Ghostbusters (2016)

Cantatus

Lord Nagafen Raider
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You seem to have forgot Deadpool, which was an R rated comedy that grossed 750mil WW on a 58 million budget.

Now you can argue that it wasn't a "Comedy" despite having more laughs than every paul feig + kevin hart + adam sandler movie ever made combined, but then this new ghost busters has more "action" and special effects than deadpool did so, yeah.
Fair point (I did forget about it), but it's still the exception to the rule. The Marvel tie-in and success of comic book movies likely combined with it being a comedy to push it well past the mark, not that I'm discounting the quality of the movie. I suppose Sony could've assumed the Ghostbusters name and a successful comedic director would've been the formula they needed to do similarly. They just chose to ignore that these aren't the Ghostbusters people have been waiting decades for. You can't just replace and reboot Ghostbusters and assume that fan-base will automatically follow. That, and I have no idea why they believed they could hit that mark while simultaneously aiming this movie atone quarterof the targeted demographics.

Think about it. Ghostbusters, one of the most iconic films because it raised the bar above having a few comedians in it and became a cultural phenomenon because it was smarter than being just some low-brow comedy of the time, and had the sort of characters and action that spawned some of the best merchandising... is now being defended with citations to Ted, 22 Jump Street, and The Heat.
You're really missing my point if you think my comparison to Ted, 22 Jump Street, and The Heat is a defense of Ghostbusters. I'm not making the comparison in terms of quality, but to show how ridiculous it is for Sony to think the movie could make $500 million globally. Comedies rarely hit that mark globally since comedy doesn't always translate well to foreign markets. The movie was always going to have a difficult time hitting that mark, particularly being released in the middle of summer when competition is so stiff. I've said before that I think the movie would've done much better in June or February, but that doesn't mean I think the quality would've been better in those months. Sony investing as much money as they did and believing they could make it back was, at best, setting this movie up for failure before it was even out of the gate. The only thing I can figure is, like I said, that Sony was willing to take that risk believing they were creating a multimillion dollar franchise where they'd make a return on their investment by milking it with whatever expanded universe they were planning.
 

Haast

Lord Nagafen Raider
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The whole situation is full of head scratchers for me. I feel certain Sony wanted this to be a mega hit that would produce sequels and obscene amounts of merchandising $$$$, but their bizarre approach shot them in the foot over and over. They paid for Ghostbusters and got Paula Blart: Mallbusters.

At least it produced one of the best greentext pics ever.
 

Gorillaz_sl

shitlord
203
0
A real Ghostbusters movie (not a reboot) with all of the original people involved with a strong continuation of their story makes a billion dollars easy.

That is why this is a failure.

If BvS makes 800m being a bad movie, a good Ghostbusters movie makes that easy.

There is a huge nostalgia element that they killed off almost immediately.

Anyone who disagrees is living under a fucking rock.
 

Tanoomba

ジョーディーすれいやー
<Banned>
10,170
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A real Ghostbusters movie (not a reboot) with all of the original people involved with a strong continuation of their story makes a billion dollars easy.

That is why this is a failure.

If BvS makes 800m being a bad movie, a good Ghostbusters movie makes that easy.

There is a huge nostalgia element that they killed off almost immediately.

Anyone who disagrees is living under a fucking rock.
They DID a real Ghostbusters movie with all of the original people involved with a strong continuation of their story. It was called Ghostbusters 2, and it failed to live up to the original. Then, decades later, many of the original people got involved AGAIN and made a Ghostbusters video games that, for all intents and purposes, is Ghostbusters 3. That didn't get much recognition either.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the studio deciding to do something different with the property. The only requirement is talented, creative people who respect the source material, which they didn't have.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
19,826
13,341
They DID a real Ghostbusters movie with all of the original people involved with a strong continuation of their story. It was called Ghostbusters 2, and it failed to live up to the original. Then, decades later, many of the original people got involved AGAIN and made a Ghostbusters video games that, for all intents and purposes, is Ghostbusters 3. That didn't get much recognition either.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the studio deciding to do something different with the property. The only requirement is talented, creative people who respect the source material, which they didn't have.
Ghostbusters 2 was fantastic you heathen.

