Before I ended up going to see the film, I ultimately chose to skip it. However, the drive in theater which I frequent ended up doing a triple feature back over the weekend. With Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, it was playing with Central Intelligence and the Shallows. So, for the price, I couldn't pass it up because this was the first film of the night and it couldn't get any worse, could it? The answer, nope!
Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, starts off with a house tour of the ghost that slimes Kristen Wiig that you see in the trailer. A tour guide is finishing up the tour and notices a knocked over candle holder. Then things start to happen and the man is frightened. He ends up in the basement of the house and it seems like as before the title card hits the screen, that this man has surely met his maker as the screen turns green around the man as he screams in sheer horror.
Cut to Kristen Wiig's character doing a mock college lecture which we see her dancing around which was used in the trailer. Ed Bagely comes up to her showing her the book she co-wrote with Melissa McCarthy's character. She denies that she co-wrote book and dismisses as she wants tenure from the university she teaches at. She tells Ed's character that she's not interested and it was all a joke.
Wiig's character goes to where McCarthy teaches and we learn that she's obsessed with Chinese food and wanton soup. Wiig's character is mad that the book got published without her knowing. They bicker back and forth before we are introduced to the worst character of the film, Kate McKinnon's character.
Let me derail this review for a moment to discuss the marketing. Sony was in a pickle because with the exception of McKinnon, none of these are remotely attractive. There's no real sex appeal. Behind the scenes Sony wanted Elizabeth Banks, Amy Schumer, Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, and several other actresses who almost all declined. And I honestly believe that Kate McKinnon was meant to be Elizabeth Banks. And I will go on the record to state, she's the poor man's Elizabeth Banks and it shows.
Wiig's character goes to where McCarthy teaches and we learn that she's obsessed with Chinese food and wanton soup. Wiig's character is mad that the book got published without her knowing. They bicker back and forth before we are introduced to the worst character of the film, Kate McKinnon's character.
Let me derail this review for a moment to discuss the marketing. Sony was in a pickle because with the exception of McKinnon, none of these are remotely attractive. There's no real sex appeal. Behind the scenes Sony wanted Elizabeth Banks, Amy Schumer, Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, and several other actresses who almost all declined. And I honestly believe that Kate McKinnon was meant to be Elizabeth Banks. And I will go on the record to state, she's the poor man's Elizabeth Banks and it shows.
In Midnight Edge's video above, at the time mark 17:35, it is noted that Melissa McCarthy fought on set with an unnamed co-worker. I honestly believe that was Kate McKinnon. Wiig and McCarthy have worked together previously and both have mentioned in frustrations over the film while in the same time frame on the video above. I don't believe it to be Leslie Jones as she's a writer and comedienne who has been doing this for twenty years whereas McKinnon has more or less been doing this for under a decade.
McKinnon's character comes off as the female village idiot next to Kevin, played by Chris Hemsworth. But, we'll get to that later. We are soon introduced to the villain and Leslie Jones' character in a subway station. Rowan, who is the name of the villain, makes a strange comment about Jones' character being the last one to die. Which after he leaves, causes Jones' character to watch him on the security cams and sees him going into the tunnels and she goes to investigate. We see Rowan is freeing a ghost. She freaks out and then we cut to something or other.
Now, we meet Hemsworth character who is a complete and total idiot who has some sort of mental retardation. But, then again, there's this over recurring theme of men being idiots. Hemsworth's character, Kevin, asks while in the interview if his cat can come to work. Then, he spiels on and on about how he doesn't have a cat and that he has a dog which leaves Wiig, McCarthy, and McKinnon's characters to question what he's going on about. Then Kevin kinda laughs and goes; "I have a dog called Mike Hat". Because a cunt joke can't be told in a PG-13 film?
So, Kevin leaves and we see Jones' character sitting in a corner and one of the women tells her that the Chinese restaurant is downstairs. Jones' then makes a joke about retardation about her cousin who is slow just like him and will work for cocktail sausages or something like that. Jones' tells the crew about the incident in the subway. We then venture to the subway and then we meet some tagger who spray paints the ghostbusters logo on the walls.
So, something happens and then we cut to the phone call about a rock concert about a possible possession. Then we have what we see in trailer, Leslie Jones has the ghost dragon on her, etc, etc, etc. Well, one of the only jokes that my fiancee laughed at was comedic actor Michael McDonald from MadTV saying something about screaming like a girl. Then, towards the end of the whole sequence with the ghost dragon demon, he screams and my fiancee was quiet. No laugh. I just sat there sighing the whole time.
