New ‘Ghostbusters’ Film Faces Intense Ridicule Two Weeks Before Its Release
The new remake of 1984’s classic hit Ghostbusters was supposed to be a feminist’s dream come true. However, the film has been ridiculed by both men and women who believe that the PR team for Ghostbusters is trying to play the “sexist” card to make critics guilty enough to give it good reviews.
In April, PJ Media explained why the Ghostbusters remake could be doomed.
“So remaking the film could seem like yet another Hollywood cash grab if not executed properly. No one wants their memories of Dr. Venkman and Co. spoiled by a lousy remake. Get it wrong, and you’ve got a group of surly Ghostbusters fans ready to vent on social media.”
Author Christian Toto also talks about the gender factor. He notes that many people on Twitter hated the idea of an all-female cast and some of those tweets could be seen as sexist.
I've spoken on this.
Stop trying to reverse-gentrify Hollywood characters.We don't need/want a black James Bond. Or women Ghostbusters.
— Teeth Sweat (@dabnisbrickey_) August 13, 2015
However, there are many people who don’t like the trailers of Ghostbusters and it has nothing to do with sexism.
“I wanted to like it. I really did. When the movie was first announced, I thought that a reboot was a really bad idea, but I held my tongue. I was cautious in my pessimism. I didn’t want to lumped in with the myriad of voices that were opposed to it for reasons that were petty and sexist (you may recall that Donald Trump was one of those voices),” says Roger Weisman from the Huffington Post.
“Just think for a moment if this was the exact same trailer but, it starred Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Rob Snyder and whoever else is in those kind of films. I think there would still be a huge backlash,” says Eric Larson.
“We need to call this for what is it, it’s a politically correct message masquerading as a movie. And it has to stop. The people have spoken. The movie trailer is rapidly moving towards half a million dislikes, Why do you think that is?” asks Mark Waterhouse.
Because of all the backlash, Sony may be setting its financial expectations a little too high. Forbes has the news.
“The first unofficial tracking is in for Sony ‘s much-discussed Ghostbusters reboot. The Hollywood Reporter reported (sorry) on Thursday night that Paul Feig’s female-led sci-fi action comedy is looking at an opening weekend of between $40 and $50 million when it opens in North America on July 15.”
Forbes notes that the new Ghostbusters cost $150 to make. It’s no wonder why Sony is doing everything they can to deflect from a backlash. According to a post on Reddit, Sony deleted several negative YouTube comments when the trailer debuted in March. The deleting of negative comments has been confirmed by many social media users.
There are some accusations that Sony kept the extremely sexist responses on YouTube up to give the illusion that people who don’t like the trailer are sexist. It’s obvious Sony has a lot of work to do to convince people to see Ghostbusters, otherwise they will lose millions of dollars.
[Photo by Dave Mangels/Getty Images]
