Ghostbusters (2016) (1 Viewer)

[Winston T. Boogie]

I don't dig the remake/reboot craze that has infected Hollywood but I think it is kind of stupid to throw money at a type of remake/reboot that is shown to be most likely a giant flop. Particularly in a business that constantly complains about costs and losses. Had an all female Ghostbusters been a smash hit then great I can see the logic in trying again with some other films...but what this looks like is a certainty that they are going to just flush millions down the toilet to make a film NOBODY is asking for or wants to see. What idiot is green-lighting stuff like this?

Basically, what they should be doing if they want to create roles for women...which seems pretty much at odds with turning a profit but whatever...is developing new properties that actually are created for women. Not attempting to take films that worked with men in them and just changing the sex of the characters. I mean I know they are lazy and not particularly creative but maybe they should look at the fact that lazy and not very creative is not profitable.

 

[Tony J Case]

The frustrating thing? With just a little more work and a director who gave two shits about making a good movie instead of insulting the fanbase, the movie could have been good. Dont lean on the nostalgia button so damn hard, don't restart the series but pick up where it left off at, kick Feig to the curb - and yeah, it might have not sucked balls.

Ah well.

 

[TravisR]

...a director who gave two shits about making a good movie instead of insulting the fanbase...

I didn't care enough about this movie to have read interviews from those involved but I have heard Feig say that he never insulted the fanbase so I'd be curious to read any full and in-context quotes where he insulted the fans. I'm not talking about taking a shot at the nutcases screeching at him on Twitter but actually saying something insulting to all or most GB fans. Respect is a two way street and the microscopically small yet vocal part of the fanbase was undoubtedly saying moronic stuff like that he was worse than Hitler or that they hope his children die or whatever sick things that people post on the internet get what they deserve if he insults them back. People like that deserve to be told to fuck off as often as possible.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I never really thought about it before but I think they really should be given some credit for trying to add some kind of new element to yet another remake. However, they should have known that people really only want to see the same thing over and over so making a change to the gender of the cast was too big of a change.

I don't think it was too big a change. The movie just wasn't that good. I do realize that there are some who couldn't accept the change on principle (boy is that a poor choice of words) but those are probably mostly old farts and there's less and less of us every day.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I didn't care enough about this movie to have read interviews from those involved but I have heard Feig say that he never insulted the fanbase so I'd be curious to read any full and in-context quotes where he insulted the fans. I'm not talking about taking a shot at the nutcases screeching at him on Twitter but actually saying something insulting to all or most GB fans. Respect is a two way street and the microscopically small yet vocal part of the fanbase was undoubtedly saying moronic stuff like that he was worse than Hitler or that they hope his children die or whatever sick things that people post on the internet get what they deserve if he insults them back. People like that deserve to be told to fuck off as often as possible.

The great thing about the internet is that it gives everyone a voice.

The bad thing about the internet is that it gives everyone a voice.

 

[Tino]

The frustrating thing? With just a little more work and a director who gave two shits about making a good movie instead of insulting the fanbase, the movie could have been good. Dont lean on the nostalgia button so damn hard, don't restart the series but pick up where it left off at, kick Feig to the curb - and yeah, it might have not sucked balls.

Ah well.

I know it's frustrating to YOU Tony, but exactly how did Feig INSULT the fan base? I'm a huge ghostbusters fan and I didn't feel insulted at all.

 

[Tony J Case]

I'm a huge ghostbusters fan and I didn't feel insulted at all.

No, I mean that he actually told fans to go fuck themselves. He also said “Geek culture is home to some of the biggest assholes I’ve ever met in my life.” and the like.

 

[Tino]

Do you have a link to those comments? I'd like to read EXACTLY what he said.

And I gotta admit I kinda agree with the last one![emoji38]

 

[TravisR]

No, I mean that he actually told fans to go fuck themselves. He also said “Geek culture is home to some of the biggest assholes I’ve ever met in my life.” and the like.

That seems 100% accurate. He's saying that some (not all) geeks are big assholes and having seen the horrific stuff that people were saying to Leslie Jones, I agree.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Basically, I think the issue is they remade a film that a lot of people seem to love. So, to some extent no matter who played the Ghostbuster characters (if it was not the original cast) they were in a tough spot. However, they should just admit the idea of changing all the male characters to female and changing the sex of the receptionist to male just for the sake of doing a gender flop to turn Ghostbusters into a "girls night out" film was just a horrible idea. One bound to upset fans of the original film. I mean that was pretty much rubbing their noses in the idea that they were changing their beloved film in the new version.

