Cinema Saturday: Ghostbusters: Afterlife

So here's the wind up: there's a small town where some weird shit is going down. It's really bad shit. People are in danger. People are dying. 

And here's the pitch: the only who knows the truth about the weird shit is a group of meddling kids that adults are just NOT listening to.

The Weekend Movies this time around will feature TWO of these movies.

For today's Cinema Saturday, our attention turns to Ghostbusters: Afterlife from 2021.    With recent advertising for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Andrea and I decided to give the previous film that set the stage for this sequel a try. 

Welcome to Summerville, Oklahoma. 

At a dilapidated old farm outside of town, Egon Spengler has set a trap for a sinister and terrifying spirit entity. The power fails, the trap doesn't spring and the entity attacks.   

Egon Spengler is dead. 

Some time later, Egon's daughter Callie arrives at the farm with her two children, son Trevor and the super smart daughter Phoebe. She really doesn't WANT to be there. Her relationship with her father was non existent. 

But Callie has no money, was just evicted out of her apartment in Chicago and her dad left nothing but this old falling down farm house in the middle of nowhere. 

Trevor gets a job at the local drive in diner where he can hang with his new found crush, carhop Lucky Domingo. 

Phoebe winds up comparing notes with  Gary Grooberson a geologist who is investigating mysterious tremors that are rocking Summerville. 

Phoebe also winds up hanging with a kid who calls himself "Podcast" who is always recording stuff for his podcast.     

Slowly, Trevor and Phoebe discover their heritage, as the grand kids of Egon Spengler, Ghostbuster! 

Trevor uncovers the Ecto-1 and gets it running again. 

Phoebe discovers a proton pack and susses out how to make it work.  

And just in time because ghosts are busting loose all over Summerville. 

Oh shit! Gozer's coming back!! 

Ghosts are busting out all over as Trevor, Phoebe and Podcast speed through Summerville in the Ecto-1, proton pack at the ready to catch some frickin' ghosts.

While the kids know there's some bad shit going down in Summerville, the adults ain't buying it. The local police have impounded the Ecto-1 and locked away the ghost busting tech.

Meanwhile, the soon to return Gozer needs a Keymaster...  Uh oh! That's Gary.

And a Gatekeeper! Geez! That's going to be Callie, Trevor and Phoebe's mom. 

Wait! Their mom and Gary are doing it? Ewwww!  

Gozer manifests herself on Earth once more with no one to stop her. 

Except Egon Spengler's last strategy.

And his grand kids.

And the original Ghostbusters? Hell yeah! Peter, Ray and Winston are on the scene! 

And... the ghost of Egon Spengler? Sure! Why not! 

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department

• Trevor looks familiar. But of course 'cause it's Finn Wolfhard who was Mike Wheeler from Stranger Things. 
• Phoebe does NOT look familiar but the actress has done this sort of role before. Mckenna Grace is also the child prodigy Paige Swanson from Young Sheldon.  

From the first 2 Ghostbusters films, we get this gang.

• Bill Murray as Peter Venkman
• Dan Aykroyd as Raymond "Ray" Stantz
• Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore
• Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz
• Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett

Sadly, Harold Ramis who played Egon Spengler in those movies passed away from cancer in 2014.  Bob Gunton and Ivan Reitman  portray living and ghostly versions of Egon, respectively, using prosthetics and digital makeup to look more like Harold.

And Harold himself appears via photographs and archival footage.

The 2016 female driven reboot had it's detractors mostly from misogynist trolls who hate female women of the opposite sex; me, I enjoyed it just fine but I will admit that it was disappointing that the movie's structure didn't allow it build on the legacy of what went before.  

Ghostbusters: Afterlife gives us the new Ghostbuster movie fans really wanted. Granted, the original Ghostbusters are not in the movie that long in little more than glorified cameos but it's solidly in the universe of the original films and sets the stage for the next generation to answer the call in a logical and heartfelt way. 

Tomorrow, Cinema Sunday brings on some more "kids" (and I'm using the term loosely) who are being ignored and disbelieved about a peril that has come to their small town. But not from the realms of the supernatural but from outer space.

Beware of... The Blob.