, and can take care of herself.  Oh, and she’s deaf.  Her deafness never debilitates her, however, and it’s nice to see a movie like this treat here (dis)ability with such nuance.  Yes, her deafness is the entire reason the movie’s events happen, but she is never seen as the lesser, or unable to take care of herself.  It’s realistic, is what I’m saying.

Tier 4 – Basically the honorable mentions

20. Captain America: Civil War – Seen on May 7^th

I know, I know.  I said it wouldn’t be here, but I have to.  It’s obligatory.  I had a great time with this film, and though I have forgotten most everything about it (except for that airport scene), I can’t help but recommend it - if only just for the airport scene. That scene is seriously the best group fight scene of any action movie in the past several months, at least. There are more action figures on screen than I have buried in the attic, now featuring super punches.  Seriously, it is great to see Marvel take any risk in their movies.  This movie shook up the Triple M (Marvel Movie Machine) as much as any movie could at this point.  It’s always a good time seeing Iron Downey Jr. and Captain Chris throw super punches. 

19. The Lobster – Seen on June 26^th

This movie is odd.  Colin Farrell’s a single dude enrolled in a “mate-up” program, who has a month to find a mate or risk being turned into a shellfish of some kind. The dystopian world presented herein is a reflection on our current world and its obsession with love.  This movie is technically a comedy, but its maybe the darkest comedy.  No quirky music, no one laughs or makes a weird face when somebody dies; it’s just odd people in odd situations.  Ben Whishaw’s character, for instance, purposefully hits his face on things just so he and the nosebleed girl will have something to talk about.  Butter go out and see The Lobster today!

18. Spy  – Seen on January 23^rd

I wouldn’t consider myself a McCarthy fan.  I like to know all evidence of something before I make any assumptions or accusations.  I assumed Spy would be another run-of-the-mill Melissa McCarthy vehicle - I was wrong.  This movie was funny and well written.  Melissa works as a secretary in a spy agency.  After several plot points, she enters the field as an agent herself.  There’s a strong secret-agent story here, with solid action, and a solid twist.  It’s also hilarious, and I laughed hard many times (lookin’ at you Rose Byrne and Jason Statham).  It’s a solid comedy that should hold up. 

17. Synecdoche, New York – Seen on May 2^nd 

Schenectady, New York is a surrealist’s fever dream.  Basically, after Phillip Seymour Hoffman puts on a successful play, he slowly loses his mind in an effort to top his original work.  He begins writing a story about his life, as his life happens, with his life happening around him, while the movie’s happening, while events happen during his life, which he writes about, which we are witnessing, but he’s also writing about, but also performing, while we watch…  This movie is basically a run-on sentence.  There’s a perpetually burning house, a warehouse with a full-scale model of Manhattan within, then inside that is another full-scale model of Manhattan.  It’s crazy, yet incredibly self-reflective and relatable, which has become a trope of Charlie Kaufman’s work.  If I had any critique at all, it’s maybe a little high-concept. Prepare to see Charlie Kaufman’s name a few times on this list.

16. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story  – Seen on December 27^th

I originally forgot to put this movie on here - The bad thing about the Star Wars Series now is that it’s a given they’ll be one every year - which almost guarantees it will be on every Top List of that year - which means it almost doesn’t need to be mentioned.  I’m including it for a few reasons:  1) Diverse cast (everyone is “not-a-white-dude”), 2) Awesome battles (the Scarif battle is actually amazing), 3) That robot is the best.  The plot is entertaining, but ultimately doesn’t matter; it’s a prequel to a New Hope, so you know how this ends. I’ll look forward to watching this amongst my yearly Star Wars marathons, but I’ll probably never watch it on its own.  Rogue One is better than all prequels and New Hope, but worse than the rest. 

Tier 3 – Stuff you’ve probably considering watching at least once

15. Adaptation – Seen on December 9^th

Oh look, there goes Charlie Kaufman again.  What can I say; I’m a big fan.  The concept of this picture alone is the most memorable part.  It’s about Nicolas Cage’s spiral into anxiety trying to adapt an inadaptable book.  The plot falls apart around the middle of the movie when it turns into a boring action thriller – which, if you pay attention to the plot, is the point, really. We experience Nic’s proverbial Cage build around himself as he builds it.  It’s self-aware without looking to the camera and saying, “Golly Gee, I’m self-aware.”  It’s meta-narrative at it’s best, and it’s written fantastically.  Go for Nicolas Cage, stay for two Nicolas Cages. 

