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Honest Trailer - Ghostbusters (2016)

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Ghostbusters (2016) is the 171st episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Dan Murrell, and Andy Signore. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the 2016 supernatural comedy reboot film Ghostbusters. It was published on October 18, 2016, to coincide with the film's release on home video and Blu-ray. It is 6 minutes 2 seconds long. It has been viewed over 5.5 million times. This video is notable because it directly commented on the online negativity this film received prior to its release. In anticipation of a flood of toxic viewer comments, Screen Junkies disabled the comments on the video - and attracted media coverage because of this decision.

Watch Honest Trailers - Ghostbusters (2016) on YouTube

"You did this to yourself, Internet." ~ Honest Trailers - Ghostbusters (2016)

Script[]

(user requests for a Ghostbusters 2016 Honest Trailer appear; the narrator sighs) Are we sure we wanna do this one? Fine, we'll do it, but we're turning off the comments. You did this to yourself, Internet.

Trigger Warning: The following video contains scenes from the 2016 film:

Ghostbusters

From the studio that just got hacked by North Korea, lost creative control of Spider-Man, might lose James Bond, and couldn't even keep Adam Sandler happy (Sony Pictures), comes the surefire hit to put them back on track. (shows hateful user comments on the video for the Ghostbusters trailer, ending with the comment "Thanks for killing my childhood, dumbasses.") Oh, no.

Experience a film that created a perfect storm of hatred, uniting people who legitimately hated the trailers (shows over one million dislikes on the Ghostbusters trailer video), people who legitimately hate reboots of classic films, and people who legitimately like to yell hateful nonsense on the Internet.

Donald Trump: And now they're making Ghostbusters with only women! What's going on?!

Wait, we're making a Ghostbusters video *and* calling out Trump? I am so getting doxed.

Get ready for the film that everyone in their blog rushed to judge before they'd even seen it, and prove to all the haters that...it's bad. I-I'm not gonna lie to you guys. I mean, it's not as bad as they said it was gonna be, but still, it, it, it's pretty bad.

Abby: I lost my glasses! Oh, wait, wait, I got 'em! They're in my hand!

Look out, boys. There's a brand new cast in town, and it's true, these Ghostbusters have no dick...or chemistry, as everyone in the ensemble plays the comic relief at the same time, featuring the awkward comic relief...

Erin: Yes, Princeton. More like Prince-tons of dummies go there.

...the random comic relief...

Jillian: I can think of seven good uses of the cadaver today.

...the down-to-earth comic relief...

Patty: I'm sorry, my uncle owns a funeral home, not a Enterprise Rent-a-Car.

...and the physical comic relief (shows Abby propelling herself around with the proton pack). Look, you can't all be the Venkman. Someone's gotta be the Egon.

Together, they'll unite against a villain so forgettable, they'll ditch him halfway through for Chris Hemsworth and the third act of Pixels (shows clips comparing the ending of Ghostbusters with that of Pixels).

Suit up for a film that's desperate to prove it's not like the original...

Erin: 'Ghostbusters'? That, that is not our name.

...but also desperate to remind you of the original at every opportunity, with the exact same plot as the first Ghostbusters, but the old cast is there, too, but they're playing new characters stuck in humiliating cameos, but it's still set in the same universe as the original...? Why isn't this a sequel, or just a straight reboot?! Or just don't call it "Ghostbusters" and make an original movie about shooting ghosts with laser beams! Oh, no, I've become one of them! (shows the narrator's tirade typed as a comment on the Ghostbusters trailer video)

Experience a feature-length reminder that comedy is subjective, your enjoyment of which depends on how much you like Paul Feig's B-material, and not one, not two, but three jokes about soup...

Abby: I got one wonton!...That looks like dishwater and one, one shrimp...I'm just looking for a reasonable ratio of wontons to broth.

...or spring for the extended cut that adds fifteen minutes of new footage, featuring not one, not two, not three, but four different dance numbers. Really? Extended edition? You really wanna push your luck on this? Man, you do not make it easy to like you, Ghostbusters.

So catch this fine but forgettable comedy some people treated like the coming of the apocalypse, that, after a summer full of duds like the Jason Bourne rehash, the Independence Day sequel, and a Tarzan reboot, proves once and for all that girls can make middle-of-the-road, studio-mandated franchise bait just as well as the boys. Hooray(!)

