 Hello everyone, as you can see I'm flying solo today because yesterday I just watched Ghostbusters Afterlife and I feel like I have to talk about it right away. If I look kind of like shit today because I'm tired, I barely slept last night because the movie just had me so wound up. I couldn't fall asleep when I was sleeping, I was just thinking about the movie. So I kind of feel like I need to talk about it now to get a bunch of stuff off my chest because I actually have some very mixed feelings about this movie. And hopefully by doing this review I can kind of like come to a consensus about it. To start things off I'm gonna break this review down into two parts. The first half will be a spoiler free review and the second half will be a very spoiler heavy kind of ranty review. So I'm gonna have one drink here and we're gonna talk about this. So to start things off what did I like about Ghostbusters Afterlife? The story, the story is fucking fantastic. Just as the trailer kind of explains, Egon's a strange daughter and her two kids are forced to move to Egon's old farmhouse after his passing because they're broke, they have no money, they were evicted. His grandchildren don't know who he was so the movie really revolves around Phoebe trying to discover who Egon was and what exactly was he doing at this farmhouse and what he's there trying to stop. How do you do a Ghostbusters movie without Harold Ramis? Especially having the other main three characters return. Well this is exactly how you do it. You build it around the fact that he's no longer there but you still use his legacy in the work that the character is trying to do just before he died and build a whole story around that. I think that was brilliant writing and it worked perfectly. Really this movie is just a big love letter to Harold Ramis and the character he created, Egon. You can't ask for much more than that really. It's a great cast. Everyone's been saying McKenna Grace just fucking steals the show. She plays Egon's offspring, a Spangler, a Spangler offspring so well. All the little nuances, everything from like the delivery of the dry humor, the very logical intrigue of the character, the silent genius, she pulled it off just fucking perfectly. Paul Rudd, I'm not a huge huge Paul Rudd fan but he was very very good in this. I loved his character. I loved the whole kind of like giddy fanboy because that's exactly what we are. That's what I am. I love Ghostbusters and he loved watching the Ghostbusters on the news and stuff when he was a kid. The whole cast as an ensemble is like super super tight. The humor unlike the 2016 version isn't shoved down your throat. It's not stupid and bad and full of a bunch of one liners that just keep repeating over and over again. You know if I need to hear a fucking joke about a wonton again, I'm gonna shoot myself in the fucking head. The humor in this is much more like the original. Not as subtle as the original mind you but it's a lot more subtle. Probably be a lot of jokes that you missed the first time around. Beautiful looking movie. The cinematography is just fantastic. The locations are great. I was skeptical at first them kind of taking this away from New York. New York being such a big part of the first movie and the second movie. New York is kind of like another major character in those movies. I thought I'd feel this absence in this movie and I didn't at all. Actually I thought the small town setting was great. Old outdated mining town called Somerville. It's claustrophobic and spooky and exactly the type of town you expect ghosts to be wandering around in and it worked great. Egon's farmhouse is just spectacular. The interior is just amazing and it looks exactly like the kind of place you'd see Egon living out the rest of his life. The effects are really good. It's a mix of practical and CG and as all of you guys know, I fucking hate CG. But in this movie, it's actually very good. It looks really crisp and detailed. The practical effects of course are great. The terror dogs look fantastic and you can tell they're practical. In my opinion, the terror dogs look better than they do in the first movie. The sound design is really good and there's that one moment and when they're testing out the proton packs in the field, switches it on and you feel the rumble of the movie theater as this thing's revving up. I really get the sense of how powerful these things are for like the first time. It actually kind of gave me goosebumps a little bit. The score of this movie is again fantastic because it is pretty much the original score. Elmer Bernstein's original score just kind of redone a little bit and retooled and retweet. It made it really feel like a Ghostbusters movie. Hearing those themes, hearing those melodies again really brings it all full circle and makes you feel at home. So what did I not like about Ghostbusters Afterlife, spoiler free? To stay on the same subject, it is the score. As wonderful as the score is, as nice as it was to hear the original score, I thought they kind of actually overused it a bit and didn't rework it and retool it enough to make it fit the scenes. It felt like a movie where the score was not scored for that movie. Obviously because the score is for the original and they're trying to fit these songs into a movie that it wasn't really written for. One of my biggest points of contention with this movie is too many new characters which hindered the pacing and too many subplots takes you right out of the main plot which is Egon Spengler's legacy. The pacing in the original movie is fucking perfect. It's one of the best paced movies of all time. That in Big Trouble in Little China in my humble opinion. Don't want it and I didn't want it to replicate the structure of the original movie because let's face it, Part 2 did that. That is one of my big problems with Part 2. With the first movie, for example, you're always in a state of like, yeah, fuck yeah, let's keep going. I'm really digging this. You know the next thing happens. It's great. Okay, you're rolling on to the next thing right away. This movie I found I was very tempted to but didn't pull out my phone and check the time and think, okay, how