BEFORE: OK, I'm back from North Carolina, and I managed to watch ONE movie during my five-day mini-vacation, and it was this one. Since it's still playing on Demand on one of the premium channels, that meant I could watch it through my phone, which I know isn't the BEST way to watch something, but it beats bringing a DVD player with me on vacation, then realizing there's no way to hook that up to a hotel room TV.
We traveled VERY early to North Carolina, and even earlier back today, which means I'm once again behind on sleep, and paying the price for that. It took me about a day and a half in N.C. to recover from the flight because the only way I'm going to get on a 6 a.m. flight or an 8 a.m. flight is to stay up all night, and catch a nap on the plane. My wife can fall asleep at 9 p.m. the night before, but after 15 years-plus of staying up late to watch movies, that's impossible for me.
We hit the N.C. State Fair on Thursday, our second time there, so at least this time we knew our way around better, and it was easier to find the booths serving the fair food I wanted to eat. Another fair-goer turned me on to the web-site that listed the NEW foods and where to find them on the map, so I ate a couple of deep-fried brisket and waffle balls on a stick (dipped in syrup, of course) and then found a danish stuffed with pulled pork and mac & cheese. After that I had to track down something I ate there last year, which was a deep-fried apple pie with cinnamon ice cream (yes, that tasted as good as it sounds...) and then finally a couple of giant donuts, my wife got an Oreo-covered one and I got a Reese's Pieces-covered donut.
Friday was my birthday, so after a repeat visit to Waffle House (we hit the W.H. 3 times in 5 days) we did some antiquing - a fitting activity now that I am an antique myself - and then dinner at a non-traditional German/Polish restaurant. No crazy costumes, no oom-pah band, just high quality German food, but sort of nouvelle cuisine style pub food. On Saturday we checked out the North Carolina Museum of Art, but we only had time for about 1/3 of all the exhibits and galleries, there was a LOT there. So we just focused on contemporary portraits, Greco-Roman sculpture and then the Rodin court and garden. SO MANY Rodins!
Of course, the main reason to be there was to visit my family, my mother's still in physical rehab after moving down there, but she might be only a couple weeks away from being strong enough to move back to my sister's house, it's tough to predict. But we spent a couple hours with her each day, which was great, because she's back to doing crossword puzzles and I enjoy helping her with those - I fill in the harder theme answers to give her a head start, because they tend to confuse her. And on Saturday the whole extended family went out for BBQ, and the lucky restaurant was Big Mike's BBQ in Cary, NC, where we also saw a celebrity (and veteran of 2 "Star Wars" movies) picking up a meal. Hey, these things just seem to happen to me. So, a successful trip overall, but I don't know when we'll be able to visit again, probably not during the holidays this year, so we'll have to work something out. I cashed in all of my SkyMiles so the plane tickets were FREE, but I can't pull that trick again, not for a while at least.
J.K. Simmons carries over from "Dark Skies". With 8 horror films left in my chain, I'm going to JUST make it by October 31 and finish the theme for Halloween.
THE PLOT: 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.
AFTER: I don't know how most people measure time, because I really mark its passing using movies and/or annual comic-cons. So it was two NY Comic-Cons ago when I met Gil Kenan, co-writer of this film, when he came to our booth, to meet my boss. Seemed like a very cool guy, and he told us about how they had a panel for the new "Ghostbusters" film in the main hall, and after talking about the film for a bit, in front of a room FULL of Ghostheads (one assumes) they just said, "What do you think, should we just play the movie?" And they did, about a month before the film was due to be released, they just played the film for the incredibly eager crowd. Well, that's one way to fill up panel time and keep the fans happy, but that's not really a smart way to sell movie tickets, to just GIVE the film away like that. Had I known, I might have gone to see that for free, instead of waiting a year for it to be on cable and then another year for an opportunity to link it into the chain. (I'm just tired of waiting, I want to WATCH this, I know I'm stranding films like "Freaky" by watching this now, but I really don't care.)
I was really worried about this film, though, because like a lot of people, I got burned so bad by the 2016 "Ghostbusters" reboot, which was basically the same film as the first one, only with the premise "Hey, what if the Ghostbusters were women instead?" And I couldn't really take it seriously because that film just couldn't take ITSELF seriously, and with the original Ghostbusters stars playing roles that were NOT their original characters, it just seemed to be taking place in some alt-corner of the Ghostbusters Metaverse, and somehow the characters knew about the original G.B.'s, but also they kind of didn't? It was weird and not a cool continuation of the franchise, but hey, you can say the same sort of thing about "Ghostbusters II" if you think about it. Or you know what, maybe don't think too much about it.
It just looked like this one was going to be "Hey, what if the Ghostbusters were children instead?" and to a certain degree that's exactly what this is, but AT LEAST this sequel/reboot acknowledges that there once were 4 characters named Ray Stantz, Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddemore, and they fought ghosts in NYC and they got slimed and Sigourney Weaver's character got turned into a giant dog-like demon and Gozer almost took over the Earth with the help of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Good times.
I know it's tough, how do you make a new film in any franchise that both moves the story forward while at the same time acknowledges the events of the past? You need to create some new characters, but also it's great if the old ones show up, too - at least the ones that are still among the living and not ghosts themselves. Come to think of it, why are ghost stories scary, if the existence of ghosts proves that there is some kind of life after this one, even if some spirits spend it stuck in the human world and unable to move forward to paradise, at least this means that there IS a paradise, or at least some kind of life after death. Ghost stories should be comforting, therefore, except for when they're about vengeful killing-type ghosts, like those seen in "The Fog". Right?