14. Swiss Army Man – Seen on July 4^th 

The reputation for Swiss Army man preceded it - I had heard of the infamous “farting-corpse” film circulating film festivals, which, of course, made me want to see it even more.  I loved it.  It’s an odd love-story and a coming-of-age film wrapped in one.  There comes a point when the events of the film become so absurd you have to just lose yourself in what’s happening on screen, and just accept it.  A guy tries to kill himself and then befriends a dead body that washes ashore.  He repurposes the “poot-cadaver” into a gun, a grappling hook, an axe, etc.  Daniel Radcliffe plays a great dead person.  I’m not saying I want Daniel Radcliffe to die, but if his real life corpse is anywhere near as animated as it is here - He’d better watch his back.  That wasn’t a threat, don’t hurt me Daniel. 

13. 12 Angry Men (1957) – Seen on February 18^th 

It’s a bottle episode: twelve white dudes on a jury decide the fate of the accused.  This movie works well for a few reasons: 1) the cast is as diverse as twelve white dudes can be (vastly different backgrounds, ages, and experiences), 2a) the dialogue doesn’t really feature any “of-the-time” 1957 mentality, they’re just real people discussing real things, 2b) every character is fully developed and realized without falling into caricaturization.  Even the racists in this group are three-dimensional, and are written like real people.  It’s cool to see people talk to each other, think things out, and sometimes change their mind.  Y’know like real people.

12. Anomalisa – Seen on September 24^th 

Speaking of real people, this movie features none.  This here is number three from cough- cough- Kaufman, and for good reason. Unlike Kubo (which I haven’t seen), which uses animation to present colorful and impossible imagery, Anomalisa uses animation to tell a regular story about a regular guy.  This film follows a stop-motion animated writer named Michael, and his newfound obsession with a stop-motion animated fan, while he deals with his mundane stop-motion animated life over a few stop-motion animated days.  If you like relatable pictures, you’ll like.

11. Arrival – Seen on November 18^th

Denis Villeneuve is a master.  Every movie of his is great.  Even the mostly forgettable Prisoners still has amazing cinematography, amazing performances by Hugh Jackman and Jake Gylenhaal, and... Oh - Arrival is a very focused and realistic look at what it would be like if aliens decided to just stop by one day.  They have no pattern to the location of their ships; don’t expect to see one over NYC (New York City).  The aliens are heptapods with seven legs, which, as crazy as that sounds, is more realistic than the bipedal renditions we see in everything else.  Also, everyone wants to blow them up, which is the most realistic part of it all.   Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner are great in this.  So is Forrest Whitaker, but he isn’t given much dimension, he’s just a quick-trigger sergeant.  Arrival is the third-best Villeneuve picture, right after Enemy and Sicario.

Tier 2 – Atypical selections

10. Slither – Seen on October 5^th 

James Gunn!  Everyone loves Guardians of the Galaxy but nobody ever talks about the movies that came before; his better movies.  Slither’s the best of them all.  A horror comedy, Slither’s about blood-sucking worm-creatures taking over a small rural town.  Full of practical effects and Nathan Fillion, this one’s a grand time.  The jokes are funny all the time, and the horror is gross every time.  Featuring almost entirely practical effects.  Seriously, this shit can be gross (Exploding woman, anybody?)  Grossly underappreciated!

9. The Fly (1986) – Seen on June 2^nd

Speaking of gross, this movie is super gross. By this point you should know the basic plot:  A scientist (a Goldblum type) wants to study teleportation, but a VHS copy of The Fly (1958) flies into the teleportation pod, also.  The actual transformation of Goldblum into Brundle-Fly is incredibly disgusting and a Cronenbergian dreamscape.  However, his personal transformation is actually incredibly nuanced, and is probably Goldblum’s best dramatic performance.  It’s amazing to see a devoted scientist so dedicated to his studies that, even when he is the subject of an experiment; he is willing to do whatever he needs to further scientific thought; even if he has to completely reject his humanity. 