At the same time the idea that some people felt that the fact that this reboot exists "ruined their childhood" (which was a common comment that upset Sony) is pretty absurd. Nobody took the original film away and said you can never watch it again and nobody made fans of the original film go to see this remake.

Over the summer I heard some people involved with the new Star Wars film discuss the fact that it was "time" to change the franchise which was why they made the lead "hero" a young woman and another central character for the franchise going forward a black man. I mean I had thought they cast those characters because they liked the actors but apparently they claim they set out to do this because there was a lack of black men in the original series (I was thinking what about Billy Dee Williams?) and that the original films were demeaning to women because the main female in the film was a "princess."

Honestly, I burst out laughing listening to this nonsense...but that's how the people that made the film feel.

This was what I would call a strange summer when it came to this kind of thing. There was a lot of nonsense from the other side of this new Ghostbusters film that if you did not like it you must hate women...really? Interesting too that carried over into our presidential election this cycle as well.

We also had a ridiculous brouhaha over the sexual preference of Sulu in the latest Star Trek film. I made a joke about this in the Star Trek thread because I found the entire thing ridiculous and somebody deleted it saying it was in bad taste...hint here if you can't joke about it you obviously are not prepared to deal with it as an adult...and all I was doing was poking fun at people that got upset about something that really has zero impact on the Star Trek series. I mean it is not like they had the guts to make one of the major characters gay...they just made Sulu gay as some sort of bizarre tribute to Mr. Takei which hilariously he did not want and threw back in their faces. Which he was right to do because Hollywood is really being pompous and asinine to think they are righting the worlds wrongs by changing the sex or sexual preference of fictional characters.

Basically, they should focus on making good films NOT attempting to make sure there are a certain number of any type, sex, or color character in the picture. Do they not understand how horrifically ridiculous they appear when they do this?

I have no problem with female characters, black characters, gay characters but the truth really is if you want to help create more roles for different types of people then create properties and characters that give them good films to be in with good roles for them to play. Don't just gender flop an old film or make a minor character gay because you think it is "time" there was a "gay/black/non-princess female" character in the film just to say "Hey, look how brave and wonderful we are creating a role for ________" name your ethnic, sexual preference, gender of choice.

 

[WillG]

No, I mean that he actually told fans to go fuck themselves. He also said “Geek culture is home to some of the biggest assholes I’ve ever met in my life.” and the like.

That seems 100% accurate. He's saying that some (not all) geeks are big assholes and having seen the horrific stuff that people were saying to Leslie Jones, I agree.

From what I've seen of this whole thing I think there were instances of Feig acting unprofessionally via the angry tweets and comparing the negative reception of the trailers etc. to gamergate. Is he right that some people are jerks? of course, but it's unprofessional to insult the audience. And then there were those speaking out on his behalf like Apatow who suggested the haters were all supporters of a certain presidential candidate (insulting half the potential audience).

Feig isn't an idiot (I assume). He should had some idea of what he was getting himself into.

 

[Tino]

Still looking for exact quotes. So far it's all hearsay and fanboy hyperbole.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I think they are talking about this, Tino...

https://twitter.com/paulfeig/status/646833222408642560?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

 

[Tino]

What's wrong with that tweet?? Seems perfectly fair to me. That guy he sent it too sounds like an asshole.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I suppose whatever is wrong with it is up to the person reading it. I would say it is hard to question though that he decided he also wanted to lower the level of discussion about the film down into the poop throwing area.

 

[Tino]

I don't blame him. Read some of that guys tweets. I don't blame Feig one bit for responding the way he did. That guy deserved it.

 

[WillG]

What's wrong with that tweet?? Seems perfectly fair to me. That guy he sent it too sounds like an asshole.

I don't blame him. Read some of that guys tweets. I don't blame Feig one bit for responding the way he did. That guy deserved it.

I would still say it's unprofessional. I can understand him wanting to stick up for his cast, but I'd still call it bad form as the director to tell a potential customer to go fuck himself. You wouldn't do that if you were the CEO of a company (and Feig is essentially the CEO of "Ghostbusters 2016") no matter how much of a jerk someone is. He shouldn't stoop that that level.

 

[Tino]

It wasn't a potential customer tho. It was an angry fan boy against the entire concept who wasn't going to see the film anyway.

 

[Bryan^H]

Yes, and by responding Feig gave the troll the biggest compliment he could. he acknowledged him.
Rule 1 of the Internet is never feed a troll.

 

[Tino]

True. But the point is Feig didn't insult all Ghostbusters fans. Just ONE who deserved it imo.