New Jersey Stage 2016 - Issue 7 | Page 35

movie whose name it bears. One scene has Jones channel the spirit of controversial comic Mantan Moreland in what could be considered either the most racist thing you’ll see on screen all year or a reclamation of a dark period of African-American cinema; I’m not remotely qualified to wade into that cultural quagmire. Ultimately, given the sorry state of the comedy genre in Hollywood, Ghostbusters is about as good as can be expected, i.e slightly above mediocre. Sony is hoping for this to become a franchise to rival Universal’s Fast & Furious series and Disney’s Marvel universe, which seems like wishful thinking (there’s no pandering to China here, unless you count McCarthy’s enthusiasm for Won-Ton soup), and while this is a movie I will never revisit, I’d happily kill another 90 minutes in the company of these characters should a sequel arrive. w Ghostbusters 3 stars out of 5 Directed by: Paul Feig. Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Andy Garcia, Ed Begley Jr, Charles Dance, Bill Murray, Ozzy Osbourne, Michael Kenneth Williams, Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson NJ STAGE 2016 - ISSUE 7 INDEX NEXT ARTICLE 35