8. Clerks – Seen on January 24^th

If you’ve ever worked retail, this movie is your life.  There isn’t a better movie that captures the employee/customer dynamic like Clerks.  I wish Kevin Smith still made movies as bold as this.  Tusk was the last movie of his I saw that really blew me away, and just like Clerks, Tusk didn’t give a damn.  It’s a movie about Justin Long getting abruptly and painfully transformed into a walrus.  A walrus.  Clerks.  Clerks is a movie that talks like people do.  It features people we’ve all met, situations we’ve all experienced, customers we’ve all dealt with. It’s just like real life, and sometimes you need to see a reflection of your own life on screen to realize what’s really going on.  What I’m saying is Yoga Hosers was pretty disappointing.

7. X-MEN: Days of Future Past – Seen on May 27^th

No movie during the Triple M era has succeeded so much in fitting this many characters, multiple stories, and time travel into one cohesive and coherent package.  This film serves as a redeeming sequel to the alright Last Stand, a direct sequel to the pretty good Wolverine, and a fantastic sequel to the already great First Class.  It has an amazing character in Quicksilver, who is pretty much the opposite of the Quicksilver seen in Age of Ultron.  Magneto goes full evil, Xavier’s redemption story is amazing, Mystique’s motivations are questioned, and Wolverine’s character grows on his “never-ending” arc.  The future is scary, the past is uncertain.  It’s just a great drama, with action, suspense, and romance; all wrapped in a sci-fi ribbon.  I want Fox to make all of Marvel’s movies.  This is easily the best X-MEN movie ever made, and honestly my favorite superhero movie.  That is until Deadpool came out.

6. Room (2015) – Seen on January 28^th

Let me paint a picture for you:  It’s me in the center of the theatre by myself.  About four rows back, a few seats to the left sits a middle-aged woman, also by herself.  Only two or so rows in front of me, but all the way to the right of the theater, was a solitary elderly couple.  The four of us spent two hours attempting to stifle our tears, whilst hearing a chorus of sniffles all around.  This movie is a tear minefield - which is fine, because it’s a wonderful film.  It’s interesting to see our world through the eyes of a child who was raised in a garage.  It’s also very powerful seeing a mother’s point of view in this situation. Make room in your schedule to see this one!

Tier 1 – Bet you wouldn’t ‘a guessed I’d pick these titles. READ ON to find out more

5. The Wrestler – Seen on April 14^th

This is an atypical movie for Darren Aronofsky.  He’s known for his psychologically dark studies on the human condition, as seen in Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan.  He’s also known to make sci-fi films of questionable quality and realism, as seen in The Fountain and Noah.  He’s acting out of character here:  The Wrestler is a stripped down, A to B story.  It’s about a has-been professional wrester’s struggle for purpose in his post-career.   I hate to say the first time I saw Mickey Rourke in anything it was Iron Man 2; and, let’s be honest: he was the best part of that movie.  He puts on a killer performance as this wrestler, the relationship he has with his daughter is compelling in its elation as well as its tragedy.  Great movie, this one.

4. Inside Llewyn Davis – Seen on July 1^st

Twenty years from now this will be considered a new Coen Bros. classic, no doubt.  This is easily their most underrated, besides The Hudsucker Proxy of course.  It’s about a folk singer navigating the folk scene of sixties.  He just wants to be taken seriously as a solo artist after his partner killed himself.   His music is powerful, painful and real.  I didn’t know Oscar Isaac could sing before I saw this.  I didn’t know Justin Timberlake could act before I saw this.  T-Bone put together the soundtrack, and it’s the best soundtrack of any movie, probably.  I love the Coen Bros. I love this movie.

3. Wet Hot American Summer  – Seen on April 15^th and May 10^th

I had never heard of this movie until Netflix released the prequel series, The First Day of Camp.  Absurd, to say the least, WHAS came out near the end of the late-summer-teen-sexy-stoner movie trend of the nineties and naughty noughties.  It’s a parody that went over the head of its audience.  I laughed more in this absurd movie than I ever thought I would: from it’s crazy arts and crafts counselor, to the crazy talent show at the climax of the film.  Starring a ton of actors who have since become stars: Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Jo Lo Truglio, etc. Though, David Hyde Pearce might have been the best character.

