In Retrospect: Ghostbusters Afterlife

I still have a fair bit to say.

First and foremost I did enjoy it more on the second watch and made my peace with some aspects. When I first saw it I felt it was mostly superflous to rely so much on the original Ghostbusters, with so much iconography incorporated into the plot. I still stand by that point and feel it was unnecessary to bring back Gozer, the terror dogs, Ivo Shandor, the Stay Puft marshmallow man, among other things because I was so invested and digging the original story. Oh sure, could I believe Gozer came back at some point to slug it out with the boys in grey? Absolutely, it wouldn't surprise me if during the comics run or in the animated show such a thing did happen, but it really is the crux of my albeit small problem with the movie. Just swap it out for an original villain and I would have next to zero to complain about. I loved the story of Phoebe Spengler learning about her grandpa's past and using her own smarts to carry on his legacy, while meeting these new characters and getting to see the old ones. McKenna Grace is nothing short of perfection in this, and adds one more example of future daughter goals for me, I just cherish her in this. Paul Rudd is such an affable great guy to hang out with, we go out for drinks twice a month he's wonderful, but anyway he's just fun to watch in this although he is 1000% to blame for the events that occured in the movie. Logan Kim, a wonderful addition to the cast and feels like a real kid in these situations. I do still feel Finn Wolfhard's brief portions of the plot were...yeah, pretty much useless and no slam against the actor of course but I hope should he come back for another film gets a lot more attention and stance in the story. Of course I hold no grudges seeing Bill, Dan, and Ernie again to the point where if I was being crystal clear, Ernie's line of "I should have called. I miss you my friend." and the after credits scene with him and Janine were kinda cutting near the heart man. Those bits were handled expertly. Now I must confess, I didn't actually like seeing Egon the first time I saw this. The beginning was fine, just seeing a silhouette or a hand, and it honestly took me an embarassingly long time to figure out he was leading Phoebe to all the important kit and the secret lab. But when he shows up at the end and you fully see him I felt that wasn't needed. That we didn't need a physical manifestation, I let out a heavy sigh when he was essentially a desk lamp, I don't know man I just wasn't for it. But then I saw other people's reviews and how much they loved seeing Egon in the movie, so it softened my opinion on it and I'm mostly okay with it now. I will also admit I had no idea that was Olivia Wilde as Gozer, that blew my mind when I found that out. PS. I would fully fund a short film where the mini-Stay Puft's wreak havoc and continue to be adorable even when they are brutally and graphically killed. It's a tiny bit of a love/hate relationship with this movie, I adore the original stuff and am screaming for more but all the call backs do bog it down just a little bit for me. But a good movie is a good movie, and I do still find it highly entertaining and a worthy succesor to Ghostbusters 2. I move it up to 4 stars, 8/10, and apologies in advance for only getting two reviews out this week and I suspect next week might be the same as well but I'll see what I can do.

Ghostbusters Afterlife

Well at least we ended on a good note.

As an individual who was interested but not highly anticipating or very excited about seeing this movie, I would love to compare notes with someone who was. Not at all that I hated the movie, but it did do some stuff I didn't want and felt could have been done a notch better. It's a decent fun little movie that could birth some cool stuff in the future. IDW, get on this. You could make some great new stories based off this movie and give some excellent character bits to the new cast. I literally didn't know until about a month before this movie came out it focuses on Egon's granddaughter and once I heard that my interest was hooked. I really really digged her story man, in fact the whole scenario of the movie with them inheriting Egon's house and slowly piecing together exactly what he was doing there as she becomes a young ghostbuster is cool stuff. Plus McKenna Grace is awesome in this, I would guard her with my eternal soul, she works so well with this script and this character, 10/10! Her and Logan Kim have outstanding chemistry and their friendship in the movie is damn good stuff. Poor Finn Wolfhard, I feel this kid just gets drafted into any old f***ing script with teens and supernatural occurences because of Stranger Things and I'm just like, does he even like it anymore? Cause I really was checking out on his B-story, not because of the actors but the script itself. It digs it's heels into contrivances that simply do not need to be there throughout the picture and actually stops it from being a great movie. A good chunk of the story beats work, but others simply fall flat. At least Paul Rudd was good, thank the babay jeezuz his acting has improved since Halloween 6. I think I'm grasping what people thought of when The Force Awakens came out talking about all the easter eggs and similar plot elements, it does go there from time to time. Completely unnecessarily, they could have crafted a new villain, they could have gone without a lot of the fan service, hell it kinda works as an introduction to Ghostbusters. If younger kids who never saw the original films saw this movie, it could make them into fans who love the original, seriously the movie works that well crafting it's own world and could be a stepping stone. I like that a great deal. It's fun, it's simple, a good movie but stick to the Ghostbusters video game for that official third entry. 3 stars, 7.5/10. I have no idea what to do next week, cause after that we got another series for you to wrap up the year. So I'll figure something out, have a fun time at the movies in the meantime.

