Nostalgia is a hell of a drug

That constant yearn for something in your past that you may never accomplish visiting again hits us all. I myself can get extremely nostalgic, forever wanting to live in the ‘good old days’. The truth, quite simply is there probably weren’t good old days, just shut up Frank (see what I did there? I’m self aware!). Sure, you may have been richer, slimmer, somewhere more exotic or all of the above but the day to day struggle of being an actual human comes with plenty of issues.

Take for example being a child. Everyone has those moments where they wish they could revisit their youth; playing on the climbing frame, getting up at seven to watch some cartoons on a Saturday. Your worries were quite simply how long would it take for your parents to notice that it’s an hour past your bedtime or how many lollypops you need to take into class on your birthday.
“But we didn’t have to worry about bills or finding a job.” – True, but can you honestly say that the levels of stress you feel at times in your life weren’t exactly the same as something so trivial back then? In hindsight running around the house stark bollock naked shouting ‘NO CLOTHES ON!’ was indeed an easier time when you were a kid – not that I do that now or anything, but back then you were still worrying about aspects of your life that may even seem laughable now.

Why we should give Ghostbusters (2016) a chance

 

Ghostbusters – the majority of the world have seen it. For the most part we’ve enjoyed every minute of it from Bill Murray giving the guy at the start electric shocks while flirting with his student right down to raining marshmallow over New York. I think we can all agree that this is a fantastic, fun and sometimes scary (looking at you, hellhounds) popcorn film which will forever be given a status of rewatchability for the masses amongst masterpieces such as Jaws, Jurassic Park and Star Wars. I could harp on about reasons this film deserves legendary status for days, but you get the gist.

Which brings me to the remake/reboot (we’re still unsure of this). Y’know, the film that not one of us has seen yet and is somehow already hated by a majority (or a very loud minority). It’s almost become some sort of badge of honour to announce how terrible this film that we haven’t seen is going to be.

It’s the most disliked film trailer of all time on Youtube, compared to such delightful trailers like Adam Sandler’s ‘Jack and Jill’ or ‘I Frankenstein’ to my complete disbelief. Even disliking a few of the jokes in the trailer, or even the actresses involved – to be given the award for most disliked trailer of all time is a pretty serious defeat for the film.

This isn’t in defense of a film I’ve not seen yet, because the same argument can be applied to people defending the film, I just think the hyperbole of hate is beyond ridiculous.

What I think it comes down to is people have been disgruntled with the idea of remakes for quite some time now, and this frustration can reach two levels. One being that they’re annoyed about the lack of fresh ideas hitting the big screen (I would argue that case, as there are several new stories in film that are brought to us each year), another being that a remake tarnishes the original.

The obvious argument to the latter is to be told ‘don’t watch the new one then’ which to an extent is a perfectly fine statement to make however; I can completely understand where the angry group are coming from. My personal go to is The Hobbit, which to me will forever be the bane of the Lord of the Rings universe. If I was told ‘just don’t watch it then’ to that then I find myself trying to explain ‘that’s not the point’.

Remakes are here, they’ve been here for a long time now. Some will work, some won’t – but don’t put all your energy into an opinion based on a small trailer.

I for one will give this a chance. I’m not even a huge fan of the actresses’ previous films but this particular remake/reboot seems like it could work. It’s not like they’ve rushed into making it and not unlikely that if this was in the real world that a group of women may take on the idea that Murray, Ramis and folks had back then. This is hopefully also a large step (albeit not the first) towards the abolishment of sexism in the film industry. Who knows? It might even be (dare I say it) a funny film and if not, I’ll get over it.