Fri. July 15, 2016
By Gregg Shapiro
First the bad news; the Ghostbusters (Columbia/Sony) remake is too damn long. The sequence near the end, in which the vortex is opened and countless ghosts terrorize the city and its denizens, feels especially and unnecessarily endless.
But wait, the good news outweighs the bad. Ghostbusters has more laughs per minute than just about any other comedy released in 2016. An occasionally touching buddy movie with a strong emphasis on female friendship (sisterhood is powerful!), it also features a male character so hot the screen almost melts each time he appears. He is even referred to as "beefcake" – and this is said by another male character!
Childhood friends Erin (Kristen Wiig) and Abby (Melissa McCarthy) haven't spoken in years. After writing a book together about that their firmly held belief in ghosts they went their separate ways. Erin considers herself a serious academic on a tenure track, teaching at a prestigious university, and wants nothing to do with ghouls. Abby, on the other hand, runs a lab at a less esteemed school, and continues ghost-hunting. She's also still selling the book they co-authored online and elsewhere.
A series of funny events suddenly sidetrack Erin's academic career, reuniting her with Abby and, by extension, Abby's assistant Holtzmann (out comic actress Kate McKinnon who practically steals the show). After encountering one ghost, the women realize that they are onto something. Shortly thereafter they meet Patty (Leslie Jones), an MTA tollbooth employee, who not only leads them to a ghost living in a subway tunnel but can also identify Rowan (Neil Casey), the man responsible for unleashing the banshee onslaught. Rowan, a hotel bellhop on a revenge streak for years of mistreatment, has devised a piece of equipment to summon surly spirits and plans to unleash them on New York and the world.
Before you know it, Patty has joined Erin, Abby and Holtzmann. Bumbling but beautiful receptionist Kevin (Chris Hemsworth) completes the team. Slime is plentiful, as are ghost-busting devices. Of course, in post-9/11 New York, Homeland Security and an incompetent mayor (Andy Garcia) get involved. There's a converted, souped up hearse (instead of an ambulance) to transport the women. Original Ghostbuster cameos abound including Annie Potts (hotel desk clerk), Dan Aykroyd (cab driver), Ernie Hudson (funeral director) and the late Harold Ramis (represented by a bust), among others. Only Bill Murray, as debunker Martin Heiss, has any significant on-screen time.
All in all, as summertime movie entertainment goes, the reboot of Ghostbusters (you know it's the first of many!) hits almost all of the right buttons. Don't be afraid to watch it.
You might feel like your heart is going to pound its way through your chest, almost to the very last scene of writer/director Jeremy Saulnier's riveting third full-length feature Green Room (A24/Broadgreen), but it's only a movie. Because of that, the film takes its place at the head of the class of the new generation of horror/suspense flicks such as The Witch, It Follows and The Babadook.
The Ain't Rights, a young punk band from the Washington, DC (Arlington, actually, as one member points out) are scrambling to survive on tour, reduced to siphoning gas from other cars to fuel its van and playing shows to small crowds in Mexican restaurants. To make up for the latter, the quartet – Pat (the late Anton Yelchin), Sam (Alia Shawkat), Reece (Joe Cole) and lead vocalist Tiger (Callum Turner) – accepts an offer to play a better-paying opening act matinee gig from mohawked journalist/show promoter Tad (David W. Thompson), at a club where his cousin Daniel (Mark Webber) and Daniels' girlfriend Emily (Taylor Tunes) are employed.
Warned that the crowd might be a little on the right-wing skinhead side, the band is unprepared for how far to the right the white-power patrons lean. However, the swastika and SS graffiti and stickers emblazoned on the walls of the green room give them a better idea. Being the punks that they are, the Ain't Rights open their set with the Dead Kennedys "Nazi Punks Fuck Off," which, as you might imagine, doesn't go over well with the crowd. Can things possibly get worse? You betcha!
Just as the band is about to load out its equipment, Pat pops into the green room to fetch the mobile phone Sam left to charge, only to discover that Emily has been murdered. Her body's surrounded by the members of the headlining band, as well as bouncer Big Justin (Eric Edelstein) and her friend Amber (Imogen Poots). An attempt to dial 911 goes awry and suddenly the band, along with witness Amber, finds itself being held captive until club owner and Fuhrer-figure Darcy (an ominous Patrick Stewart) arrives to straighten out the situation in his distinctive and destructive fashion.
What follows is some of the most exhilarating suspense and stomach-churning gore to hit the screen in a long time. Handguns, shotguns, box cutters and machetes all play supporting roles. A pack of pit-bulls, trained to mutilate by Werm (Brent Werzner), also play a prominent part, although Green Room's comment on the loyalty of dogs is as touching as it is terrifying.
Perhaps what's most remarkable about Green Room is its prescience. Filmed before unstable Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had fully ignited his hateful following, Green Room is equal parts message movie and horror story. Trump supporters give it three Ks! DVD+Digital special features include a "making of" featurette and audio commentary by writer/director Saulnier.
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