I Ain’t Afraid Of No Reboot

Burt Likko

Pseudonymous Portlander. Pursuer of happiness. Bon vivant. Homebrewer. Atheist. Recovering Republican. Recovering Catholic. Recovering divorcé. Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Ordinary Times. Relapsed Lawyer, admitted to practice law (under his real name) in California and Oregon. There's a Twitter account at @burtlikko, but not used for posting on the general feed anymore. House Likko's Words: Scite Verum. Colite Iusticia. Vivere Con Gaudium.

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20 Responses

  1. North says:

    I enjoyed it too. Plenty of yucks. Not profound or anything but a good solid humorous movie. Also Liam Hemsworth is so ridiculously physically attractive that it almost causes physical pain.Report

  2. Guy says:

    Is it better than the original? I found the original to be distinctly alright.Report

  3. Doctor Jay says:

    I saw the original in theaters. It had an extraordinary effect on me. I wanted to hate it, but I couldn’t. It was so crude and dumb, and yet still funny. For instance, Bill Murray’s line “Yes, this man has no dick!”

    The remake recreated that sort of feeling quite well. A feeling of “Oh lord, did you really?” while laughing.

    I don’t think a remake will ever match an original for someone who has lived through both, but that’s a subjective judgement. It was certainly worth seeing, and fun.

    I think the more highbrow critics who have suggested that “feminism can do better than this”, for instance, Alyssa Rosenberg, are echoing my own reaction to Ghostbusters (the original) and not just the current reboot. They didn’t make the film for feminism. They made it for laughs.

    I laughed.Report

  4. Jaybird says:

    I only have but so many “hey honey, let’s go see a movie in the theater”s in me in any given year and this movie has somehow magically transmuted from “remake of 80’s comedy” to “Important Event That It Says Something About You If You Don’t See It And It Doesn’t Say That About You If You Do” and that’s a lot of overhead for a comedy.Report

  5. Chris says:

    I thought Jones, Wiig and McKinnon were funny, McCarthy was typically over the top (and therefore less funny), and some of the Hemsworth interactions were hilarious. It had some good gags, it was thoroughly stupid in the way that blockbuster comedies almost have to be (the last 20 minutes made no sense whatsoever, but who cares, right?), and entertaining enough that I didn’t feel terrible about spending money to see it.Report

    • Kimmi in reply to Chris says:

      And that’s a whole hell of a lot better than I thought it was going to turn out.

      … was McCarthy really possessed on set? [ya, joking.]Report