I Ain't Afraid of No Lady Ghostbusters

In an attempt to ruin our childhoods, we watched Ghostbusters (2016), aka Lady Ghostbusters. Since we watched the original as adults, it didn't work.

This movie stars Kristen Wiig as the good girl, working for tenure as a physics professor. Her liveliehood is threatened when a book she wrote with a childhood friend shows up: Ghosts are Real. She looks up her old friend, Melissa McCarthy, she discovers her working in a paranormal studies lab with mad scientist Kate McKinnon.

I say mad scientist, but I'm not really sure what her "type" is. McCarthy and Wiig are pretty easy to figure out - the mousy good girl and the pushy loudmouth. But McKinnon is this odd amalgam of punked out, glammed up Tank Girl plus mad scientist. We liked it, but I'm not sure we got it.

Leslie Jones is pretty easy to figure out - she is the loud, sassy black woman. She's great at it - some of her little throwaway lines are my favorite, like shouting, "the devil is a liar!" the first time she sees a ghost.

I wasn't as psyched about Neil Casey as the bad guy. He just didn't have Rick Moranis' goofy sincerity. Chris Hemsworth as the beautiful but dumb receptionist was a bit by-the-numbers, but it actually pays off, and anyway, he is cute.

Basically, we liked a lot about this movie but it maybe doesn't hold together that well. Parts are greater than the whole, or something. It all is ends with a big battle royale, and the ghost girls gain the acceptance they all craved. I hope the movie did too, because I want to see the sequel.