Bustin Makes Me Feel Slightly Hesitant

by Junky September 26, 2008

This is the positive side of what I’m sure will be an emotional roller coaster ride for Ghostbuster fans — currently, Murray is pro video game and pro sequel, though it should be taken into account that he is speaking before an auditorium of loyal fans, not on the phone with his agent. I LOVE the Murray and actually understand his position over the years. I respect that he’s one of the few actors who seems to respect his own franchise seriously enough that he hesitates to make sequels. His films are classics for a reason, and unlike Blues Brothers, Fletch, 48 Hours or Beverly Hills cop and other movies of his era, he has seen firsthand how a movie can go from a timeless classic to a tired franchise. His worst fears were confirmed when Ghostbusters 2 failed to hold the chalice from its opening weekend, and was met with tepid critical and fan response.

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He was publicly against the sequel in the first place, and certainly felt regret (regardless of what we might think of it) afterward.

We all might have different opinions of the sequel but I think we can all agree that Ghostbusters was timeless, whereas Ghostbusters 2 was not so much. Now I’m a GB fan and sure I want to see the busters make me feel good again. For me, the concept of the epic and canon level video game was a stroke of brilliance. A way to revisit the first film without suffering for age restrictions of the cast or budget/conceptual restrictions of production. We could have our cake and play it too. But it seems now there is a third film in the works – and like Murray, I guess I’ve just got cold feet.

Star Wars, Lethal Weapon, Indiana Jones and a dozen other franchises have lost their sheen in the shadow of what has come since. Now I love sequels, but I think too often the desire is only to cash in on former success, when the focus should really be on respecting the original property enough to warrant a naturally progressive storyline. If you’ve got that, you’re golden. If not, you’ve just turned Indy into National Treasure or Lethal Weapon into Rush Hour.

There is a reason Star Trek II is arguably the best trek film. It had a deep soul, a reverence for the characters and USED the things that were going against it (namely, the state of the aging crew) in order to find relevance. Other sequels that at least tried to earn their place were movies like Last Crusade, Terminator 2, and even Lethal Weapon 2. The rest? Kinda embarrassing. Can anyone sit through Lethal Weapon 4 or Beverly Hills Cop 3?

I guess they’re just movies but obviously a lot of us feel like these movies are part of our family, because we love them and grew up with them. You wouldn’t want to see your grandmother get a tit job. You know she’d look ridiculous. To everyone else she’d just be a crazy old lady with DD breasts, but your heart would break every time she came over for Thanksgiving dinner. In case I’ve lost my focus, I’m basically praying that nobody hangs fake tits on Ghostbusters. While everyone else would say “its just a movie,” I’d have another part of my childhood shattered and be one step closer to realizing I need professional therapy.

Murray is smart and always has been – he’s eccentric, emotional, and prone to flip-flop on this issue many times between now an the eventual release of what I’m sure will be a new Ghostbusters franchise property.

Whatever happens, it’s nice to see someone looking before they leap, and asking if he should rather than acting because he could.