2. Deadpool – Seen on February 14^th and May 13^th

Deadpool’s M.O. is meta-humor, which is the best kind.  Every moment he’s making a joke at his weird “Baraka-From-Mortal-Kombat” appearance in that perfect X-MEN: Origins movie, or his really cool animated green suit from Green Lantern.  There’s disappointingly little mention of his time in Blade: Trinity, which ruins the movie.  0/10.  In all seriousness the action in this movie is dope, the humor is dope, etc.  I’m a little worried the jokes might be outdated in a few years, but I don’t care.  For now, and for all of last year, it was amazing.  This is easily the best X-MEN movie ever made, and honestly my favorite superhero movie.  That is until Logan came out.

1. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping – Seen on June 4^th and June 11^th

Are you surprised?  Me too. Popstar is a mockumentary about “Bieber-type,” Conner4Real (Andy Samberg); his rise, his fall, his comeback with his crew - all wrapped in an insanely funny script.  Written and directed by the Lonely Island aka The Style Boyz, produced by Judd Apatow.  They’re cameos left and right.  It has a killer soundtrack that’s actually good and still funny all these months later.  When I thought about how much I laughed during this movie, how many times I’ve seen this movie, how many times I’ve recommended this movie, etc.; The answer was obvious.   This is the best movie of the year.  Popstar really is the new standard for comedy films, and without a doubt the best movie of 2016, objectively.  It’s my opinion, so it’s objective, right?

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-Jacob

Over Several Evenings: Mad Max: Fury Road - Black & Chrome Edition

I hate watching movies in parts.  By design, movies are to be seen from start to finish. It’s long-form story telling.  Short-story short: I watched this movie in two parts.  I made it about halfway through then had to go to sleep, cause I’m an old 20-something.

Also, I just remembered the hotkey to italicize, so expect to see a lot of italics.

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Mad Max: Fury Road - Black & Chrome Edition. Here's What I Thought About It.

From the Fandango Website

"Have I mentioned how cool the action in this movie is?  It’s cool.  It’s super cool.  Well choreographed and everything.  Just watch it."

It’s hard to recommend this movie – I guess, I just assume everyone’s already seen the vanilla Mad Max: Fury Road.  It’s an extraordinary action flick.  It’s so good - and that’s a shame, if only because I haven’t seen a movie like this in some time (this came out two years ago… But - you know what I mean).  I think you should only watch Black & Chrome if you LOVED the original Fury Road.  For all intensive/intents and purposes: it’s a slightly worse version of the movie.  Let me explain.

I was lead to believe this would be a straight-up silent re-cut of the film; with title-cards and everything.  No one told me this; I just told myself this enough times I took it as Mad Gospel.  This is the same Fury Road you’ve seen, but in black and white – sorry, black & chrome.  This movie is ostensibly a recoloring of an existing movie with only cosmetic changes; because of this, this writing will pretty much just talk about color – A lens with which I don’t normally see the world.  That was a joke.

The re-coloring – sorry, de-coloring - definitely changed the film into a different piece of art completely.  This version had texture; in a way the original did not.  This movie takes place 100% in a dessert.  There is a lot of sand.  Sand is gritty and gets everywhere, to Anakin’s chagrin.  When seen in color, said colors are vibrant and distracting, and the implied grit is distracted by the color.  It didn’t take me long to realize I liked the color version better.  I’ve seen this film a lot, and I am accustomed to the bright yellows, oranges, reds, etc.  Black & Chrome still looks great - but I kind of feel I was spoiled seeing it in color first.  I will say there were several moments where the use of a high-contrast black-to-white gradient was astounding.  Are italics best here?... astounding.  Bold is better.

A few moments:

• When Immortan Joe breaks back into his breeding thunderdome, the words scrawled on the walls and floor look cool.
• The Guzzoline altar the Valhalla boys go to looks like an old-school alta: light reflecting off chrome rims and steering wheels.
• When the Valhalla boys drive into the Sandstorm after Furiosa’s caravan it looks awesome.  The storm cloud has a gradient from pitch-black to grey, placed against the white sand.  Looks super-doops cool.
• When Max wakes up with his head in the sand.