So, we establish a smaller fraction of Rowan and the Mayor of New York who appreciates capturing the ghost. More horrible acting from Kate McKinnon going on about how she magically creates these weapons to fight ghosts. How did this happen? Within capturing the ghost to meeting the mayor, how did she magically make these weapons? More continuity errors are presented.
Bill Murray's character is a skeptic who believes that ghosts don't exist, he pops up once or twice before we hit the sequence where he meets the female Ghostbusters crew. He wants to see the dragon demon that was captured from the concert. McCarthy or McKinnon strongly advises against the idea to Wiig's character. Wiig unleashes it and due to poor effects work, we see Murray's character thrown from the building and is dead. I am not sure if it was meant to be funny that he's just magically thrown from the building.
So, something or other happens that leads the ladies to track ghost encounters on a map. They start drawing over a map with "X" for four locations. These four small "X" make a larger one once they trace it. The center of the map leads them to hotel where Rowan works. We got to the hotel where Annie Potts works because we needed another cameo. Somehow, while Rowan is working, he's building a device to unleash ghosts from the other dimension. How and why did he manage to build this at his place of work without anyone noticing it? How?
The women confront Rowan and he's killed by electrocuting himself. The ladies are there giving their statements to police and the book that McCarthy and Wiig's characters wrote was present at the crime scene. One of the ladies has a reveleation that Rowan's tech was not too far off from theirs. So, the book is taken from the crime scene and everyone leaves. However, McCarthy's little toy is left behind which starts going off, meaning there's a ghost hanging out.
We cut to Wiig's character being off on her own and the other three ladies are at the Chinese restaurant. Wiig goes through the book which Rowan has drawn and written over pages which causes Wiig to go to the Mayor of New York. While this is happening and Wiig's character has no knowledge of this, the Rowan ghost takes possession of McCarthy while she's in the bathroom. She comes out, McKinnon's character makes some comment about a metal rod that is then picked up by the possessed McCarthy character who starts breaking equipment with it. The fight ensues as seen in the trailer and Kevin pops up at the wrong place at the wrong time and this time totally dropping his American accent and going Aussie on it.
Kevin is possessed and high tails it out of there to start wreaking havoc upon humanity. At the same time, Wiig is screaming at the mayor that the end is coming, for no reason what-so-ever as she has no idea that Rowan is actually alive as a ghost. Possessed Kevin reignites his machine and ghosts start coming through. The sky is turned dark and now it's ghost's running loose all over New York. The military is brought in and Kevin magically possesses them and makes them pose, as if they are about to dance ... but, it cuts, which I will discuss later.
McCarthy, Jones, and McKinnon get their car hijacked by Slimer who is eating any and all food he sees. So, the three get to the hotel where we see the frozen/possessed soldiers and police. The giant twenty foot tall Uncle Sam shows up for two seconds before getting zapped. More ghosts pop up. Then as they are drawing in, we see a parade of float ghosts which are zapped and then out of nowhere, the fucking Stay Pufft Marshmellow Man lands on them and starts to slowly crush them. Wiig shows up and blasts him. They are all glad to be together, because, GIRL POWER. The soldiers then fall down after the ghosts are defeated for no reason ... again, I'll explain in a bit. The team goes inside the hotel where all hell is breaking loose.
Possessed Kevin / Rowan is waiting for them. Kevin is freed from Rowan's possession and asks the team what appearance would they like him to take, kinda like how we got the Stay Pufft Marshmellow Man from the first film. He turns into an animated cartoon of the Ghostbusters logo. Then magically morphs into a 400 ft tall version of the Ghostbusters' logo.
While they are fighting Rowan/Godzilla sized Ghostbuster logo, McCarthy starts shooting it in the genital area. The other three figure that a nuclear equipment in their car can be dropped in the hole to stop the ghost invasion, because why not? Slimer and his wife are tricked to driving into it while McCarthy is grabbed and pulled in by Rowan. The hole is mostly closed and Wiig grabs a rope and goes in to save her friend. Hole closes and then inside the ghost dimension, Rowan is evaporated into the ghost cosmos of sorts. Wiig grabs McCarthy and it turns their hair white. They are pulled free and no real time has passed from their time inside the ghost dimension.
Kevin pops back up while the ladies are celebrating their feat. Kevin tries to take the wrap for saving everyone while eating a sandwich. One of the ladies is fed up with his "special ed" antics and slaps the sandwich out of his hand. So, it flies out of his hand and someone throws him another one and there's a look of puzzled confusion on everyone's faces while Kevin starts munching on this new sandwich. The movie ends with them sitting at a table at a bar or restaurant with the mayor's aide telling them that they will now be government funded. Cut to the classic fire house with Ernie Hudson yelling at Leslie Jones, ROLL CREDITS.
