Ghostbusters 3

13 Comments Posted on movie reviews, toy reviews, Uncategorized

Ghostbusters Reboot Movie Toys: Boys Aren’t Buying Them?

Ghostbusters Reboot Actions Figures Already on 30% Clearance at Target, 2 Weeks before Movie’s Release

This week while perusing through Target during my lunch break, because apparently that’s what I do for fun, I discovered a curious thing:

The action figures for the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot movie are already on 30% clearance, even though the movie doesn’t come out for another 2 weeks, on July 15th.

(This took place at the Franklin, TN, location.)

It presents a theory about the free market:

Could it be that boys aren’t interested in buying action figures

in which females are the protagonists?

I invite you to watch the video I shot, on the scene, which clearly shows that the Ghostbusters reboot movie is clearly being marketed to boys, as these toys are in the same isle as Star Wars and Ninja Turtles, which primarily consist of male characters.

Even though the new Ninja Turtles movie has been out for a month already, none of those toys are on clearance, which implies boys are still asking their parents for them.

ghostbusters-2016-movie-cast

Obviously, there has been a lot of skepticism about the upcoming movie by Ghostbusters fans; especially to make the four Ghostbusters female; as opposed to male, which is the gender they been identified as since 1984.

Ghostbusters Reboot Actions Figures Already on 30% Clearance at Target, 2 Weeks before Movie’s Release

Sure, I admit: If they couldn’t get the original cast to do an actual sequel (especially since Harold Ramis passed away two years ago in 2014), I would have at least liked to have seen brand-new characters to carry on the torch, in the likeness of the original cast:

Maybe Paul Rudd, Steve Carrel, Seth Rogen, and Donald Glover. I think that would have been awesome to see!

Ghostbusters Reboot Actions Figures Already on 30% Clearance at Target, 2 Weeks before Movie’s Release

In that version of reality, I could imagine that much more action figures would have been sold and prevented this 30% clearance situation at Target. Not to mention, I think fans would be much more excited about going out and seeing the new movie.

Again, these toys are purposely placed in the boys’ aisle, not with Barbies. The Ghostbusters toys are clearly intended to be purchased mainly by boys, not girls; which is why they are stocked on the shelves the way they are.

Yet boys aren’t buying them.

This is the free market at work; in which politically correctness is evidently being ignored by very young consumers.

With all that being said, I will be seeing the Ghostbusters reboot movie in a few weeks and will be doing a movie review on it; comparing it to the original, from a family friendly perspective.

So if you if this post has entertained you, check back in a few weeks for more on the Ghostbusters reboot.

4 Comments Posted on Nostalgia, Uncategorized

Why Eighties Movies are So Hard to Remake

And what happened to the genre of romantic comedies…

Back in October I was stuck at home for a few days with severe sinus and allergy problems, streaming Netflix instantly on my laptop all day. I decided to take a break with an ‘80’s movie that I had nothing but fond memories of since my family rented it on VHS when I was in the 3rd grade.  A movie that the general American population still only refers to with a smile and a goofy laugh: Weekend at Bernie’s.

I made it through 38 minutes before shutting it off.  That movie is so boring.  Not funny.  Too unbelievable.  It took them 33 minutes to kill Bernie, and by the time they finally did, I stopped caring.

As I thought more about it, ‘80’s movies aren’t easy to successfully remake because those cheesy, far-fetched, imagination-dependent ideas just don’t fly now that Aerosol hairspray isn’t clogging our brain anymore.  The Eighties were the only ten years that we would buy those concepts.

Like Tom Hanks in Splash (1984).  He falls in love with a mermaid.

Or Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf (1985).  He is a high school basketball star who happens to have inherited “the werewolf gene”.

Or Andrew McCarthy in Mannequin (1987).  He falls in love with a mannequin that comes to life at the mall he works at.

Or Tom Hanks in Big (1988).  He transforms from a boy to a man and falls in love with a grown woman. And just the record, it remains one of my all time favorite movies.

There was this reoccurring mix of fantasy and romance.  Often with drab dialogue.  But completely overshadowed by its towering gimmick of a plot.

These days, we’re too cool for silly ideas like that.  Since Terminator 2 impressed us with believable CGI (computer generated imagery) in 1991, then Jurassic Park in 1993, we’ve been straying from fantasy and romance, and focusing more on sci-fi with some romance.  Leading us to the days of Avatar and Transformers.  And most obviously, the soon-to-end TV series LOST.

And that’s why if today, if they Steven Spielberg remade Gremlins, it would be a hit.  Or Ghostbusters 3, if they ever actually end up making the movie.  Because that’s something the Eighties gave us that worked: horror and comedy along with sci-fi.  They are currently remaking Child’s Play.  And of course, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake comes out this Friday.

We adopted sci-fi horror comedies and sci-fi romance from the Eighties, but what haven’t translated over are romantic comedies and romantic dramas.  Yes, romantic comedies and dramas still exist.  A new one is released into theatres every week.

But overall, they’ve earned a lousy reputation.  Romantic comedies have become “chick flicks”, typically meaning they’re too predictable and cliché for a man to enjoy.  The “girl goes shopping and tries on ten different dresses for her girlfriends during a musical montage” scene.  Too familiar.

The Eighties pulled off romantic comedies.  They knew how to make them work for both men and women: Can’t Buy Me Love, The Princess Bride, Roxanne, When Harry Met Sally, Overboard.

But there’s only so much Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant a man can stand watching.  So what happened because of it?  Judd Apatow and his friends made the genre of bromantic comedies more popular than romantic comedies.  And not just films that feature Seth Rogan.  The Hangover and I Love You Man had nothing to do with Apatow.

I’m all for seeing a good romantic comedy.  Truly.  I like the good ones, unashamedly.  But it’s been a long time since one has been made.

It’s simply unnatural for the romantic genre to be catered towards women- because romance is about a man and a woman.  Because Katherine Heigl and a remote controlled dildo device don’t make a great team (reference to The Ugly Truth).  But Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan do.

After enough corny romantic comedies, we men got the point:  Romantic comedies are no longer for couples- they’re for single women.  So we avoid them and instead run to R-rated comedies featuring funny Jewish lead comedians like Paul Rudd and Jason Segal (Manspeak, Volume 7: Bromance).

The concept of romance in movies has become polarized.  Women watch chick flicks and men watch bromantic comedy.  Ironic.

As for romantic dramas these days, Nicholas Sparks pretty much has the monopoly on that: A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, The Last Song, Nights in Rodanthe.

Someone tragically dies.  A disapproving mother.  A Southern setting.  Got it.

So what can we say about remaking ‘80’s movies?  Some of them, many of them, most of them, need to stay where they belong- in the ‘80’s and in our fond memories.  But the ones that made us laugh, while freaking us out, while being drenched in sci-fi, well, we want more of those.  And the ones that were truly romantic, catering to both men and women, we want more of those.

We’ll always have a love/hate relationship with the Eighties.