Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Shockingly good. If this had been the only sequel to the first flick, even with the tremendous separation in time, the sequence would be perfect. In fact, the passage of time actually works to this film’s advantage; it makes the storyline of no one remembering the past events, of those happenings being completely outside the knowledge of the youngsters who are the backbone of the cast, make much more sense; it gives the whole concept an overall internal consistency. This plot works almost seamlessly with what came before, and presents its story with equal amounts of funny and creepy, all served up with the same panache as the original. And those aforementioned youngsters? They’re terrific, particularly McKenna Grace in the pivotal role. If there is to be a next chapter with them—strongly hinted in the ending here—I’d be on board with it. All in all, this may be the biggest surprise I’ve seen in cinema in a long time: a re-imagined take on a classic that I would not have guessed was advisable, but that now seems absolutely necessary. From not a ghost of a chance to totally alive and well—that’s some paranormally good moviemaking right there. Who you gonna call indeed!