Too hot to handle? Too cold to hold? It’s finally happened. Ghostbusters has had its third outing on the big screen with a cinema release earlier in 2016 after years and years of rumour and speculation. The sequel was announced by Bridesmaids director, Paul Feig, on Twitter in October 2014 and the biggest surprise twist to it all was that the spectre-smashing reboot had a female team of Ghostbusters to save New York.
The tweet itself read, “It’s official. I’m making a new Ghostbusters & writing it with @katiedippold & yes, it will star hilarious women. That’s who I’m gonna call.” While there was a certain amount of 2 + 2 to get to the conclusion that the next Ghostbusters team would be an all girl affair at the time, the arrival of the trailer below sealed the deal, continuing in the same style of Feig’s past success with Bridesmaids.
Release date
Cinema:
Ghostbusters (2016) had a UK release date on Monday 11th July 2016, arriving in cinemas a few days earlier than in the US, which distributed the film from the 11th July 2016. It made its way to the big screen on the same week as Ice Age: Collision Course in the UK, so it didn’t have too much in the way of big blockbusters to compete with.
DVD, Blu-ray and digital download:
The stream-crossing DVD, Blu-ray and digital download release date was on the 21st November 2016 in the UK, which put it in a good place for Christmas gift sales. While the film came out in 3D at cinemas, it hasn’t gone on to come out on 3D Blu-ray as of yet and with the focus on 4K Blu-ray by manufacturers like Samsung, it’s likely that fewer movies will be coming out in 3D for home entertainment.
Story
The big questions on everyone’s minds when the film was first announced was how the storyline would develop on from the previous two movies and who will be taking up residence at the Hook & Ladder No. 8 Firehouse. However, Ghostbusters (2016) went on to be a complete reboot to the story, resetting the clock with a modern day setting in New York City and focusing on a new group ghoulie blasters.
The plot sees physicists Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) and Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig), along with their engineer Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) getting drummed out of academic life thanks to their studies into paranormal activity. When they discover that ghostly activity is on the up in the Big Apple they set up a service to take them down, hiring Subway worker Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) to boost out their numbers. However, with someone channeling their own ghost tech device to boost the amount of spooky apparitions, their job becomes pretty intimidating.
Cast
The cast is made up of a few of Kevin Feig’s previous comedy stars, including Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) as Dr. Abby Yates and Kristen Wiig (Zoolander 2) as Dr. Erin Gilbert. They’re joined by Kate McKinnon as their engineer Dr. Jillian Holtzmann, and Leslie Jones as their less scientific fourth recruit. Chris Hemsworth (Thor: Ragnarok) stars in the film as Kevin Beckman, the Ghostbusters’ secretary, and the cast also includes Andy García (Passengers) as Mayor Bradley, Charles Dance (Pride And Prejudice And Zombies) as Harold Filmore, Michael K. Williams (Assassin’s Creed) as Agent Hawkins, and Matt Walsh (Keeping Up With The Joneses) as Agent Rourke.
If you were worried that there wouldn’t be any of the original Proton Pack-wearing New Yorkers in the 2016 reboot, that ghost ship didn’t entirely sail out into the Upper Bay in the end. There was an initial shut door when it comes to Bill Murray (The Grand Budapest Hotel), who’d been pretty much adamant since rumours first started to surface that he wouldn’t be taking part in any sequel. However, he went on to lead a string of cameos from the previous films making appearances in Ghostbusters (2016). Both Dan Akroyd and Ernie Hudson got back into poltergeist action once again, along with appearances from Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts. The old stars don’t necessarily get to pass on their ghost rustling skills to the new all-girl team, they do help to add something old to the borrowed and new.
Dan Akroyd had been rumoured to have written a previous Ghostbusters 3 script in the past, having co-wrote the original films with Harold Ramis, and he had been championing a return for years. However, he stuck to taxi driving duties for his cameo, while Bill Murray plays Martin Heiss, a ghost skeptic; Ernie Hudson plays Bill Jenkins, Patty’s uncle, Sigourney Weaver stars as Holtzmann’s mentor, Rebecca Gorin, and Annie Potts is a hotel clerk.
Production
The significant departure from the original movies comes after the very sad death of the legendary Harold Ramis, who played brainiac Egon Spengler, earlier in 2014. In addition to ruling out the star himself from being included in the potential sequel, it also had a significant impact on Ivan Reitmann, who directed and produced the originals, as he pulled out of directorial duties following the death of Ramis. Paul Feig directed the 2016 film with Reitmann and Amy Pascal as producers.
Ghostbusters (2016) has been given a UK film certificate of 12A with “moderate threat” and “infrequent crude references” by the BBFC.
DVD special features:
- Jokes-A-Plenty: A Free-For-All featurette
- Meet the team featurette
- Visual effects: 30 years later special feature
- Slime time
- Director and writer commentary
- Filmmaker commentary
- Photo gallery
Blu-ray special features:
- Two filmmaker commentaries
- Over 15 minutes of hilarious bloopers
- 30 minutes of laugh out loud alternate takes
- Four deleted scenes
- Slime time special feature
- 30 extended and alternate scenes
- More Alternate Takes
- Supernatural special feature
- Photo gallery
Review
Rather inevitably, there was uproar in the Ghostbusters and 80s movie loving appreciation societies of the world at the very thought of the movie, so Feig was always going to have to work pretty hard to win them over. However, sadly, he didn’t quite pull it off, creating a funny film with co-writer Katie Dippold, but without the genius overarching story and delivery of the original films. Read our full review for more details.
