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Dawgstar posted:I didn't realize Egon was telling Venkman what to charge the hotel guy on the sly by rubbing his cheek until... man, a couple of years ago if we're being honest. I'd feel worse about it but I've mentioned it to others and then they go "He was!?" I'm pretty sure that's one of the things that was completely lost for people who were used to seeing the movie on t.v. because it was cropped out. So it's common when someone watches the widescreen version for the first time they notice that joke and wonder why they didn't see it before.
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Nov 19, 2021 21:27
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ImpAtom posted:Ghostbusters stands on its own and every new one just feels like "Remember Ghostbusters?" Ghostbusters is amazing but being unable to progress remains its biggest problem. The closest the series has had to progress is the drat cartoon. Agreed. I think the reason for the lack of progress is based on what the audience wants. If you change Ghostbusters too much a very vocal portion of fans will riot because it's not the Ghostbusters they remember and cherish from their childhood. If you don't change it enough, it stagnates and turns into a nostalgia cash grab, but stirs up less drama, and makes more money. The cartoon got away with it because, well, it's a cartoon. I personally enjoyed Afterlife, for the most part. I think the last third or quarter of the movie felt very rushed, which is odd given the amount of covid time they've had to fiddle with it. Also, I think they shouldn't have shown Egon's face as a ghost. I think making him a ghost is fine, but I didn't need to see uncanny valley Harold Ramis awkwardly smiling at everybody. Afterlife really did feel like a different kind of Ghostbusters movie, as far as the actors, the script, the setting, etc. goes. I appreciated that. But that different, and honestly kinda good, feeling was smothered by too much "Remember Ghostbusters?". Also... about the containment unit in the post credits scene. So... first of all it's still there? Second, it's powered on? Third, are there still ghosts in it? Was this an allusion to another sequel, or was it just a way for them to cram more "Remember containment unit? Remember firehouse???" into the film?
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Nov 19, 2021 21:57
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I’m a bit surprised more people don’t think the end was really tacky and kinda hosed. I was cringing. Usually I don’t really dislike a film as much as I did this so it’s kinda weird haha
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Nov 19, 2021 22:00
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Member of my group made the polaroid ecto goggles, and they work pretty good beside making the picture circular because you’re shooting through the eye piece. People also loved the remote controlled ghost trap that we were driving through the theater lobby. And everybody loves free pins and posters.
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Nov 19, 2021 22:02
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Just saw it and it's a mixed bag for me, there was plenty to like and plenty I think could have been done differently. The third act definitely had issues. That said I think it is a good jumping off point for an updated franchise and it would be interesting to see the new cast in a fresh scenario.
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Nov 19, 2021 22:51
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CelticPredator posted:I’m a bit surprised more people don’t think the end was really tacky and kinda hosed. I was cringing. I don't think anyone has signed off on it unequivocally in here, most like the intent but feel the execution is misjudged. But it's early days yet and as more people see it I'm sure such responses will come. That scene, and the film, has been roundly and furiously torn apart by some professional critics though. I've read a few and I had no idea that people really, really hated Jason Reitman, even before this. I remember really liking Juno and Up in the Air. Is it a nepotism thing? There's no doubt he had an easier ascent, but I don't feel he's a bad filmmaker, I dunno.  What is a trashfire is r/ghostbusters, just post after post of whining about "woke" critics and complaining about the 2016 film. Way to lean into the stereotype guys. Personally, I am very much a Ghostbusters:Afterlife centrist, I think a lot of the criticisms are real valid, but I think a lot of good stuff the film does with the family drama and the staging have been ignored a bit. This is a film that to me is as good as II and the 2016 film, both of which I also liked. But I can see why people don't like it. We've had a lot of nostalgia blockbusters, and this one leans into that most heavily.
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Nov 19, 2021 22:53
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Dawgstar posted:I didn't realize Egon was telling Venkman what to charge the hotel guy on the sly by rubbing his cheek until... man, a couple of years ago if we're being honest. I'd feel worse about it but I've mentioned it to others and then they go "He was!?"
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Nov 19, 2021 23:19
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Abner Assington posted:I feel like almost every rewatch of the original gets me catching some little bit of acting that I didn't catch previously. This time around, it was Venkman mockingly sniffing the air after Ray says, "Listen! You smell something?" and the realtor mean mugging the poo poo out of Egon as he describes how the firehouse should be condemned. Huh. I noticed Venkman sniffing for the first time last night too.
