The premiere of ‘Ghostbusters: Beyond’ (ghostbusters: Afterlife, 2021) is being a public success, accumulating good numbers at its American box office, something that did not anticipate its timid critical reception. However, the sequel is catching on, and its strategy of reaching more generations seems to be working. Where is the sequel to Jason Reitman compared to the other films and series in the saga? we review everything that the franchise has given of itself and put it in order of priority if you want to review it.
Ghostbusters 2 (Ghostbusters 2, 1989)
Memory traps often play tricks, and while the first film remains fresh, funny and witty, its somewhat later sequel shows the same team somewhat lost. Few jokes work, the conflicts go to half gas and the repetition of the scheme of the previous one, with a meeting with the mayor almost copied sentence by sentence is sad. And it is a shame because the ghost show is tremendous, with some ultra-ominous horror leaks (the heads, Viggo) that does not seem to correspond to an SNL actor comedy.
Cleanin ‘Up the Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019)
The definitive feature-length documentary about the making of the original ‘Ghostbusters’, more than two hours chronicling how he broke records and changed the film industry in the 1980s with an analysis of his legacy. It has interviews with Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson and archival material never seen before so it is the perfect companion to the original, but being a non-fiction work it is something more expendable than other sequels, although the anecdotes from the hand of this cast and special effects pieces are a feast.
Ghostbusters (Ghostbusters, 2016)
Unfairly mistreated at the time, this new version of the original idea takes the logical option of transferring the humor and the most famous comics from Saturday Night Live of the moment and taking it to the cinema, the same operation that the original did in its day. The actresses are fantastic and the humor is very absurd, but it still works very well in its part of the horror adventure for all audiences, with a lot of gadgets and new inventions that make it more of a colorful live action version of cartoons than in a remake. It doesn’t always work, but its extended version makes everything fit better.
Return of the Ghostbusters (Extreme Ghostbusters, 1997)
The follow-up to the amazing original animated series was a nice fit of the concept for the ’90s lads. With a starting point that looks like the template on which the new ‘Star Wars’ and even the sequel ‘Ghostbusters: Beyond’ are built We have a new group of youngsters taking on the role of the Ghostbusters to rid the world of a paranormal resurgence, led by veteran Egon Spengler, of course. In a series that takes its monsters seriously and becomes quite terrifying for a cartoon (one episode was based on ‘Hellraiser’!), Although it lost some steam in its last episodes.
Ghostbusters: Beyond (Ghostbusters: Afterlife, 2021)
A vibrant sly comedy and horror adventure flavored with Joe Dante, Fred Dekker or Joel Schumacher that turns the cutting edge technology of the past into the steampunk equivalent for the era ‘Stranger Things’. Much more focused on their gadgets than their ghosts. It’s mostly about kids discovering and restoring junk, there’s a genuine fascination with interacting with the past that creates a barrier to fantasy, it’s not an almighty nanotech suit, no lightning bolts in the hands, but it involves real difficulty, danger, mistakes.
Things go wrong, and when they go well they are ñapas, carambola. There are no saving explosions in post-production and yes, a lot of that look at the catalog of devices is shielded in nostalgia, but If it is that nostalgia that is responsible for “magic” costing, having consequences, and offering friction to the FX show, welcome over most of today’s great mainstream. Questionable or not, it’s a great tribute to a key piece of the ‘Ghostbusters’ legend, a personal friend of the team and co-writer of the original film.
The Real Ghostbusters (The Real Ghostbusters, 1986-1991)
The official animated series derived from the film was for many as important as this one. They had to put the “real” before the title because there was already a previous one with the name of the film that had nothing to do with it. Breaking the schemes of the typical cartoon series for children of the time, the ghostbusters team faced a monster of the week in true ‘X-Files’ style.
Often based on other films, these Ghostbusters’ roster of enemies included bogeymen worthy of fighting with the Babadook, things in the attic, demons of all kinds and even Cthulhu himself and his followers. The animation was fantastic and didn’t cut into the horror tone, making it the most valuable pop culture element to come out of Reitman’s film.
The Ghostbusters (Ghostbusters, 1984)
Clumsily mistaken for a stale-hunting revisionism as a uniquely conjunctural work, Ivan Reitman’s masterpiece not only succeeded in perfectly capturing the libertarian spirit of the Reagan era or the sensibilities of the exploding American comedy of television at the time, but marked a milestone in the mainstream portrayal of the 1980s B-series horror and fantasy world that swept Fangoria and Starlog.
With a revolutionary integration of visual effects by Richard Edlund, with previous designs by Bernie Wrightson, and mind-blowing stop motion by Randy Cook, the monsters and ghosts section still works to this day, and there are scenes like it.to possession of Dana and the cosmic vision of the refrigerator that still makes the hair stand on end. The current cult of a film goes beyond nostalgia and has been integrated into pop culture, not by chance it was number one in its re-release in the summer of 2020.