long have let's pick up a little bit here. There's not much happening. Halfway through the movie almost. Well, let's get some stakes rolling here. And all of that could have been solved if they just would have cut one or two characters and subplots. I'm not a huge, huge Paul Rudd fan, like I said, but his character is really good and I was really digging him. And if they would have, you know, given him a bit more screen time and fleshed out his character a bit more, you would have loved the character even more than you already do. Something I didn't think I would be mentioning is too much blatant fan service. This is a pro and a con, really. Honestly, the fact that they made this movie in the first place and the fact that they're telling the story they're telling is the fan service. You don't need much more. Some of the Easter eggs I dug, the ones that were blatant and right in your face, I wasn't a huge fan of. I did not need to see fucking mini stape puffs running around to Walmart for no reason whatsoever. So that's the end of my spoiler-free review, pros and cons of Ghostbusters Afterlife. Did I like the movie? Yes, I liked the movie. Did I love the movie? No, I don't think I loved it. Was it a great continuation of the Ghostbusters legacy? I think it was. You know, the story was fucking great. Did it piss me off at times? Yes, it did, because I'm a picky, critical, fanboy asshole. Would I see it again? Of course I would. I want to see it, like, again as soon as possible. Should you go see the movie? Yes, of course. Make sure it makes a lot of money at the box office so they give us another one. Overall, broad strokes. I did like the movie. It's just, I really thought the pacing and all the extra unneeded characters and subplots really kind of dumbed it down. It was emotional, you know? I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up a couple of times during the movie. It really does pull out the heartstrings. When Jason Reitman said he was making a movie about family, well, he wasn't lying. That's exactly what he delivered. It's a movie about family and a movie about love, and it's all about showing love to the franchise and to Harold Reines. So, if you haven't seen the movie, you don't want anything spoiled, hit pause, go watch the movie, come back and finish this episode. If you have seen the movie, or if you don't care if things get spoiled and you just want to hear me kind of rave on, then keep on rolling. I have another sip of this drink, and we're going to plow through. I loved the way the movie started. The way it was shot dark at night, all in shadows. You see Egon Spangler, he's in this mountain, and he's trapped something in a ghost trap, and he's running back to his farmhouse for his life. The sense of urgency with the scene is fantastic, and it really gives you a glimpse of what Egon was up to all these years. Another part I really liked about this movie was the solving of the mystery. A Phoebe's quest to find out who her family is, who her grandfather is. She gets led to clues by the spirit of Egon Spangler. And it's a great way to include Egon in current events, even though he's not even there. Using the PKE meter as a plot device, I thought was fucking fantastic. Egon's invisible spirit activates the PKE meter and makes it kind of come to life. He uses himself to lead Phoebe with the PKE meter to clues. I thought that was such a smart way to use this iconic piece of gear, which really didn't get all that much use in the first two movies. I also really loved the way they didn't completely retcon Ghostbusters 2. It's always been clear that Bill Murray hates Ghostbusters 2, and it's been stated several times that the cast and director of Ghostbusters 2 are kind of lukewarm with it at best. They don't touch on the events of Ghostbusters 2, but they also don't go out of their way to say, No, this never happened. Paul Rudd's character, Mr. Gruberson, says while ghosts ran wild in New York in the 80s. He doesn't say 1984 specifically. He says the 80s. While Ghostbusters 2 took place in 89, Ghostbusters 1 took place in 84. That's a good chunk of the 80s. Ray still owns and runs, Ray's a called books, which he does in part two. So that tells me that Ghostbusters 2 isn't completely retconned. They just chose not to really touch on those events too much. The original cast. Of course it's great to see them back, and it really does pull at your heartstrings, and I'm gonna say right now it was great, fucking great to see all four, that's right, all four Ghostbusters suited up, slinging proton packs, throwing particle beams as a team. And yes, it did bring a tear to my eye. I was really, really, really, really hoping they wouldn't go the root of a CGI e-gon in this movie, even in ghost form, but when it happened, wasn't disappointed. I was actually very, very happy that they did it, and it's all in the way they pulled it off. It is all the way that they led up to it, and the way they teased it, and when they did do it, it didn't seem cheap and hokey, and because he is a ghost, it works. If they just did CGI e-gon, it would look like complete garbage, but the fact that he's kind of a vaporous see-through ghost, the CG works in that case. And the timing of it was perfect. If they would have brought CG ghost e-gon in halfway through the movie, it would have just fallen apart. It would have been the fucking shit. Giving the actors and the characters a way and a chance to say goodbye to the character e-gon, and let's face it, Harold Ramis really is the real payoff of this movie. It works, and that's what we all wanted, and it does really make it feel like e-gon and Harold Ramis got a proper on-screen thank you and goodbye. And there's also a couple of post-credit scenes that take place with the original cast. The first one's a little kind of throwaway, does kind of confirm that Peter and Dana are still together. The last post-credit scene was really, really good. Really tied the movie up, and is really what I think everyone wanted to see in this. It is Winston chatting with Jeanine. It's just a really kind of heartfelt chat they have, and then Ecto One rolls into the old firehouse, and Winston puts his hand