Starring Kristin's Wig (Kristen Wiig as Erin Gilbert); Melissa McBarfy (Melissa McCarthy as Abby Yates); 2 Step Verification, You Guys (Leslie Jones as Patty Tolan); Kate McCosplay (Kate McKinnon as Jillian Holtzmann); Chris Hunksworth (Chris Hemsworth as Kevin Beckman); and -- I know a lot of us are divided over this film, but let's take a moment to agree on one thing that actually deserves all that hate: The Fall Out Boy Cover Song. (plays Fall Out Boy's cover of the Ghostbusters theme) Noooooo!!

Honest Trailers - Ghostbusters (2016) Cannot transcribe this video 4-24 screenshot

Honest title for Ghostbusters (2016) - Ghostbusters: Now Let's Never Speak of This Again. Title design by Robert Holtby.

Ghostbusters: Now Let's Never Speak of This Again

(singing to the tune of the Ghostbusters theme) If something's lame, and it ain't that good, watcha gonna do? Don't watch it! (speaking normally) And don't waste your time trolling the cast just because they agreed to be in a bad movie. You hate it? Well, fine then! Go support something original, why don'tcha?! Man, how did a Ghostbusters movie become the most political thing in America during an election year!?! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!!

Trivia[]

Reception[]

Honest Trailers - Ghostbusters (2016) has a 93.8% approval rating from YouTube viewers. Reviews for this Honest Trailer were mixed-to-positive, with many media sites also commenting on the culture war that the film inspired. SlashFilm noted that Screen Junkies sounded "tired... and with good reason" in the video. The site also noted that while Screen Junkies does criticize the film, "they save some of their harshest vitriol for the haters." Radio Times remarked "if you can bring yourself to laugh at the death of hope in the world, there are some good lines here." EW praised the Honest Trailer's "hilarious but perfectly acceptable trigger warning." In a similar vein, Geek Girl Authority wrote "I wouldn’t call this the funniest thing Honest Trailers has ever done.  But I think they did an awesome job of addressing the biggest thing around the movie, which is the crazy fan hatred that it inspired, and the fact that it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t the freaking apocalypse either."

Uproxx agreed with Screen Junkies that "there’s plenty to complain about: three jokes about soup, four dance numbers in the extended edition, and a villain so forgettable they traded him for Chris Hemsworth two-thirds of the way through. Can we at least agree the level of rage — including the harassment directed specifically at a woman of color — was insanely disproportionate?" CinemaBlend remarked that "while previous entries in this video series are usually packed with nitpicks and flimsy complaints, this one actually points out legitimate problems with the new Ghostbusters." Screen Rant made a similar point, writing:

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. (Braxter Timberlake, October 18, 2016, Screen Rant).

The Mary Sue called the Honest Trailer "the fairest treatment" the film has ever received, noting "there’s a huge difference between legitimately not liking the film, and hating on it furiously without ever having watched it, forcing it to justify its mere existence. Honest Trailers does a great job of navigating the murky waters between the two." In the same article, the site wrote "thank you to Honest Trailers for being, well, honest while still maintaining a sense of integrity and kindness. And humor, because this shizz was hilarious."

Comments disabling[]

Due to the toxic online response to the film, Screen Junkies chose to disable the comments on the video on YouTube. Screen Junkies explained their decision to disable comments on the video in an interview with The Wrap:

"The idea of shutting comments off was written as a joke that we ultimately wanted to follow through on,” Screen Junkies co-founder and “Honest Trailers” creator Andy Signore told TheWrap. “We thought it might spur some press — you guys asking for a comment clearly proves we were right!”

“But, also, the film just wasn’t as offensive as the toxic reaction it received, and we didn’t want to give that small but overly aggressive audience another platform to spew their hatred on,” he continued. “Its ultimately just a movie. Our fans demanded we do our honest take so we said our piece — now let’s all just move on. And for the record I can’t wait to buy a ticket to Paul Feig‘s next film — we are huge fans.” (Joe Otterson, October 18, 2016, The Wrap)

Regarding the decision to disable the comments, Uproxx noted "this is also the first time we’ve seen them disable the comments on a video, although we can understand why." Radio Times said it was "a smart decision to disable comments on their official page."

Production credits[]

Ghostbusters

Video thumbnail for Honest Trailers - Ghostbusters (2016)

Voiceover Narration by Jon Bailey

Title design by Robert Holtby

Series Created by Andy Signore & Brett Weiner

Written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Dan Murrell, and Andy Signore

Edited by Bruce Guido and TJ Nordaker.

External links []

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