Like many people my age, I did love the movie Ghostbusters growing up. We had a VHS copy taped off some cable channel, and I think we watched the movie so often I could probably to this day still quote the movie entirely from memory. Of course, that VHS thing means we occasionally hit the record button at the wrong time on the remote, and there were a few scenes where other programming overlay the original movie, usually for no more than a few seconds. However, I think it is safe to say the movie was for the longest time one of my favorites, and Sony has been trying for the last few years to reboot the movie as some sort of franchise. I will admit to more or less liking the female version set in what was probably an alternate universe, though my overall opinion has soured to that one a bit.
Regardless, writer/director Jason Reitman, son of the original movie’s director Ivan, has another reboot/long-delayed sequel, one that had a tone far different than any Ghostbusters movie before it.
After an opening showing a shadowy figure fleeing a mine only to die in an old farmhouse in a supernatural attack that will look quite familiar to fans of the original movie, the movie introduces a family consisting of mother Callie (Carry Coon), average teenage son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), and brainy daughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace). Though the movie for the longest time does not reveal their last name, anyone who saw the trailers can probably guess exactly what it is. Facing extreme financial difficulty, Callie opts to temporarily move the family to the farmhouse her recently deceased father just left her. She never really knew the man and doesn’t really care to even talk about him. Once the trio moves into the house, they soon find odd phenomena happening in the area of Oklahoma known as Summerville. Trevor gets a job at a nearby diner in part to try and impress a girl there named Lucky (Celeste O’Connor) while Phoebe gets sent to summer school, there under the care of lackadaisical science teacher Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd). She likewise makes a friend of her own, a fellow who nicknamed himself after his biggest hobby, Podcast (Logan Kim).
Regardless, the shadowy man was someone deeply involved in the supernatural, and none of the family is all that interested. Phoebe loves science but doesn’t believe in ghosts. Trevor is something of a mechanic, but not exactly on the same intellectual level as his kid sister. Callie is just trying to keep her head above water while maybe starting a relationship with Ghostbuster enthusiast Gooberson. But there’s something strange, and it doesn’t look good, so these kids better figure a few things out soon. The human race might depend upon it.
It isn’t really much of a shock which Ghostbuster is the missing grandfather to Phoebe and Trevor. But what struck me most as I watched the movie is it isn’t really the same sort of movie as any of the previous Ghostbusters movies. Those were generally broader comedies with an adult tone that often went for more slapstick and crazy situations. While the situation in Afterlife is no less crazy and the movie isn’t afraid to do some jokes that will go over the kids’ heads, it felt to me more like another 80s staple, namely the kid-based adventure movie, something more akin to The Goonies than Ghostbusters. As such, Afterlife felt more sentimental when it wasn’t outright fetishizing the Ghostbusters’ physical stuff like the Ecto-1 or the proton packs. There are numerous callbacks to lines and instances from the original movie, even to the point where it seemed to be nothing but that in the last act. To be fair, the cast members of the original movie that do appear are limited to mostly what feel like extended cameos, appearing for the most part in one or two scenes each, and it’s always nice to see Bill Murray, but be aware that this is a much more the sort of movie a kid who grew up on Ghostbusters might make as opposed to the sort of movie someone trying to copy its success might make.
And yet, I found myself really liking this movie. I have often said that I don’t care much for nostalgia, and I don’t, but that doesn’t mean I am entirely immune to its comforting pull. A good deal of that didn’t work for me in this movie even as I recognized the moments clearly taken from the old movie for this new one, but if a Goonies-style adventure were to take place in the Ghostbusters universe, I suspect it would look an awful lot like Afterlife. I actually appreciate the movie for that alone. The central cast, i.e. the ones who aren’t returning from a previous movie, are all fairly likable. True, Podcast seems like a character audiences are either going to love or hate depending on how they feel about his shtick, and Wolfhard’s Trevor is more of an obnoxious punk for the first third or so of the movie, but Rudd is his usual effortlessly charming self, Coons does a good job as what is basically the movie’s lone serious role, and Mckenna Grace, having a resume that seems stocked with playing younger versions of other characters, really shines as what is basically a younger version of one of the original Ghostbusters. If Afterlife were to set up Phoebe and her friends as next generation Ghostbusters in Oklahoma or thereabouts while a post-credits scene maybe does something similar somewhere else, that could lead to an interesting cinematic universe, one where different tones and styles are employed to tell different stories in this world. Honestly, I think I can get behind that.
But if we can’t get all of the female Ghostbusters back, can we at least get Kate McKinnon’s Holtzmann? I can really dig that sort of comedic weird and wouldn’t mind some more of at least that.
Grade: B-
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