What's your favorite line from Ghostbusters? Never mind. I can't hear you. Here's mine.
"I looked at the trap, Ray."
That's a very small, inconsequential moment, but it has made me laugh out loud every time I've seen the movie over the past thirty years. Close behind, are "Dogs and cats... living together," "They hate this," and "Listen! Do you smell something?"
These are not trailer moments. They are the small bricks in a soaring cathedral.
I feel like I've been hearing about this movie for an awfully long time. In the time that's passed since the cast was announced, I heard people talk about the book The Martian, I listened to an audio book of The Martian, The Martian was adapted to film and The Martian won the Oscar for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical (did not know that until the moment before I typed this). All of that happened without me hearing a peep about the Ghostbusters production, not, as I've just admitted, that I'm particularly attentive to this stuff.
"I looked at the trap, Ray."
That's a very small, inconsequential moment, but it has made me laugh out loud every time I've seen the movie over the past thirty years. Close behind, are "Dogs and cats... living together," "They hate this," and "Listen! Do you smell something?"
These are not trailer moments. They are the small bricks in a soaring cathedral.
I feel like I've been hearing about this movie for an awfully long time. In the time that's passed since the cast was announced, I heard people talk about the book The Martian, I listened to an audio book of The Martian, The Martian was adapted to film and The Martian won the Oscar for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical (did not know that until the moment before I typed this). All of that happened without me hearing a peep about the Ghostbusters production, not, as I've just admitted, that I'm particularly attentive to this stuff.
And the trailer didn't light me up either. There was a lot of shouting.
Going in, all we really have is pedigree. McCarthy, Wiig and Feig have done a lot of great stuff. More to the point, none of them has done anything that's noticeably terrible. The two performers that I only know from SNL are pretty funny on SNL. And, at this point in history, we know that there have been a lot of really funny people who are who have not been particularly funny on SNL. And the people who have been incredibly funny on SNL who haven't done terribly well afterwards usually fail in some sort of featured role vehicle that tries to bank on their appeal alone. Becoming part of an ensemble cast works well most of the time.
Would you like examples? Well, tough. If I had that kind of energy, I wouldn't be pretending to have an opinion about Ghostbusters the day before I'm supposed to post something.
Going in, all we really have is pedigree. McCarthy, Wiig and Feig have done a lot of great stuff. More to the point, none of them has done anything that's noticeably terrible. The two performers that I only know from SNL are pretty funny on SNL. And, at this point in history, we know that there have been a lot of really funny people who are who have not been particularly funny on SNL. And the people who have been incredibly funny on SNL who haven't done terribly well afterwards usually fail in some sort of featured role vehicle that tries to bank on their appeal alone. Becoming part of an ensemble cast works well most of the time.
Would you like examples? Well, tough. If I had that kind of energy, I wouldn't be pretending to have an opinion about Ghostbusters the day before I'm supposed to post something.
But the strength of these performers and this director are finding those small moments of comedy and stacking them up.
I'm realizing now that I wasn't really irritated by the opinion that this movie might not be good, I was reacting to people carrying on about it as if it really mattered. And I've responded by acting exactly the same way. Wow. We've all learned something today.
Anyway, the original Ghostbusters is always going to be the better movie because you probably watched it during a time when you didn't have a car payment, a mortgage, an ex-spouse, type II diabetes or questions about how long past the expiration date it would still be safe to use your home's only tube of Preparation H. Who cares? Go see something that might make you laugh. Have some popcorn. But, remember that putting undue importance in this stuff is the only way to be truly let down by it. It's a trap. Whatever you do, don't look directly at the trap.
Post Script:
You can probably smell it -- I didn't have anything to talk about when I wrote this.
A nice antidote for the toxic opinions of the media bloggers and for my half-formed dismissal of them is this compilation of people reacting to the appearance of Spider-Man in the most recent Captain America: Civil War trailer. Seeing people flooded with joy over something in popular culture made me enormously happy.
Oh. Spoiler. Spider-Man shows up in Civil War.
(Contains adult language, mostly screamed in falsetto)
I'm realizing now that I wasn't really irritated by the opinion that this movie might not be good, I was reacting to people carrying on about it as if it really mattered. And I've responded by acting exactly the same way. Wow. We've all learned something today.
Anyway, the original Ghostbusters is always going to be the better movie because you probably watched it during a time when you didn't have a car payment, a mortgage, an ex-spouse, type II diabetes or questions about how long past the expiration date it would still be safe to use your home's only tube of Preparation H. Who cares? Go see something that might make you laugh. Have some popcorn. But, remember that putting undue importance in this stuff is the only way to be truly let down by it. It's a trap. Whatever you do, don't look directly at the trap.
* * *
Post Script:
You can probably smell it -- I didn't have anything to talk about when I wrote this.
A nice antidote for the toxic opinions of the media bloggers and for my half-formed dismissal of them is this compilation of people reacting to the appearance of Spider-Man in the most recent Captain America: Civil War trailer. Seeing people flooded with joy over something in popular culture made me enormously happy.
Oh. Spoiler. Spider-Man shows up in Civil War.
(Contains adult language, mostly screamed in falsetto)
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