Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) is an author who lands a prestigious teaching position at Columbia University. Her job doesn’t last very long however, when a book she wrote a few years before, positing that ghosts are real, resurfaces and she is laughed out of academia. But when mysterious apparitions invade Manhattan, Gilbert reunites with her writing partner, Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), as well as nuclear engineer Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon), and subway worker Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones), to save the world from a powerful demon known as Rowan.
I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a new take on the old idea, or a remake of the previous film, but with a female cast.
It was the latter.
Did that spoil it for a fan of the old movie? I’m happy to say, not as much as I expected.
The opening seemed rather slow, largely down to some ‘modern’ (or perhaps juvenile) humour that I failed to be amused by, but once it got past that awkwardness and moved on into a more recognisable plot, with excellent special effects, I began to forgive it and get involved with this set of characters.
For me, Patty was the standout character, larger than life and the only non-nerd member of the crew. The cameo appearances of several of the original cast (including the old fire station) were a treat, and watching Chris Hemsworth (in extremely non-Thor mode) playing the vacuous eye-candy receptionist ‘Kevin’, was hilarious.
I found Holzmann the least convincing, she just seemed to be a caricature, both in mannerisms and dress, but she did cook up some truly mean and awesome weapons, so I guess I’ll forgive her.
The ghosts were fab – and the return of the sausage-munching green blob (and his subsequent appropriation of the hearse) was much appreciated.
Best line: the one from the advert: “Why am I the one operating the untested nuclear laser?”
“Because you’ve got the longest arms.”
Did I enjoy it? Yes, it got better and better as it went on.
Would I watch it again? I wouldn’t pay to watch again, but when it comes round on TV, yes, because I can skip the start and pick up at a more fun place.
deborahjay 
I always wait till movies come to the TV movie channels. 🙂
PS on another note, have you seen my post last week on ‘Blasty’? While I was finding many of my books being pirated, I noticed Desprite Measures on one of them 😦
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Very sensible 😉
I haven’t seen that post yet, but I’ve been using Blasty for several months (as a Beta tester), I’m just having a few small issues with it right now on my smaller laptop (missing the ‘Blast’ button!). Hoping I will get back up to speed with Blasting those pesky pirate sites as soon as I get home to my big laptop – and hopefully some ‘Blast’ buttons!
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Wow Deb. I didn’t know about it and thought I’d write a post for other authors. I couldn’t believe over 100 sites with my books for free! We certainly don’t have the time to fill our DMCA forms for hundreds of books. So if we blast them off Google that’s a shot in the foot for them. And then we can hope the suckers who’ve given hackers their info just to cop a free book will at least be our free advertising, lol. 🙂
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Writing a post about it is a great idea I hadn’t thought of. I can’t remember where I originally found it – someone’s blog, no doubt – and I’ve been using it as a beta tester for quite some time.
I’ve recommended it to people every time we get into a discussion about these pesky pirate sites – so annoying, aren’t they?
Some people suggest ignoring them, as even freebies are a form of advertising, and the sort of people who download pirated books are the sort that would never pay in the first place. It does get a bit beyond a joke, though, which is why I think Blasty is a good alternative to spending hours trawling sites for contact details to send them a DMCA.
Off to find your post now, and reblog it…..
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Thanks Deb. Total agreement, imagine having to fill out forms for hundreds of pirated sites, although I hate that they can even do this with our books, like you said, some free advertising and those sites being booted from Google is a huge help. 🙂
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BTW I can’t find either a reblog or a Press this button on your blog, so I copied and pasted the first part, then added the link to your site.
Should there be one of those buttons?
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