As much as I would love to tell you more about MM:FR-B&CE; it’s important to note this is when I had to go to sleep.

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Just like how I waited several days to finish watching the film; I had to wait several days to finish my writing.  I know; conceptual.

Once you recognize Day-Into-Night, it’s hard to ignore.  Day-Into-Night is when they shoot a night scene during the day, desaturate it, then blue the screen to Tobias’ preference to get the “night-time” look.  Night in the regular Fury Road functions well; it feels like night.  In Black & Chrome there is no blue to rely on, and in turn the night scenes look and feel like day-time, but with cloud cover.   I mean, I get what that could mean:  Increased fossil fuel consumption messed with the clouds and the layers of atmosphere dot dot dot would essentially make everything daytime all the time – “Night” is still sunny, just slightly dimmer.  But it doesn’t really work for me here.

Fury Road was the first Mad Max I saw.  I’ve since seen them all, and one thing I’ve noticed is that he isn’t ever really the main character.  Max is a drifter who stumbles into situations and stories.  The only exception is - Max 1, where he’s seeking revenge after the death of his family.  In Max 2: Drive Angry, he drives a big truck for a crew of folks seeking revenge on some dudes, but it’s clear they were going to do this anyway – he just helped.  In Max 3: Tina’s Short Turn to Acting, Max just gets thrown into the Thunderdome to deal with Tina’s minions, whilst also helping in a coup against Tina – But this time it’s the Lost Boys seeking revenge.  And in Max 4: Drive Angrier, he just jumps into Furiosa’s story in progress.  It’s really her movie, honestly.  The beauty of this character is that he feels like a real person in the post-apocalypse; Max is not the savior movies like these tend to have.  It’s pretty cool.

Have I mentioned how cool the action in this movie is?  It’s cool.  It’s super cool.  Well choreographed and everything.  Just watch it.

Some more black and white visual treasures:

• When the dude with bullet-teeth says he is the “scales of justice.”
• The dirt bike caravan jumping around.
• Everything in the green place.  The sand is powdered-sugar white, which contrasts great against the lone power tower out there.
• Furiosa screaming into the sun looks pretty cool.

Also it's worth noting that George Miller originally wanted to make this movie in black & white.  I wish we could have seen that black & white movie, rather than this colorful movie de-colorized.

Final Thoughts:  If you haven’t seen Mad Max: Fury Road in its original color version, I recommend you watch that first.  Then if you really like that – then maybe pop in the B&C version.  If Fury Road had an arbitrary grade: it would be an A, and the Black & Chrome Edition would be an A- .


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-Jacob

Ghostbusters 2016 on the first Friday of 2017

I was originally gonna watch Ghostbusters on Thursday.  After having already caught the cold, I wanted to catch a couple laughs before I caught some Z’s.  However I felt pretty bad, and went to bed at 9:30: about as late as I stayed up when I was rebelling in 3^rd grade.  It began snowing Friday afternoon, and I thought it would also be a good night to watch a movie.  So I watched it Friday, but my desire to see it had gone by this point, and I was now watching it under some sort of weird obligation to Paul Feig, and the store from which I bought it, used.

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My Feelings on the Extended Edition of Ghostbusters (2016)

Property of BLT Communications, LLC

"They witness a ghost, and then decide to witness ghosts professionally." 

The plot of this movie, much like my recollection of it, started strong, was well paced, but then fizzled out into something else entirely.  Here we go:

Erin (Kristen Wiig) is a college/high-school professor/teacher fighting for tenure.  She has to reconnect with her old friend, Abby (Melissa McCarthy), after some spookers appear in Manhattan.  This makes sense because Abby and Erin wrote about said spookers in college, or the 80’s.  I’m not sure how old these characters are supposed to be, actually.  Abby is a scientist/professor/teacher at another place, where Holtzman (Kate McKinnon), her apprentice/sidekick/girlfriend/weapons expert, is introduced.  At this point it had started snowing outside.  Or, rather, the snow, which had already been falling, began to stick.  They witness a ghost, and then decide to witness ghosts professionally, wherein Patty is introduced because she also witnessed a ghost elsewhere by herself and wanted to be around some other people.  Then there is this weird dude that is trying to bring ghosts/demons to the real world from the ghost dimension for some reason.  He mentions being bullied a lot, but he’s an adult with weird sideburns so it seems fair.  Then some ghosts appear, they do some shenanigans, more ghosts come from hell or the ghost dimension or something…  Basically, once these characters are established, that’s about as far as the movie held my attention.  There’s a big fight at the end, but it’s not memorable.  I didn't realize the Extended Edition added 15 years to the running time.

