Ghostbusters

Stars: Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, Chris Hemsworth, Neil Casey, Michael Kenneth Williams, Andy Garcia, Charles Dance, Ed Begley Jr. Guest appearances: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts

Director: Paul Feig

A role-reversal remake of the 1984 spectral smash, with amusing guest appearances from the stars of that film. This time round, it's Wiig as Erin, a boffin who gets the sack from her stuffy faculty when her predilection for chasing ghosts goes viral: responsible for the career-changing gaffe is Abigail (McCarthy, toning it down, a bit), whose own pursuit of the paranormal involves sidekick Holtzmann (McKinnon, auditioning to be a female Joker in a Batman movie).

Erin quickly finds herself roped in to investigate an all-too-haunted house, and the trio is soon joined by Patty (Jones), a traffic control worker who spots a subway ghost after pursuing weirdo Rowan North (Casey) down a tunnel, and by Aussie receptionist Kevin: Hemsworth has fun here as the himbo to end them all; he has a dog called My Cat (actually Mike Hat) and has removed the lenses from his glasses because they kept getting dirty.

The lurid fun is suitable for kids of most ages, although one or two very small mites had to be carried screaming from the preview after the first happening in the haunted house.

David Quinlan

USA 2016. UK Distributor: Sony (Columbia). Technicolor.
112 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 20 Nov 2016

DVD review