Trending: Is Ghostbusters "Really That Good?"

In which I address online news, web content and trending issues.

Welcome to the first installment of Trending - a weekly article series which will be dedicated solely to the online spheres in the same way that my other series generally focuses on cinemic ones.  Some issues might be dedicated to certain hashtags or trending topics (such as the recently popular #AskHerMore, #90sTen or #OscarsSoWhite).  Others might be dedicated to web-based series and short films (such as Dragon Ball Z Abridged, Power/Rangers or Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope).  Still others will address issues of online criticism (such as episodes of Nostalgia Critic, Loose Canon and Jimquisition).  It all depends on what's most compelling to talk about during any given week.

When Bob Chipman announced his departure from The Escapist, the sole consolation that I took with the transition was his promise of new and varied content, starting with Really That Good: an independent web series dedicated to dissecting and deeply analyzing films whose quality and inherent value have been taken for granted by the culture at large.  While I was certainly stoked to have more Bob-produced content to watch - Escape to the Movies and especially The Big Picture being the only two "shows" that I refused to miss every week - my excitement was specifically founded in how it ultimately spoke to the position that I try to take with my own brand of criticism.

As he states in the series trailer,

The Internet can be a pretty negative place, especially when it comes to discussions of art, entertainment and popular culture.  We live in a cynical age where we value tearing things down far more than we do building things up, where we spent so long deconstructing we're actually running out of constructions [...] Even when done with the best of intentions, when the only approach we have toward art, media and popular culture is to deconstruct, dissect and focus on flaws, it's just not healthy for us as individuals or as a culture.

I try to enjoy every movie I see.  After all, why would I bother sitting through it in the first place if I expected to dislike it, never mind me actively wishing for it?  Sure, I hated The Phantom Menace and The Matrix Reloaded as much as everybody did, and The Room is just as hopelessly inept as its reputation suggests, but I actually went into Insurgent hoping for a good movie, or at least for one as reasonably entertaining (if as innately flawed) as Divergent.

In short, Really That Good as a concept spoke to me on a far more personal level than similar shows of film criticism have, especially those shows that focus on nostalgic - or at least non-recent - movies.  And while I admit that I had a brief twinge of doubt when the first episode turned out to feature Ghostbusters, a non-favorite of mine, it paid off in true Bob fashion before I ever had the chance for a second doubt.  If you haven't seen it already, please check it out here.

I'll admit it.  I never really thought all that deeply about Ghostbusters.  I loved the movie when I first came across it, and the spinoff TV series was actually far better than it ever needed to be, but both the movie and larger franchise just never really gripped me in the same way that, say, Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Shawshank Redemption have.  In my mind, it was always few steps up from Caddyshack, but just as many away from Christmas Vacation.  It was, in short, a superior comedy, but not "really that good."

But every time I watched Really That Good's premiere episode (once when it first posted, once with Becky and once in preparation for this article) I've had to stop myself from immediately going out to buy - or to at least rent - the movie, so infectious is Bob's love of it.  Thankfully Becky was not so resistant to his charms as I was, and it should arrive in the mail in time for next week's From the Vault.

Not only does he inject some much needed positivity into the cinematic discussion with this series, but he does so with grounded and deeply intelligent analysis of a film that I will fully admit having taken for granted.  It's not that there wasn't anything substantive to discuss in Ghostbusters.  Bob's proven beyond any doubt that there's plenty to discuss in the movie.  It's just that I never considered the movie long enough to get at any of those big issues that he astutely addressed in the video.

I never really considered the implicit narrative of man meeting his spiritual overseer and not only defeating it, but doing so with all too human technology and tactics.  I never gave any thought to the notion that kids encountering the movie like I first did might take away a practical message about confronting the nebulous fears lurking in their closets or under their beds.  I didn't even give it its due credit for resisting the typical scripting conventions of big budget Hollywood productions.  It was just some funny movie with a cool plot that I could whip out and watch no matter who I was with at the time.

If they prove to be as substantive and entertaining as their pilot, I honestly can't wait for Bob's future installments of Really That Good.  This especially goes for episodes covering movies that I've never been especially fond of (like the Caddyshack or E.T.), because it means a second chance at loving movies that everybody else always seemed to get more than I did.  As much as I'll miss having The Big Picture every week, these longer, more in-depth episodes are definitely something that I can get used to, even if I have to wait a bit longer to see the latest one.

So what movie would you love to see featured on a future episode of Really That Good?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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