Honestly, the development of the four mains as a group is done really well.  But, individually, it leaves a lot to be desired.  Erin is the only one with an actual backstory.  We see her with aspirations to get tenure and advance in her school of an indiscernible level of education, and she has a boyfriend-thing that has some funny moments.  She is a good character.  Abby’s only backstory is that she was Erin’s friend growing up, and there is a really funny scene they share reminiscing on a project they did on the paranormal (“Protect the Barrier”) in middle school, but that’s about it.  Holtzman and Patty are basically caricatures.  Patty isn’t the stereotype everyone makes her out to be; She at least has a job and some specific character quirks that make her more compelling than Holtzman.  Holtzman seems to be there to just make weird faces and retorts in odd situations.  I like these comedians a lot, I like Kate McKinnon a lot, but she just didn’t seem to get that much to work with here.

Chris Hemsworth is also in this movie, but aside from a few funny moments near the end of the film, he’s just a dumb/handsome dude who gets in the way.

The Cameos in this movie were… odd.  Bill Murray’s scenes were the most involved, even though he was the most against a third Ghostbusters film.  Dan Aykroyd was the most fervent on making this movie and his appearance as a grumpy cabbie was for less than a minute, and wasn’t even funny.  Sigourney Weaver was Holtzman’s mentor or something; it was gratuitous.  Well, it has to be gratuitous, that’s the point of a cameo.  Ernie Hudson appears as Patty’s uncle, which is cool.  Annie Potts had the best cameo referencing her old role: she was a desk clerk at a hotel; so basically, she was on the phone the entire time she was on camera, just like in the original.  No Rick Moranis though, which is unfortunate, but I get it.

The Fall Out Boy Ghostbusters song is actually terrible.

This movie has inconsistent special effects.  At first everything looked fine.  The ghosts had an odd neon glow; like they were being lit by poorly diffused prop lights, but looked fine otherwise.  Things got worse when this strange demon/monster/zit appeared.  This thing looked like the Pokémon Reuniclus was given polygons from 1997 then grafted onto the shoulder blade of an angry old lady.  I have a very vivid memory of this thing, because it was startlingly out of place.  I wish I had bought a scraper for my windshield before it got covered in snow, but I’m glad I put up my wipers.

There were some cool 3D effects here and there.  The entire movie was presented in 2.4 letterbox, but has matte bars covering the 1.55 it was shot in.  I just looked that up, but basically that means there are black bars on the top and bottom of the screen during this movie.  When something paranormal/ghost-like happened, things would “pop” above these black bars, which was pretty cool. I can’t say I’ve seen that in a movie before, but I know it’s been done.  My problem was its inconsistency.  One monster would face the camera, and these black bars would cut off the top of its head and the bottom of its legs, then, seemingly at random, different ghosts and specters would jump in front of these bars or remain behind them.  I’m telling you: I wasn’t expecting it to snow this much.  Furthermore, near the end of the movie the frame goes full screen when we see the “ghost dimension,” which is pretty cool in theory, but in execution it was kind of lame.  It was just an odd choice, and I’m not sure how else to talk about it.

I really don’t get the hate of this movie.  It’s not bad, just mediocre.  It’s fitting I watched it now, considering it’s a typical January quality comedy they released in October.  I guess this was so the ghosties would be out at the appropriate times.  Seriously, if you ignore the history of the original Ghostbusters and see this as its own piece of history; i.e. a modern movie made with all female leads in a genre dominated by dudes, then you might like it. Or if you're a young person, aka the audience for this movie, this might trigger your to watch the superior 1984 film of the same name.  But I warn you: they replace all of the women with dudes.

Ultimately: I’m snowed in, I’m off work, This movie was alright.


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-Jacob