Ghostbusters: Afterlife

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I personally enjoyed Phoebe's goofy jokes. I found Mckenna Grace very impressive and charismatic actually. Like she really sold all the material.

Grace was a revelation IMO. She carried the movie.

And again, for me it just serves as a reminder that the humor of Ghostbusters wasn't just Bill Murray's wisecracks. That was one piece of it. A big piece, for sure. There's only one Bill Murray. But the humor of Egon's character was in how dead serious he was at all times. Character-driven humor, not gags. The character of Phoebe brought that back. She wasn't just a mini-Egon though, she was her own character. But she definitely had a lot of her grandfather's traits, which served as a great bridge to the originals and also just served the emotional payoff of the film. I even thought the bad jokes felt very Egon (Do...Ray...Egon!). The movie lives or dies on her performance and she knocked it out of the park.

This is the juicy contradiction when comparing Afterlife to Force Awakens. GBA is technically a greater departure for its series; it has a different tone and is about different things. It is less of a rehash than a JJ film would be. But, a lot of the changes have effectively made this Ghostbusters more directly like TFA. The reverence, nostalgia, family and legacy is all Disney Star Wars bread and butter. Once again I can totally understand why a person would feel positively and negatively about the change. It wasn't in the original's DNA.

Yup, I do agree with that. Although at the same time, I think GBA made the right call to give the fans that 'moment' they were hoping for. It didn't end with Phoebe finding Ray in his book shop and then cutting to credits before he could even utter a word. It felt like a complete experience that book-ended the original films with something we'd always wanted to see one more time. I also think it benefits from the fact that Ghostbusters is a franchise that just kind of faded, it was never a complete story that felt like it already had a beginning, middle and end the way Star Wars did. So I think Star Wars was a much heavier lift, at the end of the day. Especially when there wasn't a single visionary guiding it.

I also think this movie makes another improvement on the formula in that it doesn't make a mystery box out of the Spenglers' lineage. We are discovering it through Phoebe's eyes, but the opening prologue makes it very clear who it is, not to mention Phoebe's appearance. It's all very clear and it's not playing a game where it's trying to keep the audience guessing. In hindsight, I really wish the ST just went with that type of approach. Not to derail this thread with ST talk, that its own beast.
 
So Hasbro spoiled the ending to the movie as did Variety.
The Day Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson Became Ghostbusters Again



Hasbro reveals Ghostbusters: Afterlife Plasma Series Two-Pack! (SPOILERS!) - Ghostbusters News

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Even though they've done interviews already It hasn't even been a week since the movie debuted.
In this case at least they waited until after its opening weekend but still, Hasbro already spoiled the movie months ago when they revealed these:
ghostbusters_plasma_series_original_banner.jpg

We knew they'd be in it obviously but that's a reveal that could have been saved for the movie.
 
One of my favorite moments with Bill Murray

is when they start shooting and he begins to laugh with joy.
Surprisingly, my favorite Murray moment wasn't a funny one at all. I was already getting misty eyed when Egon's ghost showed up but seeing the others, and especially Venkman well up after the fact really got me. That was my favorite Murray moment, especially knowing about his and Ramis's falling out for 20 years and they never reconciled until shortly before Ramis's death. In that moment, they weren't Ray, Winston and Peter to me. They were Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Bill Murray shedding a tear for their old friend. I wasn't overly fond of the third act basically repeating most of the beats from the original but that ultimately isn't the point that the movie is trying to make. I can forgive all of that rehashing just for how beautiful the tribute to Harold Ramis was.
 
Surprisingly, my favorite Murray moment wasn't a funny one at all. I was already getting misty eyed when Egon's ghost showed up but seeing the others, and especially Venkman well up after the fact really got me. That was my favorite Murray moment, especially knowing about his and Ramis's falling out for 20 years and they never reconciled until shortly before Ramis's death. In that moment, they weren't Ray, Winston and Peter to me. They were Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Bill Murray shedding a tear for their old friend. I wasn't overly fond of the third act basically repeating most of the beats from the original but that ultimately isn't the point that the movie is trying to make. I can forgive all of that rehashing just for how beautiful the tribute to Harold Ramis was.

Definitely.

It’s funny, I’ve heard a few times from articles or podcasts, “why did Murray after years of turning down versions, sign up now?”

And I think the reason is pretty obvious and it’s all in that scene. It was for him to tribute Harold Ramis.

I kind of think this may be the last time we see Murray as Venkman, but I think it’s a perfect ending for him actually.
 
Surprisingly, my favorite Murray moment wasn't a funny one at all. I was already getting misty eyed when Egon's ghost showed up but seeing the others, and especially Venkman well up after the fact really got me. That was my favorite Murray moment, especially knowing about his and Ramis's falling out for 20 years and they never reconciled until shortly before Ramis's death. In that moment, they weren't Ray, Winston and Peter to me. They were Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Bill Murray shedding a tear for their old friend. I wasn't overly fond of the third act basically repeating most of the beats from the original but that ultimately isn't the point that the movie is trying to make. I can forgive all of that rehashing just for how beautiful the tribute to Harold Ramis was.

