Ernie Hudson – GOAT Film Reviews

Director: Paul Feig

Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Cecily Strong, Andy Garcia, Charles Dance, Michael K. Williams, Matt Walsh, Chris Hemsworth

Screenplay: Katie Dippold, Paul Feig

116 mins. Rated PG-13 for supernatural action and some crude humor.

Yes, it’s that Ghostbusters film review.

Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy, TV’s Gilmore Girls, The Boss) and Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig, The Martian, How to Train Your Dragon 2) were once partners, true believers, and friends, but that was a long time ago. The two have grown apart due to Erin’s attempts at unbelieving in the paranormal that brought the two together in the first place, but a rogue copy of the paranormal research book that Abby and Erin wrote years earlier surfaces and causes them to reunite alongside Abby’s new colleague Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon, TV’s Saturday Night Live, Finding Dory) and…uh, the one who drives the car, Patty (Leslie Jones, Trainwreck, Top Five). Together, the Ghostbusters must use their tools and expertise to stop a maniac trying to create an otherworldly invasion.

After watching the “Most Disliked” Trailer Ever on Youtube (yeah, it holds that distinction) and seeing one of the worst marketing campaigns in film history, I was extremely nervous. After all, I’ve been a fan of this franchise since I’ve known fear (that Vigo the Carpathian painting still unnerves me) and I’ve been frustratingly watching as hopes of a third film slowly dwindled into nothingness all because of Bill Murray. Yeah, I put all the blame on him. So, I was very judgmental of this reboot from the very beginning. I paid no attention to the gender-swapping in the movie because it didn’t really bother me. I just didn’t really care. What I did care about was a fun and frightful adventure that stayed true to the original but forged its own path.

For the most part, I actually really enjoyed Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. There were so many great elements and the fact that it wasn’t a straight remake really won me over. The Paul Feig (Spy, The Heat) comedy was really funny and even though it missed the frights, it didn’t completely take me out of the experience.

There was a glaring issue that, for some, might not be a big deal. For me, it really was. This glaring issue was the decision to ignore the previous two installments. Instead of a brave decision, it felt like a slap in the face, especially with so many of the original performers returning for stupid cameos. Not a single cameo in this film made me happy except for the return of Ernie Hudson. Why Feig and fellow screenwriter Katie Dippold didn’t make this a passing of the torch I’ll never know. All it would have taken was one scene of Dan Aykroyd handing the equipment over to his neice or something. It wouldn’t even have had to been a good passing of the torch to be better than the complete retconning of the franchise. A true miss that is really the one major problem I had in an otherwise mostly enjoyable film experience.

Perhaps one day we will get the extended cut we deserve with the original 4-hour cut that Paul Feig originally ended up with. For now, we will have to settle with a pretty fun film that pays homage and walks its own path. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the laugh-out-loud work from Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Star Trek) as Kevin the receptionist. Now, I don’t know if we are getting Ghostbusters: Answer the Call 2 down the road (the box office numbers aren’t exactly screaming for it) but I can only hope to see more adventures from this crew.

4/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

So have you seen Ghostbusters: Answer the Call yet? What did you think? And what is your preferred horror/comedy of choice? Let me know!

For my review of Paul Feig’s The Heat, click here.

Director: Frank Marshall

Cast: Dylan Walsh, Laura Linney, Ernie Hudson, Grant Heslov, Joe Don Baker, Tim Curry

Screenplay: John Patrick Shanley

109 mins. Rated PG-13 for jungle adventure terror and action and brief strong language.

The late Michael Crichton was known for his ability to write science fiction as science fact. When Jurassic Park was released in 1993, everyone wanted on the Crichton train, even causing Steven Spielberg’s colleague and friend Frank Marshall (Eight Below, Arachnophobia) to take on a weaker work called Congo and make it essentially like Jurassic Park with apes. There’s only one hitch: the two stories are nothing alike, and Congo burned for it.

Dr. Peter Elliot (Dylan Walsh, TV’s Nip/Tuck, Secretariat) wants to gets his ill ape Amy back to the wild, but without funding, he and his partner Richard (Grant Heslov, Good Night, and Good Luck, The Monuments Men) are out of luck. But when their plight comes under the attention of Herkermer Homalka (Tim Curry, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Burke and Hare), who may have motives of his own, Peter, Amy, and Richard are on the way to the Congo. Along the way, they meet up with Dr. Karen Ross (Laura Linney, The Truman Show, Mr. Holmes), who is heading in the same direction in search of answers to the disappearance of someone close to her.

Let me just start out by saying that there are some great elements in this film that aren’t handled correctly. Ernie Hudson (TV’s Oz, You’re Not You), for example, gives a fantastic performance as Captain Munro Kelly, a man assigned to get Peter and Amy to their destination safely. Unfortunately, we also get Dylan Walsh, an uncommanding lead, Laura Linney as an unlikable and poorly written character, and Joe Don Baker (GoldenEye, Mud) in one of the most laughably horrendous roles in screen history. I can live with Tim Curry’s hilariously cheesy work as Homalka, but even he doesn’t fit here.

The screenplay is poorly put together and it leads to an uneven film that presents too much substance bloating a film with silly and convoluted plot threads. Jurassic Park, this is not. Not in the slightest.

2/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

Tag: Ernie Hudson

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)

[Happy 20th Birthday!] Congo (1995)