GhostBusters: Afterlife (2021) - Movie Review

What do you get when the children of legends decide to make a sequel to their parent’s best project 30+ years after the minds behind it have long since died? It shouldn’t work, couldn’t work right? What if I told you that those beloved comedy legends left behind a script, a guideline for how the series should be continued? What if I told you that the surviving cast and crew gave their blessing and helped along the way?

What if I told you a Ghostbusters movie made me cry?

Let’s discuss.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a action/horror/comedy sequel to the original Ghostbusters film. Yes, they ignore the second film this go around in order to tell a much more heartfelt conclusion to the careers of our childhood heroes. Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddemore, and Egon Spengler deserved better than what the rushed and poorly conceived Ghostbuster II gave them as a conclusion. Yes, I have watched Ghostbusters II a thousand times like every other 90’s latchkey kid, because it’s all we had to tie up the series in live action form. Of course we had a plethora of animated features, video games, and tie-in books, but never a true ending fitting of the greatness of that first film.

Until now.

It only took Harold Ramis’ untimely death to finally bring the crew back together to save the world one last time.

But wait…

To tell this story correctly, I need to give you a history lesson on what really happened between the original crew and why this sequel took so long to get made.

To those of you who aren’t aware, Harold Ramis was a comedy genius. He is the single greatest comedy writer in film responsible for such enduring classics as Animal House, Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Analyze This, Bedazzled, and Groundhog Day. If you want to argue his greatness, I’ll meet you in the parking lot. This guy single handedly shaped the sense of humor of most of us outsider kids born in the late 80’s. He was a driving force behind National Lampoon and SCTV. It was his groundbreaking wit and irreverent humor that led to SNL pushing boundaries and American comedy losing its limiter. He helped the careers of many performers, but none so much as his friend Bill Murray.

Murray worked with Ramis on various projects throughout the years including Meatballs, Stripes, Ghostbusters, and most importantly for our story, Groundhog Day. You see, this was their final collaboration. This brilliant film which I hear people quoting on a near daily basis in my small town alone, was the breaking point.

Why?

Well, because Bill Murray is a kind of an asshole. As much as people love the stories of his odd antics, there’s an equal amount of stories of his abusive, toxic, and reprehensible behavior out there. He is notoriously self-important and also a huge fan of Somerset Maugham. If you’ve ever met a diehard fan of the Maugham, I’m sorry and I empathize with you. For those of you who haven’t, Somerset Maugham is an author of thinking man’s fiction. You know, stuff about Americans who go to war and then go to tibet and then become nihilistic buddhists. Murray thought Groundhog Day should be more like Maugham’s work than a popcorn comedy. Ramis didn’t think people wanted to see a morose think-piece, and thus a rift began. A rift fueled by Murray’s intense insecurity with the fact that many in Hollywood considered he and Ramis a comedic duo. Murray thought himself an independent success, even though his best roles and highest grossing films were those done using Ramis’ scripts. Groundhog Day is a classic. It’s one of the most thoughtful comedies from an era of mindless dreck. It was a massive success and it’s script garnered a BAFTA award for best Screenplay for Ramis. Their friendship ended after the film’s premier as Murray fed-up with being seen as the life of the party character stopped speaking to Ramis completely. It wasn’t until Ramis had lost his ability to speak due to the autoimmune disease that eventually took his life that Murray finally attempted to reconcile.

There are so many stories floating around about how Dan Akroyd tried to get Murray back into the fold to work with he and Ramis on a final Ghostbusters project. Akroyd pitched a half a dozen scripts to studios, but without Murray, the star, there was no traction. Even with the great Ivan Reitman director of Stripes, Ghostbusters, Meatballs etc in their corner, the projects never got a chance. Instead the studios tried to reboot the series in atrocious fashion with the poorly written, directed, and acted 2016 film.

It was so bad that it’s one of the free movies VUDU gives you for signing up for a free account.

After Ramis and Reitman passed away and the 2016 flop of a reboot, the studios were desperate enough to hear a pitch from Ivan Reitman’s son, Jason.

Jason Reitman is a legend in the making responsible for directing films like Up in The Air, Juno, and Thank You For Smoking. He took the reins of this project and made something so true to the original spirit, but without shameless nostalgia pandering. This film treats you the viewer as if you are a member of the family. You know the answers to so many of the questions the main characters have, because you were there in New York when Gozer the Gozerian tried to Marshmallow the world to death. You know how good a guy Egon was. You know there has to be a reason all of this is happening.

Oh yeah, the movie…

The movie centers on a down on her luck single mother Callie, played by the magnetic Carrie Coon and her two kids as they travel across the country to clean out the old farmhouse that belonged to her recently passed absentee father. Her son Trevor, played by Finn Wolfhard, is a somewhat awkward teen that’s trying to cope with his dysfunctional family. His sister Phoebe is a super intelligent loner who just hopes to someday make a friend. Together they tackle life in the nowhere town and actually start to have a good time with it, until a dark cloud settles over them. Something’s stirring in the darkness, it’s name whispered on the wind… Gozer. With the apocalypse brewing and no one who believes them outside of their juvenile science teacher (Paul Rudd) what can they do to stand against the coming tide and more importantly, Who’re They Gonna Call?

The film is brilliant. Watch it. It’s currently free on Amazon Prime Video.

The acting is flawless.

McKenna Grace, who plays Phoebe, is a superstar in the making. She carries this film on her shoulders like a veteran of the silver screen. She’s a star on the rise.

The special effects are fantastic as well. They utilize a mix of practical and cgi effects that put the recent Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness to shame. It even looks like they refurbished some of the old effects from the original movies including the demon dogs and the taxicab zombie-ghost.

Oh Wait—

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The entire crew, except Rick Moranis, returns for this film. Even Annie Potts makes a couple appearances as Janine Melnitz. You know it’s coming, but the fact that Bill Murray is the first voice you hear as the calvary approaches gives you goosebumps. His performance in this is obviously painful to him. Talking to the ghost of Egon, the ghost of his real life best friend of 30 years in front of an audience looked painful. I cried as did my mother who I watched the film with.

It sounds stupid, but my mother and I have had an extremely strained relationship. I was the youngest kid and the reason my mother had to drop out of medschool. After 9/11, my mother had to leave town to find work due to being the hospitality industry. We didn’t see each other much over the next 20 years, but when we did see each other, we’d usually watch a movie. Well, usually the same set of movies: Tremors, Still Crazy, Scrooged, All I Want For Christmas, Spinal Tap, and Ghostbusters. Some of my fondest childhood memories amidst all the horrible scars were of my mother and I watching Ghostbusters for the dozenth time in a week. Now that she and I have reconciled and are on good terms, this film felt like an ending to those absent years.

The script seemed to use the real life drama as inspiration and it worked. The old crew still had their timing. I was over the moon to see Ernie Hudson playing Winston again. Winston is my personal favorite Ghostbuster as my favorite quote from the original film is Winston grabbing the mayor of NYC and saying “I’ve seen shit that would turn you white!”

I’m also glad that it appears that he will be appearing in a spinoff film about Winston relaunching the Ghostbusters in the modern day. I just hope Finn Wolfhard and McKenna Grace come along for the ride.

I’m sure Paul Rudd’s would be game too.

Stay until the end of the credits for the second bonus scene between Segourney Weaver’s Dana Barrett and Murray’s Venkman. Their chemistry is and has always been off the charts and here it’s on full display. They are adorable together and it’s a nice palette cleanser

Seriously, go watch this movie. Buy a copy. Show the studios that you want quality films.

And keep an eye out for Olivia Wilde and JK Simmons.