'Ghostbusters: The Video Game' trailer - Bustin' should probably make me feel good

December 3, 10:26 PMLong Island Movie ExaminerMichael DePalma

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People will say that writing about a video game comes off as a bit disingenous after I felt the need to josh Game Examiner Daniel Nations a bit for writing an article about the best Netflix movies.  To those people I say "Oh look, bundt cake" and run away as fast as I can.

In all seriousness, I'm gonna take the risk because Ghostbusters: The Video Game looks to be the closest thing we're ever going to get to a Ghostbusters 3.  In fact, hell, this IS Ghostbusters 3, unless you count the movie that Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky are writing right now (with Harold Ramis's blessing, I should add).  As for the game, it's set in 1991, the business is booming, and the boys are looking to franchise out; part of that is hiring a new employee (your character) as a fellow Ghostbuster/test subject.

EVERYBODY came back for this; Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson voice the Ghostbusters once again.  Aykroyd and Ramis wrote the script, just like they did for the last two movies.  Annie Potts is back as Janine Melnitz, Brian Doyle-Murray is back as the Mayor.  Sadly, no Rick Moranis as Lewis Tully, but here's a big surprise: William Atherton returns as Walter Peck.  This shocks me because the story I heard goes (and keep in mind this is strictly anecdotal) that he stopped playing villains for a while because nobody could recognize him without calling him "d***less" (links to an explanatory YouTube clip, should be fine if you can handle some bad language).  Between this and his recurring role in NBC's "Life" (which you absolutely should be watching), he seems to be back to playing the sleazy jerk, and I for one welcome his return; I'm sure it must suck for an actor to feel typecast, but anyone raised on Real Genius, the first Ghostbusters, and Die Hard will tell you that nobody plays "villainous pompous ass" like William Atherton.

Oh yeah, the actual trailer.  Yeah, I'm not quite used to seeing the boys as video game characters, and storywise, I'm a little iffy on the callbacks to the first movie.  But really...how many people playing a Ghostbusters video game wouldn't want a shot at the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man?  Vigo?  The Scoleri Brothers?  The Library Ghost?  There were a lot of boys who first saw this movie and came out wanting to do everything the Ghostbusters did, and I was one of them.  So I can live with a little fanservice, even if it does feel out of place.  What matters to me is if the actors are still in form and Aykroyd and Ramis can adapt to writing for a video game.  Time will tell on the latter, but the talent definitely sounds like they came to play here.

After being delayed countless times, Ghostbusters will hit the shelves on June 16 - just over a week past the original movie's 25th anniversary.  Looking forward to it, and I've created a new category in anticipation of writing a review and having Nations chew me out as a hypocrite.