Ghostbusters (2016)

My Review

“Ghostbusters” is a third installment and reboot of the original film of 1984 where Melissa McCarthy leads a new team of eccentric women who start a ghost-catching business after a paranormal encounter. Director Paul Feig (“Spy” 2025) put together an entertaining movie with good production values and lots of laughs from the screenplay he co-wrote with Katie Dippold.

Melissa McCarthy lends her popular “every-gal” persona to the lead role, with “Saturday Night Live” employees Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones on her team. Good chemistry here! Co-stars include Chris Hemsworth, Cecily Strong, Neil Carey, Charles Dance, Matt Walsh, and Ed Begley Jr. Cameos by 1984 movie vets include Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murray. Other cameos include Annie Potts, Al Roker, Ozzy Osbourne. “Ghostbusters” was a flop at the box office for producers Ivan Reitman and Amy Pascal, Columbia Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, and Sony Pictures Releasing.

The most famous early film in this genre was “The Ghost Breakers” (1940) starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. It was based on a 1909 Broadway play called “The Ghost Breaker,” with two silent pictures of the same name in 1914 and 1922. The current franchise includes five pictures – “Ghostbusters” (1984), “Ghostbusters 2” (1989), “Ghostbusters” (2016), “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” (2021) and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” (2024).