Now, the unfunny thing, is that the end credits is a dance sequence from when possessed Kevin is controlling the soldiers and police. On the video above, at 13:27, this whole dance was in his original pitch to Amy Pascal. He envisioned this and Tom Rothman who is now at Sony took it away from him because it didn't help the pacing. This was cut from the film which caused Paul Feig to have a completely meltdown and cry uncontrollably while in production and post-production. Going back to 17:30, this is mentioned. It is awkwardly cut from the final product and it shows. This is was something that I brought up to my fiancee who noticed it being jarring as well.
Overall, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call is a horrible film and is definitely in the category of bad films with the Josh Trank 2015 Fantastic Four. The chemistry is non-existent as McCarthy fought with a co-star probably McKinnon and Wiig storming off to her trailer between takes. There is no real feeling of peril as the villain just comes and goes. The impending doom is not felt at all, similar to Trank's Fantastic Four; it's rushed. McKinnon is ultimately like the female Peter Griffin from Family Guy. Kevin's character is basically a rip-off of Brick from Anchorman.
Jones was the only character who was grounded in reality as she's the only one who gives rational real world solutions to their problems. I didn't laugh. My fiancee only laughed three times. And even then, she said upon retrospect, they weren't that funny. Ultimately, she thought that the film was bad film where men were made to be all idiots. Even she caught that.
McKinnon's character comes off as the female village idiot next to Kevin, played by Chris Hemsworth. But, we'll get to that later. We are soon introduced to the villain and Leslie Jones' character in a subway station. Rowan, who is the name of the villain, makes a strange comment about Jones' character being the last one to die. Which after he leaves, causes Jones' character to watch him on the security cams and sees him going into the tunnels and she goes to investigate. We see Rowan is freeing a ghost. She freaks out and then we cut to something or other.
Now, we meet Hemsworth character who is a complete and total idiot who has some sort of mental retardation. But, then again, there's this over recurring theme of men being idiots. Hemsworth's character, Kevin, asks while in the interview if his cat can come to work. Then, he spiels on and on about how he doesn't have a cat and that he has a dog which leaves Wiig, McCarthy, and McKinnon's characters to question what he's going on about. Then Kevin kinda laughs and goes; "I have a dog called Mike Hat". Because a cunt joke can't be told in a PG-13 film?
So, Kevin leaves and we see Jones' character sitting in a corner and one of the women tells her that the Chinese restaurant is downstairs. Jones' then makes a joke about retardation about her cousin who is slow just like him and will work for cocktail sausages or something like that. Jones' tells the crew about the incident in the subway. We then venture to the subway and then we meet some tagger who spray paints the ghostbusters logo on the walls.
So, something happens and then we cut to the phone call about a rock concert about a possible possession. Then we have what we see in trailer, Leslie Jones has the ghost dragon on her, etc, etc, etc. Well, one of the only jokes that my fiancee laughed at was comedic actor Michael McDonald from MadTV saying something about screaming like a girl. Then, towards the end of the whole sequence with the ghost dragon demon, he screams and my fiancee was quiet. No laugh. I just sat there sighing the whole time.
So, we establish a smaller fraction of Rowan and the Mayor of New York who appreciates capturing the ghost. More horrible acting from Kate McKinnon going on about how she magically creates these weapons to fight ghosts. How did this happen? Within capturing the ghost to meeting the mayor, how did she magically make these weapons? More continuity errors are presented.
Bill Murray's character is a skeptic who believes that ghosts don't exist, he pops up once or twice before we hit the sequence where he meets the female Ghostbusters crew. He wants to see the dragon demon that was captured from the concert. McCarthy or McKinnon strongly advises against the idea to Wiig's character. Wiig unleashes it and due to poor effects work, we see Murray's character thrown from the building and is dead. I am not sure if it was meant to be funny that he's just magically thrown from the building.
So, something or other happens that leads the ladies to track ghost encounters on a map. They start drawing over a map with "X" for four locations. These four small "X" make a larger one once they trace it. The center of the map leads them to hotel where Rowan works. We got to the hotel where Annie Potts works because we needed another cameo. Somehow, while Rowan is working, he's building a device to unleash ghosts from the other dimension. How and why did he manage to build this at his place of work without anyone noticing it? How?
The women confront Rowan and he's killed by electrocuting himself. The ladies are there giving their statements to police and the book that McCarthy and Wiig's characters wrote was present at the crime scene. One of the ladies has a reveleation that Rowan's tech was not too far off from theirs. So, the book is taken from the crime scene and everyone leaves. However, McCarthy's little toy is left behind which starts going off, meaning there's a ghost hanging out.
