GHOSTBUSTER’S GRANDKIDS TAKE UP HIS MANTLE BUT... GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (12A)
IN 1984, Ivan Reitman’s iconic comedy Ghostbusters saw ectoplasm-spattered paranormal exterminators, played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson save New York from supernatural destruction.
Now the baton passes to a new generation, with Reitman’s son Jason helming a fourth instalment in the series, which ignores the unfairly derided 2016 reboot to pick up threads from the first two films.
It starts with single parent Callie (Carrie Coon) and her two children, Trevor (Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), being evicted from their home and reluctantly moving into the dilapidated farmhouse of Callie’s late father, Egon Spengler (played by Ramis in the original film), in the sleepy Oklahoma town of Summerville.
While Trevor secures shifts at a local diner so he can make romantic overtures to sassy teenage roller-waitress Lucky (Celeste
O’Connor), sister Phoebe – a proud nerd – starts school with trepidation but makes friends with classmate and conspiracy theorist Podcast (Logan Kim).
The children stumble upon a secret, buried deep beneath the town, which confirms Callie’s father’s apocalyptic predictions.
Aided by Phoebe’s teacher, Mr Grooberson (Paul Rudd), the kids answer the Ghostbusters’ call and confront a terrifying threat.
Jason Reitman’s script is drizzled with nostalgia to the point of sticky saturation, repurposing outlandish plot points from more than 35 years ago to promote the teens as mankind’s saviours.
Throwbacks to the original movie include adorable 3.5-inch tall Stay-Puft marshmallow men which borrow from the Gremlins playbook to gleefully toast each other over barbecue grills.
Dedicated to the memory of Ramis who died in 2014, Ghostbusters: Afterlife spends too much time honouring the past to carve out a satisfying stand-alone jaunt.
A metal-gobbling phantom called Muncher is a meek substitute for Slimer, and Coon and Rudd are poorly served in the frenetic denouement.
Regardless, Reitman’s film whips up light, fluffy entertainment in fits and spurts and Grace’s spunky heroine is a beacon of non-conformity as special effects wizardry runs amok and Ray Parker Jr’s infectious theme song rises from the grave.
In cinemas now