The only way that this could be topped is if the original 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor ECTO-1 had appeared instead. Seeing a 1984 Cadillac of any kind, much less a former hearse that is now liveried up as the successor to one of the most famous movie cars ever made, driving though London has to be a jaw-dropping experience for the locals. Look, we will call it honest: the new Ghostbusters movie doesn’t live up to the original, and seeing a 1980s Caddy in place of the radically over-the-top ’59 Cadillac leaves something to be desired. That isn’t the point of the video, though. Yes, it’s a fluff piece for the UK premier of the movie, but we want you to notice something: how excited the locals are over the car. What is it about this box Caddy hearse that gets everybody’s positive reactions? The movie? The car itself? The fact that the guy can thread the big barge through London traffic without having to get out and scrape the black cabs out of the grille? You tell us!
THIS THING IS SO FRIGGEN UGLY AND WRONG i don’t even find the words for it…
It looks nearly as bad as the film does, judging by the trailer. Best avoid seeing both of them as yet another lame remake bites the dust..
“So it was vital to keep the legacy…” No, it wasn’t. That mindset is my real problem with this version of ECTO-1. It’s trying so hard to keep the legacy that it looks like some no-budget tribute by someone who couldn’t afford a ’59 Cadillac ambulance, rather than turning the props department loose to create a brand new icon. They ended up with a car that my reaction was, “Well, that’s OK, but it doesn’t live up to the original.”
I would have rather seen something with zero connection to the original, a fresh interpretation that is free to be its own car and stands or falls on its own merits. What if the Ghostbusters started with a deuce and a half, or one of those weird boxy 1980s Toyota minivans?
Well, no this works. You need to remember that in 1983 when the original was shot, the 59 Caddy was a 30yo Ambulance that had zero value to anybody. This works from both a gearhead point of view and from a storyline point of view – they need a car that can carry a lot of gear that costs basically nothing.
They’ve done the same thing here, except that now the 30yo ambulance was built in the 80s. It’s about the only part of the movie that they did properly IMO.