Give Ghostbusters 2016 a Chance

Who ya gonna call? Well I’m going to be calling the 2016 Ghostbusting team.

So it’s probably safe to say that the new Ghostbusters was the most decisive movie of 2016 and today marks the DVD’s UK release. This is my (spoiler free) opinion of why you should give the 2016 Ghostbusters a chance.

It’s actually a genuinely funny movie. I saw it originally in the cinema with my Dad and both of us laughed throughout the movie. Not all the jokes work but they come quick enough that if one misses it doesn’t matter. I was also very pleasantly surprised that it completely avoided making sexist, racist or sizeist jokes at the expense of the cast.

Women in science. We all know women are underrepresented in STEM careers, according to the Guardian in 2014 women made up ‘just 12.8% of the Stem workforce’. Obviously a movie is not going to change this but a successful movie with 3 of its female leads specialising in STEM provides exposure and representation that in the long run may influence a generation of women to pursue STEM.

The original Ghostbusters approve of it. According to repeated social media trolls, one reason why the new Ghostbusters was destroying the legacy of the original movies. I find this ironic given the original cast - from Bill Murray to Sigourney Weaver – cameo in the new movie.

It’s accessible for everyone. I went into the cinema with very little knowledge of the original Ghostbusters movies and I enjoyed it. There’s no need to have an in depth knowledge of what went before but if you are an uber Ghostbusters fan then there’s enough references to the originals to appeal to you.

The hope for a second outing for the new Ghostbusters team now solely rests upon DVD sales, streaming and downloads. I hope enough people pay to watch it that Sony is convinced that a sequel would be profitable.

To Unbox or Not To Unbox?

As a toy collector I am very familiar with that feeling of ‘should I take this out of the box?’ whenever I add something new to my collection. Anyone who knows me probably knows that I collect toys. All sorts of toys, from plushies to action figures to dolls.

The majority of the time my response is yes, I should unbox it - this reaction is probably due to how many times I’ve seen Toy Story 2 over the years! I usually unbox, remove tags and recycle the packaging (unless the packaging could be reused in a project) as soon as I can after buying something.

I know there’s a mentality that toys must always be kept in their box because that way they’re guaranteed to be worth more. That is a valid point however the reason toys from the 60s are worth so much in their packaging is because the packaging was destroyed in most cases. Toys from today are unlikely to gain as much value if they’re kept in their packaging as so many collectors leave them in their packaging that the market will probably become over-saturated. Plus it just seems sad that someone’s whole reason for buying a toy is to resell it later on.

Every so often I’ll come across something that stumps me. I have an unmasked 2015 SDCC Flash figure who I know I should be keeping packaged and I kept him in his packaging for a few months until I just had to remove him! And on the other end of the spectrum I bought an Elsa and Anna twin pack intending to unbox them but more or less as soon as I’d unboxed them I regretted taking the Frozen sisters out of the box.

Dolls I have found to be a particularly confusing group when it comes to if I should keep them boxed or not. Sometimes in the box a doll will be posed in a certain way or have their hair or clothes in a certain way that looks great but the second you take them out of the box that look is ruined. Other times a doll will need to be ripped out of the box as soon as possible because they look a mess in their box and urgently need a little TLC.

Generally I’ve figured out that I collect toys because they make me happy and I enjoy the experience of collecting. Therefore as it’s something that makes me happy I know it also makes me happy to not leave toys boxed up.