The 2020-2021 Film Journal Entry #36: "Ghostbusters: Afterlife"

2020-2021 Film Journal Entry #36

by Xavier E. Palacios

"Ghostbusters: Afterlife"

4 out of 5

Directed by Jason Reitman

Premise: Thirty-two years after Ghostbusters II, science genius Phoebe and adventurous Trevor Spengler (McKenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard), the grandchildren of the Ghostbuster, Egon, move to Summerville, Oklahoma, with their mother, Callie (Carrie Coon), after inheriting their recently deceased grandfather's mysterious farmhouse. There, they become acquainted with a curious boy, "Podcast" (Logan Kim), an enthusiastic science teacher, Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), and the teenage joker, Lucky Domingo (Celeste O'Connor). Spurred by unmistakable clues, the gang investigates the strange, supernatural occurrences in town that Egon was battling: the rising forces of the ancient god Gozer, the Ghostbusters' first nemesis. Now, these new Ghostbusters, armed with Egon's archival technology and unexpected help, must save the world from a new apocalypse. An awesome surprise that returns the magic of this cherished series back to me with innovative success.

"PG-13"

My Thoughts

Part 1: Me and Ghostbusters

I did not know the Ghostbusters series as a kid. After I saw the original, phenomenal 1984 film, (now one of my favorites), during a high school summer, boy, did I make up for lost time! When I returned to school, I told one of the few teachers I did not dislike and who treated me kindly, Mr. Irby, that I saw Ghostbusters, the Back to the Future trilogy, and Groundhog Day during the break. He smiled and joked, "The boy has become a man." I would occasionally leave the series' famous catchphrase, "Who ya gonna call?", on classroom whiteboards. I got the film's soundtrack, and that classic "Ghostbusters" theme song became my anthem for many months. I have seen the first two films enough times that I quote them often. In that first year I watched them, I quoted Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II profusely.

With Ghostbusters becoming one of my great loves and obsessions, I was soon gifted two toy replicas of Ecto-1: the titular Ghostbusters' car, one of my absolute favorites in cinema. I got many series' comic books, with one back-issue I had signed by the author of the IDW Comics series, Erik Burnham. I had Ghostbusters' t-shirts. A Ghostbusters' piggy bank shaped like the team's iconic logo. I watched The Real Ghostbusters cartoon, of course. One Christmas Day, I was gifted a set of retro action figures of the four Ghostbusters. The enthusiastic and book smart Dr. Ray Stanz, (played by Dan Aykroyd, one of the two films' co-writers). The science aficionado and stoically hilarious Dr. Egon Spengler (played by Harold Ramis, the two films' other co-writer). The sarcastic and unimpressed goofball, Dr. Peter Venkman (played by Bill Murray). The cool, ordinary guy who braves New York City's supernatural haunts, Winston Ziedmore (played by Ernie Hudson). Plus, Janine Melnitz, their secretary intolerant of nonsense who keeps their business running (played by Annie Potts); and, naturally, Slimer, the gluttonous, green ghost from the first movie who was the cartoon's mascot. I displayed those figures in my film editing office. I quickly fell in love with these and all the other Ghostbusters characters.

In college, I was gifted my first Playstation 3 video game: the excellent Ghostbusters: The Video Game, essentially the original Ghostbusters 3, (an infamously decades-long gestating project I once actively researched news about almost daily). I saw the 2014 theatrical re-release of the first film, prompting me to invent my very first, genuine fan-fiction idea derived from one of the series' famous antagonists, a stage play called The Walter Peck. Later that year, I was incredibly saddened by Harold Ramis' death, as his work had given me so much to love and learn from in a brief but strong time.