Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Directed by Jason Reitman
When single mom Callie and her two kids Trevor and Phoebe arrive in a small Oklahoma town, they begin to discover their connection to the original Ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind.
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5 films that influenced Ghostbusters: Afterlife
What critics say influenced Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Though the focus is on his dad’s runaway horror-comedy-action hit, the younger director’s sequel is really a swooning ode to a whole decade’s worth of Hollywood multiplex touchstones, from The Goonies to Gremlins and a host of Spielbergisms; even the throwback drive-in diner is something you would have found in a movie made when Reagan-era filmmakers were still obsessed with Eisenhower-era youth culture.
With the shift to the grasslands and mountains of Oklahoma, the color palette is much warmer in tone than the first two films and the small town feel gives it a The Goonies (1985) vibe.
Sweeping aside any reference other sequels, reboots and spin-offs, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” not only resurrects the mythology and bric-a-brac of the original but resituates it all in a supposedly contemporary America that’s actually more reflective of the world of “ET” or “The Goonies,” at one point even tossing in a rambunctious “Gremlins”-like sequence, redone in “Ghostbusters” mode, for good measure.
While the film feels like a love letter to films like Gremlins and The Goonies , the story arc of understanding your family’s legacy is an essential theme explored throughout the film.
As Logan Kim was stealing scenes, it struck me that the movie worked more as a tribute to The Goonies than to Ghostbusters.
Truth be told, the kid-friendly Afterlife has more in common with E.T. and The Goonies than the shits-and-giggles, comedy/horror mashup Jason’s dad and his Second City pals came up with so long ago.
A swerve into franchise material would feel weirder if he wasn’t the son of Ivan Reitman, who directed the first two Ghostbusters movies and produced this one; the family theme permeates the entire film, which follows a single mom named Callie (played by Carrie Coon), who is the estranged daughter of one of the original Ghostbusters, Egon Spengler (the late Harold Ramis).
I thought about that photo a lot during Ghostbusters: Afterlife , which is an homage to and continuation of the 1984 Ghostbusters that painstakingly mines that movie for props, lines, and characters while giving no indication of being aware of what it was like to actually watch.
Jason Reitman pays tribute to his father’s iconic 1984 film, and its subsequent sequel, with Ghostbusters: Afterlife , a loving and fond continuation of the Ghostbusters legacy.
The film’s main appeal is not what it appropriates from other Ghostbusters pictures, but that it’s a nostalgic nod to the Spielbergian family adventures of the same period.
And yet with its focus on teenage heirs to that legacy, the movie simultaneously feels as much like the Disney Channel version of "Ghostbusters" as a long-delayed sequel.
To take it one logical step further, ‘Afterlife’ seemingly takes its cues from director J.J. Abrams because the film it mosts resemble is not a Reitman/Murray/Ramis/Aykroyd creation, but the Abrams’ YA sci-fi film, “Super 8” mixed in with “Scooby-Doo” mystery sensibilities.
Director/co-writer Reitman’s choice to set the primary story in a small, remote town in the middle of nowhere makes for a bounty of sun-drenched, Spielbergian shots, and it’s kind of neat that he’s fashioned this as primarily a kids’ adventure story a la “The Goonies” and “Super 8.” Still, as the end of the world once again seems nigh, we miss the chaos and madness in New York City.
I mean, J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 , which kicked off this whole pseudo-Spielberg trend, is now ten years old.
The emotional equivalent isn’t Ghostbusters 1984 so much as it is Super 8 or Tomorrowland.
Yes, Ivan Reitman’s son has turned Ghostbusters into Super 8 .
El feeling es similar a la primera hora de Super 8 , otro filme obsesionado con recapturar la “magia” del cine de Spielberg de 40 años atrás, antes de que esta se descarrilara por completo.
The film embodies the biggest criticisms of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Halloween (2018) and also replicates them, even just re-doing a plot point from the latter in large part.
The film seems intent on replicating the mythic aura of Star Wars: The Force Awakens , which was presented to audiences similarly—as a long-awaited return that would deliver on expectations in ways that other Star Wars sequels had failed to do.
Like the conundrum that 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens faced, you want to introduce new characters into the world and regenerate the things that die-hard fans loved.
People may point to Star Wars: The Force Awakens as a film that repeated the beats of its progenitor ( A New Hope ) in defence, but what The Force Awakens did in the way it repeated those beats was to point out the cyclical nature of humanity, of power and corruption.
Ghostbusters Afterlife wants to be The Force Awakens of Ghostbusters, but Jason Reitman isn’t J.J. Abrams.
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Above all else, Reitman’s secret weapon for the movie is Composer Rob Simonsen (Tully, The Front Runner), providing the absolutely perfect score to give Ghostbusters: Afterlife the perfect Spielberg-esque feel by channeling the great John Williams beautifully.
After a poorly received female-centered remake in 2016, the Ghostbusters franchise announced a new reboot in 2019, with Ivan producing and his son Jason Reitman (director of films like Juno , Up in the Air , and Tully ) taking on the mantle and bringing the series into the new century of mainstream moviemaking.
Jason Reitman (“The Front Runner”/”Tully”) gives the fans of his dad, Ivan, the original filmmaker of the crude blockbuster hit comedy Ghostbusters (1984), just what they want in this new version of the old popular mainstream comedy.
Reitman’s career up until this point — in particular “Young Adult” and “Tully,” his collaborations with Diablo Cody and Charlize Theron — has been pointedly anti-nostalgic.
He’s best when he finds humor in ordinary modern life in Up in the Air and Tully .
While a long way from Tully , Juno or Young Adult , the filmmaker shows a flair for big-budget tentpole theatrics.