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Nov 19, 2021 23:28
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Basebf555 posted:I'm pretty sure that's one of the things that was completely lost for people who were used to seeing the movie on t.v. because it was cropped out. So it's common when someone watches the widescreen version for the first time they notice that joke and wonder why they didn't see it before. I experienced something similar the first time I got to see the original movie at a theater re-release. Growing up our copy of Ghostbusters was one my dad taped off of HBO and it started with them wandering through the stacks at the library. Imagine how my mind was loving blown when I'm in the theater and suddenly this scene of Venkman trying to hook up with a coed starts, and then it rolls into the intro of the library with the "Back off man..." line.
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Nov 19, 2021 23:28
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I also had a similar experience, although one with spooky results. My family's video copy of Ghostbusters had been recorded off the TV and a lot of the spookier things had been cut out - most close ups of the Terror Dog's face, the library ghost was just the reverse shot of them running away, the zombie cab driver wasn't it and the possession scene was edited (quite cleverly in retrospect) to remove the hands so it appeared like Dana's chair just span round and shot her through the door. Despite that the film still terrified me, but like most children I slowly got over it and used to it. But then I saw a retail VHS copy of the film, and I regressed to being frightened again hard, it was like the film had turned on me. It was same film but there was all this extra hosed up poo poo that wasn't in it before.
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Nov 19, 2021 23:37
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Bacon Terrorist posted:Just saw it and it's a mixed bag for me, there was plenty to like and plenty I think could have been done differently. The third act definitely had issues. That said I think it is a good jumping off point for an updated franchise and it would be interesting to see the new cast in a fresh scenario. "Somehow, Vigo returned" Ghostbusters : The Sorrow of Moldavia 2023
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Nov 19, 2021 23:40
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I was definitely used to the pan and scan version from my vhs copy. One of my earliest memories was sitting in a shopping cart at Shopko and reaching out and grabbing it because I liked the logo and my mom actually bought it for me.WonkyBob posted:"Somehow, Vigo returned" I'm kinda tired of reboots, sequels, etc. going back to the same villains. I'm hoping for a new big bad.
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Nov 19, 2021 23:51
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I think Samhain and the concept of Endless Halloween would be a cool film idea. Rather than rehash the films again dig into the better RGB stuff.
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Nov 20, 2021 00:06
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Karloff posted:One semi interesting thing is that there's a cool scene where you see a number of dates on the wall that show when various disasters that were possibly Gozer related happen. The final date is 2021 which was presumably done with CGI as this was pushed back from 2020. This is true. There were even not-quite-joking suggestions that we do an additional version of the shot with 2022 just in case.
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Nov 20, 2021 00:11
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deoju posted:I'm kinda tired of reboots, sequels, etc. going back to the same villains. I'm hoping for a new big bad. It would be nice to get some original stories but I can see them mining every last nugget of story they can before attempt something genuinely new. Bacon Terrorist posted:I think Samhain and the concept of Endless Halloween would be a cool film idea. Rather than rehash the films again dig into the better RGB stuff. This would work really well with the younger team.
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Nov 20, 2021 00:35
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Robot Style posted:This is true. There were even not-quite-joking suggestions that we do an additional version of the shot with 2022 just in case. That's something for the blu-ray right there!
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Nov 20, 2021 00:41
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Bacon Terrorist posted:I think Samhain and the concept of Endless Halloween would be a cool film idea. Rather than rehash the films again dig into the better RGB stuff. Live action Murray the Mantis.
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Nov 20, 2021 01:27
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Did I miss something or was there no real explanation as to why Phoebe had to go to summer school? I guess my opinion was that anytime Phoebe was doing stuff it was good, any time it focused on another character it wasn't. She was the best developed and everything with the other characters felt like an afterthought. Like Trevor who kept getting pieces of a sideplot but none of it mattered.
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Nov 20, 2021 01:40
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Bacon Terrorist posted:I think Samhain and the concept of Endless Halloween would be a cool film idea. Rather than rehash the films again dig into the better RGB stuff. The reboot was pretty much TRG; just added another layer of humor I didn't like on top. Look at how the Ghostbisters in that look and think about TRG, for instance.
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Nov 20, 2021 02:08
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Christ, and never noticed the cleaning lady spraying water on the on-fire toilet paper roll in the background as Venkman declares "Successful test." Am I blind?
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Nov 20, 2021 02:52
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Bacon Terrorist posted:I think Samhain and the concept of Endless Halloween would be a cool film idea. Rather than rehash the films again dig into the better RGB stuff. The Grundle scared the hell out of me as a kid.
