Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

11/23/2021

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) - Bust out some popcorn

♥♥♥

A strangely menacing sky catches the eye above a new batch of 'busters on this poster for Jason Reitman's Ghostbusters: Afterlife

The Spenglers, financially exhausted single-mom Callie and her teenage offspring Phoebe and Trevor, travel to the decrepit dirt farm that her late father has left for them, - and a hidden legacy, - of ghostbusting!

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is written by Gil Kenan (Monster House (2006)) and great Quebecois filmmaker, co-writer/director by Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking (2005)). It is produced by his father Ivan Reitman, the producer/director of the original Ghostbusters films, Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989). The film ignores the events of Paul Feig's female reboot Ghostbusters (2016), a much-trolled flop.

Afterlife makes it its mission to bring a cinema package that is as close as possible to a ride back in time to the era of the original films' success, the 1980s, as can be imagined, both in tone, sounds, colors, designs, pace, plot elements and Rob Simonsen's (Burnt (2015)) Danny Elfmanesque score. Plot-wise it's a Goonies (1985) spin on the 'busters. It builds up for a long time and tries to establish wonder and interest in science.

Paul Rudd (The Fundamentals of Caring (2016)) and Carrie Coon (Strange Weather (2016)) are a great fit for the adult leads, but it is Mckenna Grace (Fuller House (2016-20)) as Phoebe, a girl with a comedic killer delivery and possibly a great future ahead of her, and Logan Kim as her friend and comedic sidekick Podcast (his name another throwback reference to Short Round of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) I feel sure), who steal the movie. Their fun is the best part of Afterlife, which has good eye candy VFX but no tangible reasoning behind the invasion of ghosts and ghouls except for the film being, of course, a Ghostbusters franchise entry.

The original 'busters are brought back, which wasn't strictly speaking necessary in my humble opinion, but Reitman and Co. (plus, don't forget, the studio) have elected to push the respectfulness and nostalgia that Feig's movie lacked in 2016, and it is okay. The problem with trying to evoke real wonder and characters with dramatic tangents (poverty, fitting in in a new environment and coming-of-age) is here that every line and situation is infused with an irony so thick that the former ambitions are tripped against ever hitting anything real. But there are also gems among the ironic cleverness, as Coon's motherly advice to her 12 year-old daughter towards success in the new school: "Just don't be yourself."

It's all a joke and a fantasy with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and overlong and nonsensical as it is, it is still a good fun time at the pictures.

Ghostbusters franchise: Ghostbusters (2016) - Feig's reboot is the summer's light-heartedly funny, slimy major release

Ghostbusters II (1989) - Reitman's unjustifiably maligned sequel

Ghostbusters (1984) - Reitman and Co. conjure up the gleeful pomp and circumstance of the 1980s

Jason Reitman: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess

Tully (2018) - Theron delivers in Reitman/Cody's candid motherhood dramedy

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 75 mil. $

Box office: 60 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Ghostbusters: Afterlife premiered 8 October (New York) and runs 125 minutes. Development of the third Ghostbusters was ongoing from the early 1990s into the 2000s and onwards, especially restrained by Bill Murray's unwillingness to participate, and from 2014 also from Harold Ramis' death, another of the four original busters. Shooting took place from July - October 2019 in New York and Alberta, Canada. The release was pushed back almost 1½ years due to the China Virus pandemic. The film opened #1 to a 44 mil. $ first weekend in North America, and is in good shape to become a theatrical success within the coming months. It still has 14 markets slated to open in November, December and January, including France, South Korea, Russia, Spain and Australia. Reitman does not have his next directing gig announced yet. Coon returns in Boston Strangler (pre-production); Rudd in The Shrink Next Door (2021, TV-series) and theatrically possibly not before Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). Ghostbusters: Afterlife is fresh at 62 % with a 6.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ghostbusters: Afterlife?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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11/23/2021

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) - Bust out some popcorn

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