2016 will be remembered for many reasons. In a year full of heightened political debates, social protests, and natural disasters, there was no shortage of front-page worthy material to fuel blogs and comment boards. However, there was an unexpected lightning rod for controversy that managed to steal the spotlight for a majority of the summer from everything else: Ghostbusters.

Director Paul Feig (Spy) took on the enormous responsibility of rebooting Ivan Reitman's 1984 classic, which solidified the star power of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Sigourney Weaver. Feig and Sony Pictures took a chance by reimagining the film with all female leads, including Melissa McCarthy (The Boss), Kirsten Wiig (Masterminds), Leslie Jones (Top Five, SNL), and Kate McKinnon (SNL) - and a firestorm erupted. It began with the release of the first trailer which set a record for the most dislikes on YouTube - something that carried over to the movie's theatrical release and is still smoldering to this day.

It makes no difference how praised or hated a particular movie may be when it comes to Screen Junkies' cinematic satire series, Honest Trailers. They take no prisoners. Now it's time for this year's Ghostbusters reboot to face the music, as Screen Junkies takes the movie to task.

In the video, they manage to make several observations that really shine a glaring spotlight on some of the film's structural problems. The first, and possibly most important, being that while all four leads are extremely talented and funny, they don't seem to have any chemistry within the film. All four comedians are gifted scene-stealers, each with their own unique brand of comedy. However, there aren't any grounded lead characters for them to bounce their zany material off of. The result is a disjointed and forced camaraderie that the Screen Junkies pulls no punches in exposing.

Previous to the film's release there was a huge multimedia blitz planned for the Ghostbusters property. Beginning with the Ghost Corps, which is a production company led by Reitman and Aykroyd, that would produce a series of properties based around the franchise. Including animated films and television shows (Ghostbusters: Ecto Force) that were intended to expand the Ghostbusters property into a full-fledged universe. So the under-performance of this year's reboot is a significant blow to Sony Pictures, in the present as well as the near-future. The Ghostbusters brand just doesn't seem that viable right now, at least in theaters. However, if one thing remains true, it's that (ghost)bustin' makes ya feel good. So hopefully, one day, the Ghostbusters can make a triumphant return.

Ghostbusters is now available on Blu-ray and Digital HD. Ghostbusters: Ecto Force is expected to air in early 2018.

Source: Screen Junkies