Melissa McCarthy has heard the complaints about her planned Ghostbusters movie. She knows that there’s a sliver of the fanbase who don’t want their favorite 1984 comedy to be remade. And she knows that there’s even a different side of the audience who don’t want to see the original roles occupied by females. Never mind that Paul Feig’s remake isn’t redoing the original movie beat by beat… or that the existence of Ghostbusters (2016) will do nothing at all to the existence of Ghostbusters (1984). However, McCarthy isn’t taking the criticism lying down. In fact, she’s firing back.
Melissa McCarthy has established herself as a powerful draw at the box office. Working together with her husband, Ben Falcone, on profitable, mid-level-budgeted comedies such as The Boss and Tammy, McCarthy has shown that Bridesmaids wasn’t a flash in the pan. Quite the opposite. Her movies with Paul Feig have made bank, from Spy to The Heat. They hope to earn raves with Ghostbusters, but first, they have to punch through that wall of negativity that has been thrown up by the online community. When asked about that negativity by The Guardian, a candid McCarthy theorized:
All those comments – ‘You’re ruining my childhood!’ I mean, really. Four women doing any movie on earth will destroy your childhood? I have a visual of those people not having a Ben [Falcone], not having friends, so they’re just sitting there and spewing hate into this fake world of the internet. I just hope they find a friend.
That’s one way to approach this, sure. Is it the best way? Time will tell. Provoking the vocal minority is the textbook equivalent of bringing a knife to a gun fight. For while Melissa McCarthy will no doubt be busy promoting her successful film an television career, the online commenters usually don’t have much else to do besides making more comments online. And pointing out that they may not have friends is only going to make them more upset, in theory.
This has been an ongoing debate for several months now. It flames up each time Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reveals more footage, and it could increase as McCarthy and her Ghostbusters teammates continue to do press to promote the film. At this point, however, most of us just want to SEE the film, so we can judge for ourselves in Feig was able to deliver another hit along the lines of Bridesmaids or Spy. I stand by the belief that the trailers for Ghostbusters are getting better, and I truly love this cast:
And that’s how the film could be able to have the last laugh. If and when Ghostbusters arrives, audiences will be able to judge the film on its own merits, and everything that has been said about the comedy prior to release won’t matter. Can fans come at Ghostbusters with an open mind? Are opinions already set in stone? And is McCarthy helping matters by swiping back at her online trolls? Weigh in below.