Up In The Air

You know, I've been hearing about this movie for a little while. Oh, Up In The Air it's such a great movie! Up In The Air it's so celebrated and loved and enjoyed. And it's true.

Up In The Air is one of the best movies I have ever seen in my entire life. The plot follows a man whose life is lived through airports, he constantly travels around the country with the sole purpose of firing people. That is his job, to end people's jobs, nothing more. We follow him and we meet a lovely woman who he forms a quick and lovely relationship with, we also see him gain a new friend in the form of someone who is controlling a force that could end his life as he knows it. She takes the digital approach to terminating jobs instead of in person, putting his life job in jeopardy. From there many things happen, both good and bad, as in life culminating in a somber, bitter sweet ending. The main thing about this movie that I love is how it can break down the average working human being. It's very detached from emotion, and yet like at the same time embraces the center of emotion. It brings up the points of life, love, happiness, being alone, why do people react the way they do, all done in a truly amazing and beautiful way. It stars George Clooney as our main character, who is not even acting in my opinion he really is just being this character. It's unreal how great he is. Vera Farmiga is his love interest, she is wonderful as always and I love to see her in fun roles. Anna Kendrick is actually very un-Anna Kendrick, she starts off sort of uptight and for lack of a better word neurotic but halfway through the movie we get the Anna Kendrick that I know, love, and adore but sadly it doesn't last for long. The music is mellow, and very slow paced and it hit me hard near the end of this movie, this is the kind of music I want to hear while I look at a city from the window of a plane. I really must say that this movie was important for me to watch. I know if I watched this movie 2 or 3 years ago, hell even a year ago I would not look at it the way I do now. I watched it at just the right time in my life and sort of, you know, my current emotional state and my thoughts toward the world, and the people that live in it. This movie brings up the point which really only reaffirms the fact that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. This is what makes me happy, I love to talk about movies, and this movie makes the point of to follow your dreams and to do something that makes you happy. Whether it's to spend time with the people that you know and love, or to do the job that you want to do. To not settle for anything lesser. It brings up that people shouldn't be alone, you should always spend time with people that you like and enjoy being with, never be alone. Uh....Star Wars is my favorite movie of all time, nothing is really going to change that. And yet, it is not a movie that literally changed my life. This movie did. It made me look at the world I live in and the people that surround me very differently. Very few movies have made such an achievement, but what I have noticed is that they all deal with relationships, real genuine human interaction. Up In The Air is a movie about not spending your life alone, to follow your dreams, to be happy with what you are doing in your life, and to be with people you care about. Her with Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johannson was about building a meaningful and true relationship, about love in a true sense, in the most human-y human way possible. Lost In Translation, the movie I can never stop praising, and is in fact very similar to this movie, was finding a person that gives you this sort of solace in life, someone you love to be with and want to always be around, this beautiful special bond that two people can form with one another. It's these movies that change my life perspective in many ways, but mostly the way I look, treat, and talk to people. If there was any movies to take from these reviews that I do, to really sit down and watch, it would be these. Most of the time I feel very alone, but when I am with my friends and my family I grow very sort of...appreciative of life. You really can't take living for granted. We are all running clocks, we can't turn back or be put on pause, we all have our time to go. So you better make something really worth of it, so when you, like I, look back on your life you will not say these words, "It was all a waste of time. It was not worth it. It was a mistake.". Live the way you want to live, and the way I want to live is through movies. I'm The Dude, and I want to see you tomorrow.