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Nov 20, 2021 03:21
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So I saw the movie tonight with my son in a mostly empty theatre. I don't think I liked this movie all that much. Like, I absolutely love the first GB, and 2 and 2016 are more or less in the same spot for me and afterlife hangs out around them. I was a fan of all of the stuff Egon had done at the farm, was not at all a fan of the complete retread of the first movie, and oh boy that Ramis CG ghost went on far too long and to be honest I think it was done better when he was incorporeal and guiding Phoebe around. I don't know I'm still processing but it was imo a completely middling film that had strong Force Awakens energy wrt completely retreading a previous film and fan service. My son liked it so at least that's one positive. I'll probably keep editing this for a bit, but for real, all of the original Ghostbusters not believing Egon is incredibly bizarre, especially given the framing Ray gives. Okay so they're barely getting calls, they can hardly make rent, why not believe the most rational member of the crew, hear him out, and go with him? Like I can;t even imagine what that discussion would look like where at least Ray doesn't go with him. I get Venkman maybe wanting to just teach and settle down with Dana and Winston just noping out but Ray not heading there is really weird. I guess at the end of the day they had to do that to not have Akroyd in three quarters of the movie. Also goddamn the dog voices were pretty bad and Paul Rudd never mentioning that he's Clortho was bizarre given how heavy handed they were with the references, especially given Zuul just straight up has the same dialogue from GB1. Ugh. Don't mind me just straight stream of conscience here. What was Egon's original plan? It seemed like he had one of the dogs trapped and the other was pursuing, is the idea that he made the huge field of traps for Gozer and was just like gently caress it ive got one dog let me trap both while I can? If that's the case he doesn't need the huge field, just another singular trap. I thought the PKE meter/Proton Pack setup holding down Gozer was cool, but again, if the Gozer needs the keymaster and gatekeeper to manifest, is that huge set up then just keeping the well of other ghosts in check? Why did the fire station still have the containment unit active? The "Are you a God" line was just awful, especially given how it was written. Ray should have immediately yelled "Yes" or whatever and they should have opened on her. Oh god and now I'm remembering that when the OG team shows up and starts saying their lines the music goes to the piano haha theme, wasn't a big fan of that. Also the Gohan/Ghost Goku Phoebe/Ghost Egan parallels. PneumonicBook fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Nov 20, 2021 |
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Nov 20, 2021 03:25
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PneumonicBook posted:Where'd the OG team get proton packs from? Egon took them all! This was established a half hour ago! He took all the traps, not all the packs. I just did an interview with NPR about the movie, what's so special about Ghostbusters, etc. etc. — the piece airs Tuesday, hopefully I'll have a link for you. It won't be a very long piece and I am not the focus of it, so hopefully I'll get one smart comment in and acquit myself nicely! Finally, I thought this was adorable: Mckenna Grace at age 9 dancing to guess-which-song.  https://www.instagram.com/p/CWdpqVxl9qU/
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Nov 20, 2021 04:14
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Icon-Cat posted:He took all the traps, not all the packs. Ah okay, I'll strike that one.
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Nov 20, 2021 04:36
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If this film underperforms they should revert back to do a sequel to the 2016 film, and if that film underperforms they should then swing back to do Afterlife 2. And then when that underperforms they should do Ghostbusters: ATC 3. Back and forth forever until the world explodes. Then the discourse can never, ever, end and the only person who will be happy is me, who likes all the Ghostbusters films.
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Nov 20, 2021 06:43
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Just do a ghostbusters live action show. But no more gozer please.
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Nov 20, 2021 07:16
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I wouldn't hate if Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, and Melissa Mccarthy were folded into Ghostbusters 4 if it ever happens. They figured it out in the comics and I bet an Enter the Ghostbustersverse would make some decent cash. Make the big bad the boogieman.
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Nov 20, 2021 07:31
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This was a bad movie. Making it a Stranger Things like kids movie was bad. Making it a soft reboot was bad. Re-hashing GB1 was bad. CG you know what was bad. Stopping the movie for 5 minutes to sell marshmallow toys was bad. Every time a “hey I remember thing from previous movie” appeared it was bad. “For Harold” my rear end.
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Nov 20, 2021 07:39
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FoneBone posted:not great, though I did like McKenna Grace and Logan Kim as the lead kids (even if naming the latter "Podcast" is peak how-do-you-do-fellow-kids writing). It really reminds me of the leaked Sony emails about how to make Spider-Man seem more appealing to today's kids. Kids love Snapchat! Have Spidey do a Snapchat!! 
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Nov 20, 2021 09:22
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I don’t even think kids that young like podcasts. Let alone making them. Shoulda been a wanna be tik toker or streamed. Idk. This is like the third podcast centric character I’ve seen this year and the only one I thought was actually good so far is Devon from the Chucky series. It also helps that Devon isn’t just a walking podcast he’s actually a kid with emotions and poo poo lol.
