Ghostbusters Review: 6 Ups And 4 Downs

3. More Jokes Hit Than Miss

The first good joke in Ghostbusters comes about twenty seconds in. Twenty seconds. Not bad from a film most assumed would struggle to get you to smile even once. From then there’s a constant run of gags, both big and small, that mean you’ll be chuckling along through most of the film. I really don't want to spoil any of the knock-outs, but rest assured there's plenty of surprises.

There are misses, I'm not gonna lie. A lot of the pop culture references are based around incredibly obvious gags about classic movies – there’s a contextually messy Scarface “say hello to my little friend” – and some of the more awkward interaction stuff feels contrived. But overall it’s funny. Even jokes like that fell flat in the trailers work in context.

Well, except that Exorcist possession stuff. That was as cr*p as it always looked.