Yep, and I even thought that

the whole idea that they try to cross the streams, but it's not enough without that fourth proton pack/Egon was cute, and bittersweet too. That alone kind of justified the re-use of Gozer to me. I just am kind of charmed by the idea that crossing the streams is something specific to defeating Gozer, rather than something that can be used every time. I think/hope that forces them to be more creative with ways to defeat threats if there are future films. But it was a great payoff for this particular story.
 
I don't get the humorless comments, I laughed a lot during the movie thanks to Phoebe and Podcast. Paul Rudd added his sincerity to everything that also made me chuckle.

Someone mentioned that the movie has that Amblin/Spielberg feel and honestly that's probably why I love it cause those early Spielberg films are some of my favorite.
 
Finally saw it. I was a little disappointed by it. This thing just felt slow. All the actors were great in their parts but it just didn’t have any urgency to it. Even after all the ghosts start taking over, there wasn’t a sense of mayhem.

When would Egon have had time to find someone to have a baby with? Assuming his daughter was late 30s in this movie, that means she would have been born in the 90s. GB2 took place in 89 so I guess the math could work.

Even then, the idea that Egon was a dead beat dad doesn’t sit right with me. I can believe he was aloof and maybe distant but the idea he would just abandon a kid seems weird.

And while it was great seeing the original cast shooting packs again, they were completely shoehorned in. How did they know where in Oklahoma to find them? Did they all just get on a flight right after Phoebe hung up with Ray? How did they get more proton packs?

And so now Gozer is trapped in the farm. But who’s paying the bills to keep it going? I guess Winston now since he’s apparently a multimillionaire but still seems a bit of a hand wave.

I didn’t hate it, and think it’s a more fitting entry than the reboot. It definitely had a lot of potential to be great but just fell short. Too many pacing problems and needed more scenes with Phoebe and her brother together throughout the movie.
 
Finally saw it. I was a little disappointed by it. This thing just felt slow. All the actors were great in their parts but it just didn’t have any urgency to it. Even after all the ghosts start taking over, there wasn’t a sense of mayhem.

When would Egon have had time to find someone to have a baby with? Assuming his daughter was late 30s in this movie, that means she would have been born in the 90s. GB2 took place in 89 so I guess the math could work.

Even then, the idea that Egon was a dead beat dad doesn’t sit right with me. I can believe he was aloof and maybe distant but the idea he would just abandon a kid seems weird.

And while it was great seeing the original cast shooting packs again, they were completely shoehorned in. How did they know where in Oklahoma to find them? Did they all just get on a flight right after Phoebe hung up with Ray? How did they get more proton packs?

And so now Gozer is trapped in the farm. But who’s paying the bills to keep it going? I guess Winston now since he’s apparently a multimillionaire but still seems a bit of a hand wave.

I didn’t hate it, and think it’s a more fitting entry than the reboot. It definitely had a lot of potential to be great but just fell short. Too many pacing problems and needed more scenes with Phoebe and her brother together throughout the movie.

I think that math is slightly off samsnee.
 
Harold Ramis was pushing 40 in the original Ghostbusters so Egon having a secret kid at that point isn't beyond the realm of possibility.
 
If we’re going by the age of the actress then 1981.

But I think it was mentioned by Reitman or someone that the character was born in between 1 and 2. I mean, even Dana had a baby in between.
 
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Looking back, it makes total sense that Egon could have been married and fathered a child. We really don’t get a look at the personal lives outside of Ghostbusters from anyone in the gang aside from Peter in Ghostbusters 2, in which a good chunk of that movie focused on Peter & Dana’s relationship
 
All the talk about Egon having a kid during GBII made me realize that when you get down to it, we know next to nothing about the Ghostbusters' personal lives in either of the original films. The closest we get is seeing Venkman's attempts to woo Dana. It's really a testament to the original script that we didn't need to see what those guys did when they weren't busting ghosts in order to understand who each of them were.
 
All the talk about Egon having a kid during GBII made me realize that when you get down to it, we know next to nothing about the Ghostbusters' personal lives in either of the original films. The closest we get is seeing Venkman's attempts to woo Dana. It's really a testament to the original script that we didn't need to see what those guys did when they weren't busting ghosts in order to understand who each of them were.

In my most recent rewatch, you can see that basically they live in the firehouse. They have their beds, they eat there, no much else is explored but one could assume that they put all their money in there.
We saw a bit more of them in GBII, specially with Venkman. His apartment is a big part of that film. Ray has the Occult Books, Egon his experiments. Nothing about Winston though.
 
It also kind of makes sense now Egon isn’t with Janine in the sequel even if they hinted at it in the original. I know a few fans were disappointed they changed that to Janine and Louis Tully.
 
It also kind of makes sense now Egon isn’t with Janine in the sequel even if they hinted at it in the original. I know a few fans were disappointed they changed that to Janine and Louis Tully.

One of the things I appreciate about the GB franchise is how it mirrors some of life's messiness and how things don't always work out in the way you'd think. IE in GB2, the team has disbanded, Peter and Dana have broken up and Dana has a child with another man, etc.

Although I thought
it was very sweet to see that Peter and Dana are still together all these years later.
 
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