"Johnny, where in the hell are you from anyway?"
"The upper vest side?"
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
19,826
13,341
A real Ghostbusters movie (not a reboot) with all of the original people involved with a strong continuation of their story makes a billion dollars easy.

That is why this is a failure.

If BvS makes 800m being a bad movie, a good Ghostbusters movie makes that easy.

There is a huge nostalgia element that they killed off almost immediately.

Anyone who disagrees is living under a fucking rock.
I'm going to disagree because as great as the ghostbusters was it was subtle, nuanced humor. You had a bunch of great comedians playing it straight and Bill Murray taking the lead on the ridiculous. Audiences are used to in your face pop culture that's impossible to miss nowadays. A true ghostbusters sequel would flop today.
 

khalid

Unelected Mod
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How about a Ghostbusters sequel that didn't try its damnest to shit on as many fans as possible before it came out?
 

The Ancient_sl

shitlord
7,386
16
I'm going to disagree because as great as the ghostbusters was it was subtle, nuanced humor. You had a bunch of great comedians playing it straight and Bill Murray taking the lead on the ridiculous. Audiences are used to in your face pop culture that's impossible to miss nowadays. A true ghostbusters sequel would flop today.
I don't know if I agree with this. It's not a perfect example, but I think 21 Jumpstreet had a lot of that same feel.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
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21 Jumpstreet was completely pop culture. It was a great movie, but it was nothing like the original TV series, which wasn't a comedy at all.
 

Chukzombi

Millie's Staff Member
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I'm going to disagree because as great as the ghostbusters was it was subtle, nuanced humor. You had a bunch of great comedians playing it straight and Bill Murray taking the lead on the ridiculous. Audiences are used to in your face pop culture that's impossible to miss nowadays. A true ghostbusters sequel would flop today.
ghostbusters 2 had some problems, a weak script, a goddamned baby and bill murray being a brat about playing along. other than that i liked it.
 

Xevy

Log Wizard
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Once they revive Harold Ramis and get Wes Anderson to pen the script so Bill Murray does it, you guys will get your Ghostbusters!
 

The Ancient_sl

shitlord
7,386
16
21 Jumpstreet was completely pop culture. It was a great movie, but it was nothing like the original TV series, which wasn't a comedy at all.
I dunno, I seem to remember a lot of dry humor so tonally it might have struck the same chords. The obvious comparison to draw would be Big Lebowski, but that was 13 years ago and I don't know if it did well enough in theaters to not be considered a flop.

It's tough to create a comparison to such a great timeless comedy of all time. The best of the best don't happen very often so you could say "something like that wouldn't work today", but we don't really know. The film was so exceptional it's impossible to point at something modern to compare it to.
 

iannis

Musty Nester
31,351
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They tried to improv entire scenes? In a Ghostbusters remake? Because Murray got away with a few ad libs in the original?

No wonder they had to lean so heavily on claiming misogyny.
 

Arbitrary

Tranny Chaser
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That kind of thing is common in modern comedies. You just start filming and let everyone riff for a while.

It's usually terrible.
 

Chukzombi

Millie's Staff Member
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I dunno, I seem to remember a lot of dry humor so tonally it might have struck the same chords. The obvious comparison to draw would be Big Lebowski, but that was 13 years ago and I don't know if it did well enough in theaters to not be considered a flop.

It's tough to create a comparison to such a great timeless comedy of all time. The best of the best don't happen very often so you could say "something like that wouldn't work today", but we don't really know. The film was so exceptional it's impossible to point at something modern to compare it to.
i cant believe that the Big Lebowski is closing in on 20 years, that movie to me was an instant classic. 21 jumpstreet was pretty good, i still havent seen the sequel, but eventually i will catch it from the beginning on cable. i cant really compare lebowski to it though. different kinds of humor. 21 jumpstreet is like an apatow stoner flick.