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Nov 20, 2021 09:38
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So having slept on it, here are my thoughts: Afterlife is a product of the fanbase, it's tunnel vision and tantrum throwing over different issues. I did think when Reitman was announced he was either going to nail it or overcook it, but he isn't the same style of director as his father. Of course the story could never be as snappy as the originals purely on circumstance. The opening 5 minutes was the strongest part of the film for me. At this point I was really engaged, wow a proton stream on the big screen for the first time decades, doing something I have never seen before. There was good tension, nice nods and the lighting of Egon was done well. I was buckled up from that intro. Then the pace predictably stalled because we need to meet the new characters, and enough exposition about them to find out why they are who they are and why they are coming to Summerville. Honestly I would have binned all this, binned the roadtrip montage and just had them pull up at the house after the intro since we pretty much get the same exposition about the characters from that scene through their actions and conversation with Janine. One alarm bell that rang for me here with the script was as they drove through Summerville and Trevor complained he couldn't get a single bar (of signal) and his Mom replies 'There better be a bar'. That is a good exchange, we don't need Pheobe to acknowledge this as funny, it undermines it for me anyway. The stuff that went wrong in 2016 was on the nose dialogue and conversations that went on too long to really snap like the originals. The subtle stuff we have been talking about here recently in the original films like Egon signalling Venkman, even stuff like Dana's incredulity as the Ghostbusters suggest her story may not be true, experts Egon and Ray chugging beer and eating Cheezits as they do so. Unfortunately the dialogue if anything gets worse on the whole as the film goes on, not completely but the are some real clangers in there. Similarly, Trevor working at the diner is on screen far too much. Now he is cold in the freezer, now he is cleaning the grease off the floor, I don't care. Keep the Lucky scene where he applies, next time we hear about the diner is the floor scene where he is invited to the mountain because he needs to go there to hear the name 'Gozer' - not sure why he needs to do this really but he does, surely just googling the events of 1984 and Ivo Shandor would have got them there, they don't need to look in Tobin's Spirit Guide anymore. Shandor probably has his own Wikipedia page at this point. The Pheobe summer school stuff is ok, it makes sense I guess if her Mom has stuff to do and her brother is working, she is young enough to need some childcare maybe? I was concerned at first, her dialogue was very Young Sheldon but thankfully it became more organic as the film went on. The same for Podcast, he definitely got better lines as the film went on. Paul Rudd is Paul Rudd and who doesn't like Paul Rudd? If anything, Paul Rudd has the best lines in the film. The stuff with invisible ghost Egon was good, maybe could have been a shortened sequence to get to the secret science cellar. The Ecto One stuff was all done well, I did laugh out loud in the cinema as the mobile trap was deployed during the Muncher chase, and some extra in the background is just walking the other way apparently oblivious to it all. Maybe they were too busy on their phone I guess. The jail stuff made sense to a degree but none of the adults the same age as Mr Gruberson remembered Ghostbusters apparently which is a bit odd. It did explain why Lucky was needed later I suppose. The phone call stuff was exposition heavy and like people said, crazy Ray didn't believe Egon? The man who believed in the sponge migration? A little jarring, they are the OG believers, it was Venkman and Winston who were just in it for the money. I know it made sense from a practical point that they didn't want Aykroyd in the whole movie but maybe they could have framed it as 'we agreed I would hold the fort here and he would investigate out there, as the years went by when we spoke on the phone he was going a bit senile so I didn't take it seriously.' Then as others have said build into that one liner about being Podcast's only fan and that making him come to Summerville on the back of his episodes after meeting Pheobe. Everything that needed to be resolved in the Mom story was resolved in the secret science cellar before the Terror Dog came, I don't think it needed a reprise at the end (more on that later). The Walmart sequence was as good as can be expected, the mini pufts are what they are. I enjoyed the T2 mini puft as much as the first time it was pointed out. It probably went on a little long but also got the strongest reaction from the audience, alongside Bokeem Woodbine's 'Who you gonna call?'. Possessed Mom had real potential to be scary and I agree that was probably the low point of the dialogue. I know it's a kid's film but amp it up, don't copy and paste the '84 script, I'd have rather it was more of a Hereditary parody or something. I really like the failsafe Egon designed, that was well done, explained a lot, felt very in line with the character. I also liked that possessed Paul Rudd went straight to sabotage it. The main 'ghosts go wild!' Section was light on ghosts, I agree. They could have done more here, rollerskating ghosts, possessed items, more random extras being terrorised? More Sheriff response to the ghosts? A missed opportunity for me. The emergence of Gozer, was good if a bit played out. Updated Gozer had a cool costume, was definitely scarier. The Shandor murder was good. It's a shame there wasn't any real new dialogue. Terror dog chasing mobile trap all good. Some of the car chase lines didn't really zing as intended. Then we get to the big