On the rare occasion that I do get out to see a movie, I count on my friends to prompt me. ("Oh, it's that good? Guess I'll get my butt out the door and see it, then.") This weekend was one of those times, and Ghostbusters was one of those movies.
I went to a theater in Times Square with super-duper laser projectors and reclining seats. Despite the slight bump in price, there were not many empty chairs. Word was getting around. It might have been the intense audio in that particular theater, but when the first ghost showed up, I jumped. Other people screamed. And then we all laughed and grinned like idiots for another hour and a half. I won't spoil anything, but I will say, you're gonna want to stay through the credits.
This movie brought me more joy than anything I've seen in a long time. It sprinkled light but strongly-flavored nostalgia on top of a supernatural comedy cake. (Great, now I'm hungry.) I honestly can't recommend it highly enough if you want to have fun at a movie. I gave it 10/10 on review sites everywhere.
When it opened, one review site had it at a score of 2/10.
Because the new Ghostbusters are ladies, and dudes are Mad Onlineâ„¢. They left terrible reviews for a movie they hadn't seen, trying to ruin its reputation before anyone had a chance to get to the theater.
It didn't work. Critics who weren't concerned with lady-cooties all over their precious Ghostbusters gave the film pretty damn good reviews. The audience scores on places like IMDB, RottenTomatoes, and Metacritic are all slowly climbing as people who saw (and enjoyed) the movie come to outnumber the trolls who tried to kill it. The reviews saying 'females aren't funny' and yelling about 'feminazis' and 'fat bitches' are getting buried under ones talking about 'smiling so hard their face hurts' and their 'new massive crush on Holtz.'
Ghostbusters is bouncing back by sheer strength of love.
Now that word is getting out that the movie is tons of fun, the angry man-children of the internet are only trying harder to convince people that they are right, it is terrible, and no one likes it. The trouble is, now they are objectively, provably wrong.
I hope all those sad dudebros who can't stand girls in the clubhouse get new hobbies and lay off the hate.
I hope someday they actually see the movie, because it's fantastic.
And I hope you go see it, too, because while I avoided posting spoilers on opening weekend, I want to talk about Ghostbusters with EVERYONE.
And after you see it, leave a review. Squish the haters. Spread some joy.