We were looking for a movie we had not seen to take in at our local Cineplex. We discovered that most of the offerings that were good had come and gone right at Christmas time, but “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” was still playing, so we took it in.
The first thing I’d like to say about this Jason Reitman-directed film is that the appearances of the “old” Ghostbusters gang (Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Ernie Hudson), as seen on various late-night television shows, is quite misleading. The trio appears for less than 20 minutes onscreen and they do literally nothing. It was a nice tribute to have the holographic participation of the fouth “Ghostbuster,” Harold Ramis, but he did not speak.
The movie began at 4:10 p.m. Up until 5:45 p.m.—things were going quite well. Carrie Coons as the mother was good and People’s “sexiest man alive, “Paul Rudd was the love interest. It was far better than I had anticipated for the first (roughly) 100 minutes of the 120 minute film.
The young talent were quite good, especially Finn Wolfhard (“Stranger Things”) and McKenna Grace as Phoebe, a bespectacled science nerd. They were very effective in their lead roles. Able support was provided by Asian youth Logan Kim as Podcast and Celeste O’Connor as Lucky.
McKenna Grace was born in 2006, which means that, IRL, she was 15 when the film was shot, but was playing a 12-year-old. She has previously appeared in “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
The film had real promise until 20 minutes from the end, when it totally jumped the shark. CGI special effects took over any semblance of a plot at that point.
I cannot recommend the ultimate denouement, but I think that my 13-year-old granddaughters will like the movie.