Movie Review: Ghostbusters Afterlife (2021)

Ghostbusters Afterlife (2021) co-written and directed by Jason Reitman

Decades after the events of the original Ghostbusters movies, Egon Spengler's (Harold Ramis) daughter Callie (Carrie Coon) has run out of money and is evicted from her apartment. She takes her two kids, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) to her father's farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Egon died and she is hoping to fix up the farm and make some money from selling it. Well, the farm is in bad shape and Egon left a lot of debts behind, so they are in for the long haul. Trevor tries to fit in with the small town high school crowd. Phoebe is in middle school, but she is so smart that she can run rings around science teacher Grooberson (Paul Rudd) who spends his days showing 1980s horror films to his classes. She's more interested in the daily earthquakes--the town is not near a fault line or a volcano, so no natural cause is obvious. As Trevor and Phoebe start poking around the old house and barn, they discover some Ghostbusters equipment left by their grandfather. They also stumble into what he was working on--trying to avert the apocalypse!

The initial set-up to the story is interesting and left me wondering exactly what would happen. As the story unfolds, the plot, gags, and special effects start borrowing heavily from the original classic movie. I started to get the feeling I was watching a rerun, much like Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This movie has so much heart and so much love for the source material (it is dedicated to Ramis, who died in 2014; the director is the son of the original's director), it's easy to forgive the indulgent storytelling. Since kids are the main characters, the movie is a lot milder with language and edgy humor, though the horror is only toned down a little bit. The movie certainly passes the six-laugh test and has a lot of charming performances, though the romance between Grooberson and Callie looks like it was shoe-horned in to check the box on the list of things to include in the film. The movie has a lot of "check box" moments.

Mildly recommended--I usually don't like nostalgia exploitation but this film had enough charm for me to enjoy it. I am glad I watched it but probably wouldn't sit down to watch it again.