Ghostbusters

Author: Paul Feig

There was an uproar when they announced an all-female re-make of Ghostbusters. It pretty much died down when the film turned out to be uproariously funny. The team of Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, and especially Kate McKinnon measure up beautifully with the classic team of Ackroyd, Murray, Ramis, and Hudson. They play rough analogues to the originals, but there's so much good old fashioned comedy timing going on and a script that is smarter than it is silly. And it's REALLY silly! The real stand-out among the cast is Kate McKinnion. She's an SNL star, best known for her Hilary Clinton imitation, but here she's weird, funny, and smart all in equal measure. I'm not sure how she managed to be that weird and still manage to become beloved by the audience. She's the basis for the science fiction-y fun of the last half of the film, where we get to see the reason the original Ghostbusters doesn't play as well today – the effects. These are fairly cutting-edge effect works done within the story and not over-powering it. That alone is a miracle when you look at scifi of the last decade! Why it's on the list: It's just flat out funny!