on Ecto One very lovingly, and it cuts to the containment unit, making some strange sound like it's about to fail. Exactly how they should have ended the movie leaves the door open for some future sequels. This brings me to some things about the movie I actually really didn't like at all. Stay on the topic of the original cast returning. The first thing is more screen time. Not tons more, but just a little bit more. Let's start with Jeanine. It almost seems like her little scene at the beginning was like cut short, like they didn't finish it, and there's kind of more to be said, especially about her and Egon's relationship. Past and present. Ray, I thought the scene with Ray and Phoebe over the phone was fantastic, and actually it was just the right amount of screen time for Dan Ackroyd as Ray in that moment. Explains how the Four Ghostbusters split up after the 80s, and how they all went their different ways, and how him and Egon kind of had a falling out. To me, that part of this character's return is just very much super out of character. Super enthusiastic. Go get her! Ray, to say to Egon, I don't believe what you're telling about there being another, you know, dimensional cross-rip. You go off and do your own thing, and it's so out of character for Ray. For him to not believe his best friend, and not to believe his fellow Ghostbuster, that there's another danger arising somewhere, to me just doesn't make sense. Ray would go help Egon, or at least go investigate regardless. It really goes against the character traits. Peter, you know, Bill Murray is Bill Murray. He'll phone it in when he wants to, and in this case it felt phoned in. The dialogue for him, whether it be ad-libbed or written, seemed really kind of cheap and cheesy, and to me just didn't really work. A lot of new characters didn't work here or are fucking pointless, too in particular that being Lucky in podcast. Lucky is Trevor's love interest at the diner. First of all, what's her fucking name? I got no clue. Does she have a last name? I got no clue. The subplot with her and Trevor goes nowhere, was completely pointless in a waste of time, could have been cut right out of the movie and saved a lot of time and made the pacing better. Podcast, again. What's his real name? I don't know. They mentioned it like once or twice, but I don't remember. And what kind of nickname is podcast anyways? It's like kind of like a nod to the 80s movies, where everyone had a nickname, like in the Goonies, you got data, you got mouth, but you know, guess what? This is in the 80s and podcast is a shitty fucking nickname. I understand why he's there. He's there to give Phoebe someone to play off of someone to get into trouble with. But a lot of the lines written for him are just kind of crappy one-liners that don't work. There's no sense of urgency with him. Kind of the weak link, not to say he was bad, standing next to, you know, McKenna Grace. Well, she's so good, she kind of makes everyone else look bad. The return of Gozer, the Terror Dogs, and the Mini-State Puffs. The rehashing of the old movie. It's probably my biggest complaint about this movie. Bringing back the old villains, crossing the streams at the end. I've seen all this before many, many, many times because I've watched the original movies so many times. We don't need to see it again. Yes, it makes sense in the first movie. You know, they don't really destroy Gozer. They close the gate. You know, maybe Gozer's still alive behind the gate and can come through onto this planet, this dimension through a different gate. It's kind of cool that you find out that Evo Shandor did build other temples besides the one we see in the first movie. And they're kind of scattered throughout the planet and those can open too. That's kind of neat. It just would have been so much better if they just gave us a new villain. They could have kept everything the same. Almost everything the same, but just have a different villain and a slightly different backstory. Didn't need to see Terror Dogs again. Didn't need to see a Keymaster and Gatekeeper meet up and mate and turning to Terror Dogs in an almost exact shot for shot. Fuck the Mini-State Puffs. They didn't need to be there at all. It was completely pointless and in my opinion, not even funny. My last thing I'm going to complain about is who's the mom? That's one question they never, never answer. Who is Phoebe and Trevor's grandmother? Who did Egon have this relationship with? What happened to her? They don't explain any of that. They also don't really explain Trevor and Phoebe's mom as to why she's broke, why she's in this situation she is. They could have fleshed some of that out a bit more and got rid of those other two useless characters. There you go. I've kind of said my piece. Got some stuff off my chest. Figure out how I feel about this movie. Overall in broad strokes, I did enjoy it. I really like this movie. I thought it was a great continuation of the first. You know, the story besides bringing back Gozer. Fantastic. When people say, you know, this is the Ghostbusters sequel you were all waiting for, that's really subjective. For me, it really wasn't. Half of it was. Story with Phoebe and trying to find out who her grandfather was and bringing back Egon as kind of like this legend. Really, really dug that and that kind of was the Ghostbusters sequel I was hoping for. Rehashing the old shit from the original, bringing back Gozer and the Terror Dogs. It's not the Ghostbusters sequel I wanted. Give me another threat. I even maybe even more dangerous threat. You know, having so much love for the first film is hard not to look at this like super critical and I wish I couldn't. I wish I could just sit back relax and enjoy it for what it is and not pick it to pieces, but just being so in love with the first two, it's hard not to. I think it's a good movie. It just, you know, needed to try some new things. Great send-off of the character Egon and it does open things up for new sequels through that last post-credits scene. Which really did make my day. That last post-credits scene just, again, made me tear up a bit and I kind of thought, yeah, that's what we've been waiting for.