For many people, people immediately know the answer to Who you gonna call? When the first Ghostbusters was released in 1984, it was a hit. It was able to do so much for a lot of people. It was able to balance the humor with the absolute strange and weird in a very unique way. For some people, it was their first time seeing Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Dan Aykroyd. It was a film that many found themselves being able to enjoy with their families. You'd think it wouldn't be that difficult to get a sequel, then.
In the meantime between the first and second film, the studio was able to have Real Ghostbusters that lasted for 7 seasons. It was a cartoon that brought a more kid friendly approach to Ghostbusters. I mean take a look at Slimer. In the first film, he was a bit of a dick that all he did was slime the Ghostbusters. In the cartoon, he's become something of a sidekick to them. However it was the only way people could get more Ghostbusters stories for a while.
Unfortunately when Ghostbusters II was released, it was a film that was a little unsure of itself. There were behind the scenes difficulties with Murray apparently. I guess one of the biggest reasons why it took so long to get II has to do with Murray. Apparently, Murray didn't get along with Ernie Hudson. So the result was that the core group felt a bit fractured in the film as it was rare to see Hudson and Murray in the same scene. Some people really enjoyed the fact that we got II. Others felt like something was missing as a bit of the more adult humor was missing. It was like they were trying to pull back on things so that even kids could enjoy it more this time. And it resulted in something that felt like it was retreading some ground that the first had done. I mean how many times can we have the Ghostbusters be shut down before they are asked to help save everyone?
After that, we would receive another cartoon in Extreme Ghostbusters. It was an attempt to renew interest in this growing franchise. I remember waking up before school and catching part of an episode on WB!. It was also around this time that I had finally found Ghostbusters as well. They were shown on many channels so many times. Chances are during the 90s, if you pulled up Comedy Central - you'd find Ghostbusters on it.
I would definitely say that I was more of a casual Ghostbusters fan. I had seen it many times whenever it was played on TV. I had thought about buying it on DVD, but just never done it. I had even tried the Video Game that was serving as the 'official' Ghostbusters III. It's just Ghostbusters has been something that has been there but not something I was fully into. And then there was the 2016 film. Many people have gone on to say that they hate 2016 film with a passion. For me, I love it. It does pay tribute to the franchise in a very unique way. Plus it gave some pretty fantastic visuals - the whole sequence at the end when they are fighting the different ghosts is especially cool. Plus Chris Hemsworth doing comedy is always a plus. I do have that one on blu ray.
Now comes Ghostbusters Afterlife. This is a film that I've seen a lot of people cheering for the film and a lot not liking it. I definitely respect Afterlife. It was put together by Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman - who directed the original film. It definitely is interesting as it goes 'The Force Awakens' route with this requel.
I got to watch it last night with my son, Bruce. He has seen the 2016 Ghostbusters and enjoyed it a lot. Ghostbusters Afterlife is a solid film about family as we spend time with Egon Spengler's daughter and grand-children. They have inherited Egon's farm in Summerville. For the most part, the film does some interesting things as we are able to spend time with Phoebe and Trevor, the grandkids. Honestly, they received a lot of screen time. More than I thought that Paul Rudd would get but he's more in the role of Tully from the original. Not even their mom gets a lot of time. The film's pace was very quick. There were a few ghosts that were new. Muncher was kind of an interesting character that felt like a modern Slimer - though he was set up as a plot point. Oh, we also get the Mini-Pufts. Those were pretty fun.
The big bad of the film settles on Gozer. I honestly wasn't upset about that. It felt only natural if they were going for 'The Force Awakens' approach to bring back Gozer. The way that they portrayed Egon wasn't that out of character. It made sense that if Egon knew something was coming, he'd do his best to try and solve it. The only problem was that he did it by himself. I guess he was just fed up with the other Ghostbusters not believing him or he wanted to save them. Makes sense to me as his whole mission is a bit of a suicide mission.
I found myself smiling multiple times throughout the film. The film worked really well. Bruce also loved the film. Is it perfect? No, but it is a nice re-introduction to Ghostbusters. It'll be interesting to see where they go next.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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