Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

62% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 276 reviews)

Runtime: 124 minutes

Directed by: Jason Reitman

Starring: McKenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Logan Kim

From: Columbia

Holy fan service, Gozer...

It was actually a request that made me finally see this; someone I know asked me if I had seen the film, so they could hear my opinion. Sometime tomorrow I'll tell them that I found this to be fine. Ghostbusters: Afterlife was actually the first of two movies I saw at an AMC last night; the review of the second will come on Tuesday. To clarify, as a kid I saw both of the movies from the 80's (the first more than II; for this film's sake it was no big deal that II hadn't been watched by me as an adult) along with the cartoon-both based on this property & the competing show based on the obscure 70's children's sitcom w/ a gorilla that just happened to have the same name.

That said, the original film-while something I've always enjoyed-was not one of the staples of my childhood like The Goonies was, for example. That's why I never had any desire to see the 2016 remake... ahh yes, the 800 pound animated gorilla in the corner. From clips and detailed reviews, there is something I will never see; no, it is NOT because “it stars four girls.” Rather, it was “starring for loathsome, loud, & obnoxious characters who do horrible painful improv 'comedy' in an overlong picture” that make '16 as appealing as acquiring COVID. The reason why this wasn't watched sooner? Fatigue from 80's nostalgia; the fact that this banks super-hard on the original film... not something I loved.

Personally, not all the comedy landed—there's a kid who is only known as “Podcast” as get this, he has a podcast. Speaking of fatigue, the finale being a special effects extravaganza is a cliché to me, and I don't even watch most of the 21st century superhero pictures. Thankfully, this is still fine as it was easy to sympathize w/ the lead family... down on their luck they are forced to move to a relative's dirt film in the middle of Oklahoma-you can probably guess who this old man was. I liked the mom, daughter Phoebe and son Trevor. Some of the supporting characters aren't painted w/ as fine brush strokes yet overall most of the key players worked as intended. Acting-wise, Makenna Grace as Phoebe-who is implied to be “on the spectrum”-was the highlight, which was critical as Afterlife is constructed around her.

There are some laughs & action scenes, plenty of heart & sentimentality, & it was nice to see a son do a sequel to two movies directed by his father. For certain, this is “safe” yet considering the s***storm of Biblical proportions that resulted from the last movie in the franchise... that was the right way to go, a crowdpleasing picture that should satisfy many that love the property, which includes far more (comic books, cartoons, videogames, etc.) lore than I realize until I saw some discourse about it recently. Afterlife could have been far less enjoyable so a rating of “fine” is not a disappointment. A pleasant surprise for me was the Funkadelic and oldies on the song; the tune that I later discovered was from THE BUZZCOCKS was quite the eye-opener.