battle. The plan is pretty sound, it makes sense that Pheobe would have the same issue as she didn't have time to test the trap. Everyone does their part in the end to help which is good. The original cast turn up and instead of my spinetingling like the trailers I think 'jesus christ they are old'. I knew it but seeing it. Makes me laugh when people were calling for them to lead another film before 2016 when Murray looked old as gently caress in the uniform at those awards in 2009. He looks positively sprightly in that video compared to this appearance. There is a Catch 22 here for the director: he has the original cast back, he has to make to the most of it but how? For me, they are talking too much. As much as I wanted to see this, I was even looking at my watch during the movie trying to work out how long until it happened, it was a bit of a let down for me. If Gozer did remember them why not just immediately kill them, it knows they are a threat. Instead there is like two minutes of non stop talking before they fire. The most egregious sin: CGI Ramis. Why oh why, maybe 5 seconds of him helping Pheobe at a push? Instead it makes the retconning ghost Hayden Christensen into Return of the Jedi look tasteful. The longer it went on the more I couldn't believe no-one involved in this said 'hey, maybe we shouldn't'. Even crazier given Murray and Ramis' relationship when he was alive. Ghost hugs, why? Some nice bits after with different Ghostbusters running down memory lane, talking to the kids/car. The end credit scenes were ok, I knew Venkman juiced that deck immediately. It was still fun though. Hilarious Sigourney Weaver was credited before actually appearing in the film. The Winston stuff was to set up the sequels and I know what people were saying regarding criticising it but honestly Ernie Hudson got hosed over so bad by the franchise I say give him it, pay the man a million dollars for an appearance in every subsequent Ghostbusters series/film.
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Nov 20, 2021 11:14
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Bacon Terrorist posted:Hilarious Sigourney Weaver was credited before actually appearing in the film. I actually liked this—for me, it was a nice "Wait, what happened, what'd I miss?" moment, and then wham, you cut to the post-credits scene, and there she is. Almost like an announcer telling the audience to please welcome a special surprise guest. It was funny for me though because in that few seconds of "Wait, what happened, what'd I miss?" I thought maybe Weaver was the voice of Gozer? I was surprised to watch the credits and see Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo turn up. Didn't have her on my bingo card for this series. Also, to Bacon Terrorist's point about Murray's visible aging, the Weaver scene made the comparison even worse; hell, for a good run in her life she looked better every year, she's 72 now and looks 50 at worst.
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Nov 20, 2021 14:44
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Karloff posted:
What are the dates? Is one of them 9/11?
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Nov 20, 2021 15:05
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I had a good time watching this. Yes, there’s some minor quibbles here and there, but I had fun and I’d watch it again. The Haslab proton back is 88 backers shy of 9000, so the hose is probably a go.
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Nov 20, 2021 15:12
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banned from Starbucks posted:What are the dates? Is one of them 9/11? Just years. My brain is fried and I don't recall the exact ones but dialog points out Krakatoa, Tunguska, the events of GB1, and then 2021 for this film, plus one more later on that might have been 2135 or something like that
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Nov 20, 2021 16:24
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There is also 1945 and one of the characters says something like "What happened then?" and another goes "What didn't happen"
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Nov 20, 2021 17:28
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Lastdancer fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Dec 22, 2021 |
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Nov 20, 2021 18:40
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I enjoyed GB:A. But I think the main issue I have with it is that it's not the GB movie I wanted as an adult, but it is definitely what I would have wanted as a kid. Someone my age finding a proton pack? Sign me up. But now I'm old and bitter.
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Nov 20, 2021 19:32
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I had no idea there was a years-old Ghostbusters thread here! Read the whole thing since seeing Afterlife last night and it's awesome how much y'all love (most of?) the franchise. I'd only seen 2016 before Afterlife, so I had pretty low expectations that were mildly exceeded. This thread makes me want to try 1984 again (I remember bouncing off it five minutes in because I was not in the mood (wasn't the movie's fault)), so thank you for that.
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Nov 20, 2021 19:49
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pokeyman posted:I had no idea there was a years-old Ghostbusters thread here! Read the whole thing since seeing Afterlife last night and it's awesome how much y'all love (most of?) the franchise. Love the enthusiasm but this is such a bizarre post. You're old enough to have registered in '06 but haven't seen the original pre-'00s movies, yet still took the time to read this entire thread dedicated to them, instead of just watching them?
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Nov 20, 2021 21:56
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