GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (2022) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (2022) movie

Genre              |  Fantasy Comedy
Classification   |   PG
Running time   |   124 minutes
Released         |   1 January 2022

cast

​Carrie Coon ... Callie
Paul Rudd ... Grooberson
Finn Wolfhard ... Trevor
Mckenna Grace ... Phoebe
Logan Kim ... Podcast
Celeste O'Connor ... Lucky
Bob Gunton ... The Ghost Farmer
​J.K. Simmons ... Ivo Shandor

director

Jason Reitman

writer

​Gil Kenan ... (written by) &
Jason Reitman ... (written by)
 
Dan Aykroyd ... (based on: the 1984 "Ghostbusters", written by) and
Harold Ramis ... (based on: the 1984 "Ghostbusters", written by)

cinematographer

​Eric Steelberg ... director of photography

music

​Rob Simonsen ... (music by)

film editor

Dana E. Glauberman
Nathan Orloff

box office result

Worldwide               $176 million
Australia                 $? million
North America        $? million

movie minutiae

​Paul Rudd announced via social media that he would be joining the cast while standing in front of Hook and Ladder 8 (Ghostbusters HQ) in New York City.
​Finn Wolfhard did not know he was auditioning for Ghostbusters as the audition sides were purposefully kept to be generic and vague as the movie was being developed under secrecy.
​​Jason Reitman appeared in GHOSTBUSTERS II (1989) as the kid who tells Ray that according to his dad, the Ghostbusters are "full of crap".

RELATED MOVIES

GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)

GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (2022) MOVIE IMAGES

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GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (2022) STORY SYNOPSIS

From director Jason Reitman and producer Ivan Reitman, comes the next chapter in the original Ghostbusters universe. In GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE, when a single mom and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original Ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind. The film is written by Jason Reitman & Gil Kenan.

GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (2022) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 1 January 2022
Pop ​Movee Rating

Fans of the 1984 GHOSTBUSTERS will be delighted with Jason Reitman’s GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE. His close personal connection to the franchise (being the son of GHOSTBUSTERS & GHOSTBUSTERS 2 Director Ivan Reitman) sees him take what was great about the first film and inject new spirit into a series that everyone had pretty much written off as something akin to a footnote in Tobin’s Spirit Guide after the Melissa McCarthy led third outing back in 2016.

After three films focussed entirely upon events in New York, Reitman and fellow scribe Gil Kenan move the supernatural shenanigans to rural America, setting events in the fictional town of Summerhill, Oklahoma.

The film opens in the dead of the night with an unknown individual (a man) engaged in a race against time with an unseen, supernatural force…

After a frenzied chase across dirt roads and crop fields, the unknown individual makes it to his refuge, an unusual farm property that looks as if it’s intended for something more than just growing corn.

Unfortunately for the unknown individual, things don’t go as planned and he succumbs to the supernatural force with whom he’s been battling.

Keen-eyed fans of the first two GHOSTBUSTERS movies will work out pretty quickly the identity of the unknown individual from the film’s opening sequence. For those who connect the dots, the story that subsequently unfolds is littered with “Easter Eggs” that make the film a trip down “Ghostbusters Memory Lane”. 

Understanding the identity of this character also makes the new main characters more accessible, as their development is not just about solving the supernatural mystery but also about connecting with a part of their lives they had almost no knowledge of.

The story quickly introduces Callie (Carrie Coon), the estranged daughter of the unknown individual from the start of the film. Callie and her two kids, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) travel to Summerhill to settle up the affairs of her recently deceased father but are forced to stay a little longer than planned after Callie’s landlord tells her that he’ll be changing the locks on their apartment while they’re away.

“Stranding” Callie, Trevor and Phoebe in Summerhill allows Reitman to pivot the story, focussing on the trio’s integration into the small rural community, especially the challenges the two kids have starting at a new school and forging new friendships in a very different environment.

Much of the film’s charm comes from the performances that both Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace deliver through the mid-section of the film as they both work to establish a new sense-of-self. Wolfhard and Grace get good support from Lucky (Celeste O’Connor) and Podcast (Logan Kim). 

From the minute Trevor sees Lucky he’s completely besotted by her, while Podcast becomes the comedic foil to Phoebe’s straight faced, super serious aspiring scientist.

AFTERLIFE also benefits from the addition of Paul Rudd as the slightly goofy High School science teacher Gary Groobersen. Although Rudd features prominently in the film’s advertising, he is not the main attraction. However, his presence allows Reitman to tap Rudd’s easy going comedy style that always seems just one knowing wink away from breaking the fourth wall, letting everyone know that it’s all just a bit of fun.

The introduction of Groobersen into the story provides Phoebe the opportunity to test her thinking against someone she comes to regard as her intellectual equal when she discovers that he’s a qualified seismologist. The pair start to hypothesize about what is going on in Summerhill and it’s not longer before that evidence starts to pile up before their eyes that the town has become the epicentre of a monumental build up of supernatural forces that will wreak havoc if they’re unleashed.

Having learned from fan reaction to the 2016 film, Reitman and his production team keep AFTERLIFE on track, following the formula that was established by his father, Dan Aykroyd & Harold Ramis with the first two films. Viewers looking for a ground-breaking entry into the series will be disappointed. The film connects itself very closely to the original 1984 film.

Everything fans would have hoped for is present in some form or another.

The most pleasing part of AFTERLIFE is how well the new characters integrate into the franchise. The 2016 film was very forced and it never felt as though Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones or Chris Hemsworth were a natural evolution of the original team. Kate McKinnon was the only one who seemed like she belonged. 

All the characters introduced in the new film, especially Phoebe, feel like they belong in a GHOSTBUSTERS film and their respective performers find the right tone to bring their character to life.

Working against GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE is the negative fan sentiment that still lingers from the 2016 film.
Honestly, the 2016 entry is not nearly as bad as what it’s been made out to be. Yes, many of the main performers do not seem like a square peg in a round hole, but the film ticks a lot of boxes to register as a genuine GHOSTBUSTERS film. Perhaps the biggest mistake of the 2016 film was the token gestures made to acknowledge the first two, much loved films.

GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE certainly corrects that matter.

AFTERLIFE benefits from having been crafted by someone whose father is so closely connected to the first two films. It would have been hard to fathom how Jason Retiman couldn’t have made a good film given Ivan Reitman was there with him throughout the production.

While AFTERLIFE lacks ambition to expand the scope of the franchise, Jason Reitman’s steady hand and familiarity with the mythology has delivered a film that is better than either the 2016 reboot and GHOSTBUSTERS 2. By keeping it simple, focussing on the inherent humour of the premise and writing characters that the audience actually like & care about, he’s revitalized the franchise in a way that not many fans would have thought possible after the 2016 film.

GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE MOVIE (2022) USEFUL LINKS

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