So I think this film almost got things right, it had new characters who find the secret underground lair of a former Ghostbuster, just when that veil between the worlds is breaking down again, and the Dead are getting ready to go out on tour again and take over the world. If you're counting, that's THREE films this October that shows ghosts or demons coming back to the world of the living by way of a mine that was dug too deep - so see also "R.I.P.D.: Rise of the Damned" and "Antlers", or you know what, maybe just stay away from abandoned mines altogether, because they're just not safe, even before you factor in the ghosts breaking up from the underworld.
But this single mother inherits this farmhouse and land from her recently-deceased father, and is also getting evicted from her apartment at the same time, so she drives with her two kids to Summerville, Oklahoma to live in the house and also determine if her father left her any money. But jeez, one look at these kids and you've got to figure they're the grandchildren of Egon Spengler for sure, but then it takes them like another hour for them to figure out they're the grandchildren of Egon Spengler. Come on, please catch up, I don't have all day here. Can I call this a NITPICK POINT? Like, why don't these kids know their mother's maiden name? Did she never tell them, or are they just too stupid to know what that is? Do they know their own last name? What gives?
After they figure it out, then the movie really starts to find its second gear - once again, the dead ghosts are threatening to rise up and take over the world, and it's all part of the plain of Ivo Shandor, who built that weird high-rise apartment in NYC that Gozer the Gozerian bought the penthouse in - paid cash, it was a solid investment, but then the real estate bubble burst, nothing you can do about that but hold on to it until the market turns around, just rent it out and cover the monthly maintenance and maybe a small apartment downtown for you to live in while you wait.
But then we have to have the Gatekeeper and the Keymaster thing again, and the plot maybe gets a little too close once again to the ORIGINAL "Ghostbusters" film, and you realize that this sequel isn't as groundbreaking as you thought it might be, it's just repeating elements from the now-classic original film, just putting them together in a slightly different way. I had high hopes for Paul Rudd's character, the high-school science teacher, but then it turns out that he's just playing a different version of Rick Moranis' character from the original film. What a shame.
Still, it's good to see three of the original G.B.s turn out to reprise their roles, and to see them pay some kind of tribute to Harold Ramis, but when they talk about losing contact with each other and having had some kind of disagreement or falling out, you have to wonder if they're talking about their fictional characters or themselves as comedy actors who maybe don't get along with each other.
And how DID they get that footage of Harold Ramis? Well, it would seem they filmed Egon's part with look-alike actors (Bob Gunton and Ivan Reitman) standing in, and then they just deep-faked his facial image. It was done with good intentions here, because Egon's hermit-like life in Oklahoma had a real purpose, he knew another ghost-apocalypse was coming and he was taking steps to prevent it, even if it meant giving up his family and friends to do so. But NITPICK POINT, couldn't there have been a way for Egon to fight the upcoming ghost invasion and ALSO still remain close to his family and friends? One thing does not necessarily preclude the other, so it's a little unclear why it HAD to be that way.
I understand the use of technology to create footage that can't be filmed, such as the likeness of a dead actor being computer generated and then placed on another actor's body, over their face. And as long as the estate of that actor is fine with it, then everything's cool. However, not every filmmaker out there has the best intentions, so I think we as a whole has to keep a close watch on this, because it's become just too easy to deepfake a thing, and it's only a matter of time before somebody uses this to create evidence in a murder case, or to show a politician doing something wrong like accepting a briefcase full of money, or what have you. Mostly the interwebs seem to be using this technology to show famous people having x-rated sex, and hey, if that's your kink, whatever gets you through the night, it's all right, it's all right, but there are boundaries being crossed that just aren't proper, and also privacy issues. How long before somebody makes a new film with the image of, say, Marilyn Monroe and they just put her real face on the body of a porn actress to depict somebody's dirty fantasies?
Also starring Carrie Coon (last seen in "Widows"), Paul Rudd (last seen in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania"), Bill Murray (ditto), Finn Wolfhard (last heard in "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio"), McKenna Grace (last heard in "Scoob!"), Logan Kim, Celeste O'Connor, Dan Aykroyd (last seen in "Respect"), Ernie Hudson (last seen in "The Watcher"), Annie Potts (last heard in "Toy Story 4"), Sigourney Weaver (last seen in "Avatar: The Way of Water"), Bob Gunton (last seen in "The Lincoln Lawyer"), Bokeem Woodbine (last seen in "Spenser Confidential"), Shawn Seward, Billy Bryk, Sydney Mae Diaz, Hannah Duke, Paulina Alexis, Marlon Kazadi, Chiara Petersen, Danielle Kennedy (last seen in "Breakfast of Champions"), Artoun Nazareth, Crystal Roseborough, Dusan Rokvic, Emma Portner, Stella Aykroyd, Ivan Reitman (last seen in "The Bill Murray Stories"), Olivia Wilde (last seen in "Better Living Through Chemistry"), Tracy Letts (last seen in "French Exit"), the voices of Josh Gad (last heard in "Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage?"), Shohreh Aghdashloo (last seen in "Rosewater"), Sarah Natochenny, Shelby Young, and archive footage of Harold Ramis (last seen in "Air").
RATING: 8 out of 10 prophecies from the Book of Revelation
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