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March 24, 2024 97 mins

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This comprehensive analysis delves into the Ghostbusters franchise, examining its cultural significance, evolution, and various iterations, from the iconic original films to the 2016 all-female cast reboot and the Afterlife installment. The discussion highlights the original film's monumental impact during the 1980s, while critiquing the sequels for their varying levels of originality and execution. Particularly, the 2016 reboot is noted for its humor, special effects, and performance, despite controversies surrounding its existence. The conversation also explores the themes of empowerment and representation, the strategic use of nostalgia, and the introduction of new characters alongside honoring the original cast. The franchise's success is attributed to the chemistry among cast members, advancements in special effects, and the changing landscape of fan expectations and movie franchise trends. The dialogue captures a deep appreciation and a critical perspective on Ghostbusters' journey through the decades.

 

00:00 Diving Deep into Ghostbusters: Nostalgia, Impressions, and Franchise Evolution

00:40 Ghostbusters Revisited: A Personal Journey Back to a Classic

03:25 The Magic of Bill Murray in Ghostbusters: Unpacking His Iconic Role

03:56 Ghostbusters 2: A Critical Reevaluation and Its Impact

41:13 The Evolution of Special Effects: Ghostbusters Through a Modern Lens

46:04 Ghostbusters 2 Revisited: Dissecting the Sequel's Opening and Reception

47:35 Dissecting Ghostbusters 2: A Critical Look

48:42 Ghostbusters 2 vs. The Incredibles: A Contrarian Take

49:35 Fan Disappointment and Character Destruction in Sequels

58:08 The All-Female Ghostbusters: Controversy and Surprising Merits

01:09:16 Ghostbusters Afterlife: Nostalgia, Critiques, and Hopes for the Future

01:26:37 The Marketing Powerhouse of the Ghostbusters Franchise

01:29:08 Anticipating the Next Ghostbusters and Reflecting on Roadhouse

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Victor (00:00):
All right, Ray and Nick, we have so many things we should probably
talk about, because I want to get yourimpressions of, I think we've, I think
I feel like we've talked about thisbecause we probably texted back and
forth so many times with the end ofLoki, for example, which is something
we haven't talked about since then.
And just the way thesefranchises Star Wars and.
With a Marvel franchise, of course, and Ido have some hope about the Marvel thing.

(00:22):
Speaking of all these franchises andreboots and all these other brand
extensions that become such a product inthe past few years, mining the eighties
and nostalgia for big IP reboots.
We have the new Ghostbustersfilm coming out this week.
And that's the reason I wantedto reach out to you guys.
I know Ray, you're a huge Ghostbustersfan and and my experience with

(00:44):
Ghostbusters., I loved the firstmovie I saw it in movie theaters.
It was like a seminal year.
1984 is like the first yearwe lived in the suburbs.
I went to the movie theaters andwe saw everything that came out
that year and we'll get into someof that like really iconic stuff
that came out around that time.
So for me, it was such an importantfilm, but the rest of the franchise

(01:05):
never really mattered to me that much.
I did see Ghostbusters 2 in movietheaters, did not like it even back
then, never revisited it, unlikethe first Ghostbusters, which I
saw, who knows, probably three orfour times in movie theaters and
then dozens of times on cable.
And Then, of course, we hadGhostbusters 2, which, once
again, made no impression on me.
If anything, it was prettynegative when I first saw it.

(01:26):
And then, basically, did not seeanything else, other than the cartoons,
which we can talk about for a minute.
The original cartoon is something thatI did used to watch after school, and I
think it's actually maybe one of the mostsuccessful versions of this whole story.
All that is to say that, I had not seenthe original Ghostbusters and it's got
to be maybe 20 years at this point.
So I was really worried to goback and say, is this thing

(01:49):
going to have aged really, badly?
And my opinion of the firstGhostbusters specifically, and we'll
go through each one of these becausesome of these I was just seeing
for the very first time as well.
I felt like I really heldup like some of the special
effects aren't exactly on point.
I have a lot of trivia for you guys totalk about how the production, which
is really actually very interesting.
The first time I've did a deep diveon the production of the film, but I

(02:11):
really thought that I'd say this isprobably when I was growing up, this
was like a 10 out of 10 perfect filmbut in retrospect, it's not but this
is like a four out of five stars.
I really enjoyed this.
Even now, I think it holds upexcept for some of the effects.
Except for maybe some of thecomedy and some of the things that
probably wouldn't pass muster today.
We'll talk about what might not haveaged very well, but in general, I

(02:33):
really enjoyed going, back to this.

Ray (02:35):
I felt the same way that you did about this and I really wanted
to go back and relive my childhood.
So I did go back and watch it again.
And I agree a hundred percent with you.
I think it aged very well.
It really held up.
I agree with you that some of the effectsa little wonky, some of the practical

(02:56):
effects, but actually they remarkably holdup today's standards even, and it is the
quintessential perfect eighties movie.
It's a, combination of comedy.
You've got.
Special effects, sci fi and theParis psychology merging with the
technology is just perfect, which Idon't think they had any intent on

(03:20):
this movie taking off the way that

Victor (03:21):
no, absolutely not.
No, we'll get into that.
No way.
No way.

Ray (03:24):
No way.
And I think this movie wasmade perfectly for Bill Murray.
You get Bill Murray at his peak.
Yep.
He actually looks like he'senjoying being in the film.
Yes.
The other movies, even GroundhogDay, Scrooge, he doesn't have
that like glimmer in his eye.
He is excited to be in this movie.

