Dan Aykroyd, who starred in the first two Ghostbusters, has come to the defense of the 2016 all-female version.
Almost immediately after its release, the trailer for 2016’s Ghostbusters was one of the most disliked videos on YouTube. And while that hate has subsided – or at least been buried by the disappointments of Afterlife and Frozen Empire – it undoubtedly left a mark on the franchise. But it does still have its defenders here and there; and finding one in one of the OG Ghostbusters is a good get, with Dan Aykroyd continuing to show support.
Aykroyd – who, like the rest of the original surviving Ghostbusters, had a cameo in the 2016 version – remembered having some issues initially behind the scenes but coming around to the movie itself. “I liked the movie Paul Feig made with those spectacular women. I was mad at them at the time because I was supposed to be a producer on there and I didn’t do my job and I didn’t argue about costs. And it cost perhaps more than it should, and they all do. All these movies do.” He added, “But boy, I liked that film. I thought that the villain at the end was great. I loved so much of it. And of course, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones and Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, you’re never going to do better than that. So I go on the record as saying I’m so proud to have been able to license that movie and have a hand and have a part in it, and I’m fully supportive of it, and I don’t besmirch it at all. I think it works really great amongst all the ones that have been made.”
Dan Aykroyd is no doubt in the minority with that particular Ghostbusters take. It’s one thing to say that it’s a good movie but to say that it works within the rest of the universe is a different kind of stretch. While Afterlife and Frozen Empire are far from being worthy entries, they do at least handle the nostalgia factor quite well and legitimately care about passing the torch. The ’16 version, not so much.
But hey, good on Aykroyd for going to bat for 2016’s Ghostbusters because it has been an easy movie to punch down on. That holds true even for the original team, as Ernie Hudson has been vocal in his confusion about the purpose of doing the movie in the first place.
Do you think 2016’s Ghostbusters will ever find its fanbase? How does it compare to the newest movies?