Don Reviews "Ghostbusters: Afterlife"

Hey, what did one ocean say to the other ocean? Nothing, in fact, they did not even wave at each other!

Hold on, what do you call a bee that is having a bad hair day? A Frisbee!

What do you call the lights on Noah’s Ark? Flood Lights!

OK, let’s get serious for a minute: the “Ghostbusters” films have been used as a model for films that decline with more installments. The original is a classic, the second one was not as good, and the 2016 version was even worse. It’s been thirty-seven years since the original and they are at it again, but will the trend continue?

This time around, it’s called “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” and is directed by Jason Reitman (Tully) and stars Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Mckenna Grace (Gifted), Carrie Coon (Gone Girl), Logan Kim, and Celeste O’Connor (Freaky). In a small town called Pullock, Oklahoma, the story starts with a failed attempt to trap a ghost that ends up making one of the original Ghostbusters a ghost himself. Callie Spengler (Coon, and you can figure out the connection from there), along with her children, Phoebe (Grace) and Trevor (Wolfhard) wind up traveling to the farm after she is evicted and inherits it in the estate. As the family gets acclimated to their new life, there are inexplainable things happening and Phoebe, who is a bit of an outcast, befriends a boy named Podcast (Kim) and they do their best to save the world and keep their lineage alive.

The cast does a good job here, but if I have a shout out it would go to Logan Kim whose performance is really enhanced by Grace; I see a big future for him. However, I had issues with “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” in some of the smaller details. For instance, there is a scene at Wal-Mart where one character was the only customer there; the store was in order and everything was fully stocked and in place. Overall, this film did not have the feel of a “Ghostbusters” film. After the first 10 minutes it felt like a teen coming-of-age film with some Ghostbusters storylines and props added. In the trailer, there is a save attempt at the big battle scene in the end which helped but was not able to save the rest of it. Even with the amount of dad jokes in it (now does the beginning make sense?), it just wasn’t enough.

There WAS some good things here, and most of it is how Reitman dealt with the real-life passing of Harold Ramis, which was well-written. That being said, this was still not a good re-boot attempt, but I will still recommend “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” but only watching from home on something like HBO.

OK, one more… A priest and Rabbi walk into a bar and the bartender says “What is this, a joke?” (Har-Har!!!)