Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the latest in a long line of classic film reboots, but it does a good job of capturing the legacy of the original Ghostbusters.
October was loaded with movies, and November is no different as awards season starts to heat up near the holidays. The main topic of this review will be Ghostbusters: Afterlife which I really had fun watching. I'll also briefly hit on King Richard (good), Red Notice (meh), and Home Sweet Home Alone (offensively bad). But first, let's bust some ghosts.
I really enjoyed Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It's very charming, a ton of fun, and while not the best movie I've seen this year, I really can't think of much bad to say about it! It's a sequel-reboot of Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989) and technically the fourth film in the Ghostbusters franchise. Afterlife gets it right though, after the 2016 reboot essentially took a huge dump on the rest of the franchise. I'm not a Ghostbusters superfan or anything, but the original movie is an absolute classic and one of the best movies ever made. Afterlife does it justice.
Here's the synopsis: When a single mother and her two children move to a new town, they soon discover they have a connection to the original Ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind.
Afterlife is a nostalgia filled trip down memory lane with a ton of references to the original movie. It's a lot like The Force Awakens was with rebooting the Star Wars universe. At it's heart, Ghostbusters is a comedy movie and the comedy was there in Afterlife, along with good jump scares and of course supernatural ghost busting. They got the musical cues all right, and director Jason Reitman did a good job following in his father's footsteps. (His dad Ivan directed the original.) One of my only knocks is that I wish there was a little more originality, because also like The Force Awakens, the storyline is VERY similar to the original. There's a fine line to walk in these reboots of wanting the nostalgia trip and wanting something new.
The main reason I wanted to see more new stuff out of this is because I thought the cast was fantastic. I think it's in Finn Wolfhard's (Trevor) contract that he has to be in every sci-fi project known to man. That knock off Timothee Chalamet is in everything. Carrie Coon (Callie) was good, she just didn't get to do much. And of course, People's Sexiest Man Alive, Paul Rudd plays summer school teacher Gary Grooberson (which is a fantastic name) and he always kills it. He's just the best. There was even a J.K. Simmons cameo! But the star of the show was Mckenna Grace who played Phoebe. She's 15 years old, and I'm not kidding about this - her performance was one of the best I have ever seen by an actor under 18. She was unbelievable. I had no idea she was going to be that good or even a huge part of the movie. In all the posters and trailers it's Paul Rudd or Finn Wolfhard that are front and center, but it was Grace that undoubtedly made the whole movie. And she wasn't just playing any old kid. She filled the role of her grandfather, Egon Spengler, one of the original Ghostbusters played by Harold Ramis who passed away back in 2014. Grace looked just like him all the way down to the hair and glasses and had his mannerisms down to a tee. She was simply fantastic. The only character I really didn't care much for was Podcast played by Logan Kim. I snorted when he said his name was Podcast. Coulda done without that. I felt a little bait and switched by Paul Rudd being so prominent in the marketing and being in about half the movie. If we get more Ghostbusters movies, I want to see more of Gary and Phoebe busting ghosts with the old team.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife did a good job of keeping the comedic spirit of the original alive while sprinkling in the action scenes. The chase of Muncher in the Ecto-1 was awesome and really well done. It was awesome seeing the ghost traps and proton packs back on screen again with those classic uniforms. I liked the new take on the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The little mini marshmallows were cute (and a little suicidal) and any merch that will come out of them will sell like hotcakes. Overall, I had an absolute blast watching Ghostbusters: Afterlife. While I did want more originality and maybe some new villains for our new heroes, it's still a super fun movie that is dripping with nostalgia and a very touching tribute to Harold Ramis. Hopefully we get more from Mckenna Grace down the road. Definitely go check it out this Thanksgiving weekend with the family!
Since my Ghostbusters review was pretty short and sweet, I'll give a rundown on a few other movies I watched this past week.
I'll start with King Richard which I really enjoyed. Will Smith's performance as Venus and Serena's dad, Richard Williams, is Oscar-worthy. It's a feel-good sports drama that's better than your average biopic. You can watch it right now on HBO Max.
Red Notice is Netflix's new mega-movie starring Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, and the Rock. And of course it broke every streaming record on the platform because Netflix said so and they are the only ones that ever see these streaming statistics. Seriously. Every time something comes out on Netflix they tell us 65 billion people watched it. I don't believe you anymore, Netflix. As far as the movie goes, it's average. I've decided Gadot is just not a very good actress and The Rock is the same guy in every movie he does. So is Ryan Reynolds. I like them both, but I think I'm getting fatigued. Especially with Reynolds. I can only handle so many quips from him before they all sound the same.
The movie I really want to go in on is Home Sweet Home Alone. Good grief. Everything Ghostbusters: Afterlife did right in their sequel-reboot, Home Sweet Home Alone did wrong. It's an atrocious, unnecessary cash grab by Disney that is good for absolutely no one. I guess it's supposed to be a kid's movie but there are so many old references meant for adults that it even misses that mark. In Home Alone, you root for Kevin to defeat literal bandits and grow a little along the way. There's a sweet message in the end. In this abomination the kid is an annoying brat that steals his neighbors property and then tries to murder them when they want it back. I like Ellie Kemper, Rob Delany, and the kid, Archie Yates. He was great in Jojo Rabbit, but he is so poorly directed in this. Every character is an idiot, there's no sweet underlying message. It's one of the worst movies I've seen all year. Do not watch this. Don't let Disney get any ideas about rebooting any more beloved Christmas classics in a crappy way.
I have a ton of movies on my watchlist as we creep towards the end of the year. We are also creeping closer to Spider-Man: No Way Home which will likely be my next review. It's gonna be nuts. But until then, I 100% recommend giving Ghostbusters: Afterlife a watch. It really is so much fun, I may see it again.
Who you gonna call?
- BH
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