'Ghostbusters' film review: Maintains the original vibe, but we expected more from this girl gang!

Director: Paul Feig
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Kristin Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Andy Garcia, Neil Casey
Rating: ***

What's it about:

Erin Gilbert (Wiig) would like to get on with her life and forget she wrote a book with her childhood friend Abby Yates (McCarthy) on the existence of ghosts, but no such luck. When the book resurfaces online, it sends the worried owner of New York's Aldridge Mansion, Ed Mulgrave (Ed Begley Jr) to well... get the ghost to vacate the premises. She reaches out to Abby, who along with her trusty ready-for-anything lieutenant and forger of ghost-busting arms Jillian Holtzmann (McKinnon). They manage to make contact, but subsequently, are both thrown out of their respective workplaces.
Realising the only way they will be taken seriously is if they document and capture an entity as evidence, they set out to do so. They do manage to catch one, which in an inadvertent show-and-tell, is set free. They find a new customer in subway worker Patty Tolan (Jones) and a new ally as well. 
In due course, though, they find that someone is amplifying the thing that's drawing these ghosts out from the otherworldly plane. When they do find the guy responsible, Rowan North (Casey), he kills himself.
Case closed? Not really...

What's hot:
As the dumb-and-dumber, Kevin (Hemsworth) is a treat to watch. McCarthy as the sharp-tongued Abby gets the most guffaws. But it's McKinnon as Holtzmann who is the find of this film. Build-wise and role-wise, she reminds one of the original's Harold Ramis, but in a much cooler avatar. Feig does a good job of maintaining the vibe of the original, but rooting the story in the present. Fans of the original might still be hung up about this being a girls-only club, now, but you have to admit it is something of a talent to put this much comedic talent in one film and not have it going all over the place. For most of the time, at least.

What's not:
The cameos by original cast members Dan Aykroyd (as a passing cab driver well-versed with ghostly entities) and Bill Murray (as supernatural debunker Martin Heiss) are not as memorable as we'd have liked. It's almost like Kristen Wiig is trying too hard to be besotted by Chris Hemsworth. And that Melissa McCarthy isn't. Which is weird. The villain played by Neil Casey looks sinister, but in a harmless way. So harmless, in fact, that we hear him out and wouldn't think of taking him seriously unless he brings out his 'toys'. 

What to do:
It's funny in parts, but knowing this gang of girls and the director, one expected it to be far funnier and without much effort at that. Worth one viewing, though.