We cut to Wiig's character being off on her own and the other three ladies are at the Chinese restaurant. Wiig goes through the book which Rowan has drawn and written over pages which causes Wiig to go to the Mayor of New York. While this is happening and Wiig's character has no knowledge of this, the Rowan ghost takes possession of McCarthy while she's in the bathroom. She comes out, McKinnon's character makes some comment about a metal rod that is then picked up by the possessed McCarthy character who starts breaking equipment with it. The fight ensues as seen in the trailer and Kevin pops up at the wrong place at the wrong time and this time totally dropping his American accent and going Aussie on it.
Kevin is possessed and high tails it out of there to start wreaking havoc upon humanity. At the same time, Wiig is screaming at the mayor that the end is coming, for no reason what-so-ever as she has no idea that Rowan is actually alive as a ghost. Possessed Kevin reignites his machine and ghosts start coming through. The sky is turned dark and now it's ghost's running loose all over New York. The military is brought in and Kevin magically possesses them and makes them pose, as if they are about to dance ... but, it cuts, which I will discuss later.
McCarthy, Jones, and McKinnon get their car hijacked by Slimer who is eating any and all food he sees. So, the three get to the hotel where we see the frozen/possessed soldiers and police. The giant twenty foot tall Uncle Sam shows up for two seconds before getting zapped. More ghosts pop up. Then as they are drawing in, we see a parade of float ghosts which are zapped and then out of nowhere, the fucking Stay Pufft Marshmellow Man lands on them and starts to slowly crush them. Wiig shows up and blasts him. They are all glad to be together, because, GIRL POWER. The soldiers then fall down after the ghosts are defeated for no reason ... again, I'll explain in a bit. The team goes inside the hotel where all hell is breaking loose.
Possessed Kevin / Rowan is waiting for them. Kevin is freed from Rowan's possession and asks the team what appearance would they like him to take, kinda like how we got the Stay Pufft Marshmellow Man from the first film. He turns into an animated cartoon of the Ghostbusters logo. Then magically morphs into a 400 ft tall version of the Ghostbusters' logo.
While they are fighting Rowan/Godzilla sized Ghostbuster logo, McCarthy starts shooting it in the genital area. The other three figure that a nuclear equipment in their car can be dropped in the hole to stop the ghost invasion, because why not? Slimer and his wife are tricked to driving into it while McCarthy is grabbed and pulled in by Rowan. The hole is mostly closed and Wiig grabs a rope and goes in to save her friend. Hole closes and then inside the ghost dimension, Rowan is evaporated into the ghost cosmos of sorts. Wiig grabs McCarthy and it turns their hair white. They are pulled free and no real time has passed from their time inside the ghost dimension.
Kevin pops back up while the ladies are celebrating their feat. Kevin tries to take the wrap for saving everyone while eating a sandwich. One of the ladies is fed up with his "special ed" antics and slaps the sandwich out of his hand. So, it flies out of his hand and someone throws him another one and there's a look of puzzled confusion on everyone's faces while Kevin starts munching on this new sandwich. The movie ends with them sitting at a table at a bar or restaurant with the mayor's aide telling them that they will now be government funded. Cut to the classic fire house with Ernie Hudson yelling at Leslie Jones, ROLL CREDITS.
Now, the unfunny thing, is that the end credits is a dance sequence from when possessed Kevin is controlling the soldiers and police. On the video above, at 13:27, this whole dance was in his original pitch to Amy Pascal. He envisioned this and Tom Rothman who is now at Sony took it away from him because it didn't help the pacing. This was cut from the film which caused Paul Feig to have a completely meltdown and cry uncontrollably while in production and post-production. Going back to 17:30, this is mentioned. It is awkwardly cut from the final product and it shows. This is was something that I brought up to my fiancee who noticed it being jarring as well.
Overall, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call is a horrible film and is definitely in the category of bad films with the Josh Trank 2015 Fantastic Four. The chemistry is non-existent as McCarthy fought with a co-star probably McKinnon and Wiig storming off to her trailer between takes. There is no real feeling of peril as the villain just comes and goes. The impending doom is not felt at all, similar to Trank's Fantastic Four; it's rushed. McKinnon is ultimately like the female Peter Griffin from Family Guy. Kevin's character is basically a rip-off of Brick from Anchorman.
Jones was the only character who was grounded in reality as she's the only one who gives rational real world solutions to their problems. I didn't laugh. My fiancee only laughed three times. And even then, she said upon retrospect, they weren't that funny. Ultimately, she thought that the film was bad film where men were made to be all idiots. Even she caught that.