(03:46):
His excitement, hisenergy makes this movie.
And I'm convinced withoutBill Murray, we don't have the
Ghostbusters that we have today.

Victor (03:52):
I will 100 percent agree with that.
I wasn't going to get into thatparticular detail that we talked
about Ghostbusters 2, but I reallydid not like Ghostbusters 2 now even
more so than the first time around.
And a huge differentiator is Ifelt every time Bill Murray speaks
in Ghostbusters 1, I laughed.
Even now even little subtlethings I had totally forgotten

(04:14):
about, I laughed out loud.
And Bill Murray and Gus Busters too.
He does not even want to be there.
It's every time he's on screen,it's the opposite of funny.
It's excruciating.
Yup.

Ray (04:24):
Yup.
And you got Ramis and Aykroyd.
Again, Dan Aykroyd did not ruinthis movie, which is a classic.
Cause many times Dan Aykroyd ruins movies.
But they play the straightguys and he plays off of them.
That allows Murray to go crazyand then have them be the
sort of center of gravity.
Yup.
And it was like a perfect mix with it.

Victor (04:43):
And their chemistry is fantastic.

Ray (04:45):
I agree with you.
Just if you go back and look at some otherIvan Reitman's films, like meatballs,
for instance, it does not translate wellto today's basically look, it's only
40 years, but it's not like it's thestone age or the middle ages here, but
I mean that first scene in ghostbusters,he's totally perving on a very young
Jennifer Ryan, I think is running it orwhatever the co ed with the ESP cards,

(05:10):
but you gotta think back in the eighties.
That's probably whatcollege professors did.
It was not necessarily a deviationfrom normal sort of behavior.
And that is, gets a little you look atit now and this age and you look back and
you get he's a little bit of a perv here.
Like what's going on.

Victor (05:29):
He definitely is.
That's one of my age badly.
Things is like how much of acreeper is he in this movie?
Actually, he's a horny.

Ray (05:35):
Throughout most of the film, but then he even redeems himself.
It does.
Yes.
Dana Barrett gets obsessed withZool and now she's the horn dog.
And he's got Oh no.

Victor (05:47):
His credit.
That could have been very bad

Ray (05:48):
I don't think he's going to do anything without her consent
ever, but you do get that sensethat he matures during the film.
Even he becomes more of a good guyversus a bad guy for that respect.
Which is important.

Victor (05:59):
He has to change as a character.
And Nick, I wanted to get your initialimpressions, but before that, I
do want to call out something veryfunny that you said, Ray, which is
that you're like, it's only 40 yearsago, just to be clear about this.
Like when you're saying thismovie came out 40 years ago, it
literally is 40 years this year.
At the time in 1984 40 years backfrom that point forward like you think

(06:20):
about like teenagers watching thisright now 40 years before ghostbusters.
It's like abbott and costellomeets the mummy or something
Like so it's 40 years ago.
It's a pretty long timewhen you think about it

Nick (06:31):
I that's that's the funny thing.
It's like my kids will watchmovies from the 80s and they're
semi warm they don't hate them.
They, did like Ghostbusters, but itis funny because you remember like
when we were teenagers in the eightiesand my father's putting on movies
from like 1940, 1950, what is this?
Get this off.

(06:52):
What is this crap?
They used to play him on channel 11,although I did like the Abner and

Ray (06:56):
Costello movies, but I

Victor (06:57):
did too.
Yeah.

Nick (06:58):
To your question I completely agree.
The original Ghostbustersholds up actually pretty well.
I didn't really the, special effectsI, don't really look at them too,
closely, just knowing again it wasfrom the eighties but definitely
holds up well, you'd be hard pressedto find, I think any Bill Murray.
Ivan Reitman, movie that doesn't hold up.

(07:20):
I think from, the eighties and HaroldRamis any of those movies always hold
up, I think Stripes, even though, yeah,it's got definitely non PC stuff Stripes
is one of the all time greatest movies.
So that holds up Ghostbusters, theoriginal Ghostbusters absolutely holds up.
Interesting thing though.
Which this might be one of the triviaquestions you were alluding to.

(07:43):
Peter Venkman, the original script thatDan Eckerd wrote, Peter Venkman was
going to be played by John Belushi.
And and then I think after his death they,modified the script to fit Bill Murray's,
Personality as opposed to John Belushi.
I completely agree witheverything you both said in
terms of Bill Murray's enjoyment.
And I think that's what probablybrought him back to afterlife.

(08:06):
And now the new one that's coming out.
And I also agree Ghostbusters2 is just, it's horrible.
You want to like it and it's just so bad.
It was bad when I saw it back then.
And in preparation for this podcast, Iwill say there were some good moments
in it though, at the beginning,before it really went off the rails.
And I think they uppedthe level of, jump scares.

Victor (08:29):
Yeah, there's more horror in there for

Nick (08:31):
sure.
Yeah.
Like when Yeah.
What is it when Winston and Rayand Egon are in the subway tunnel?
That's actually, that was pretty scary.
Yeah.
But the heads that disappeared andthen they fall into the, I think
Winston falls into the slime.
So there were definitely some good momentsin the second one, but just overall, it's.
Pretty brutal film and it just fallscompletely off the rails at the end.

(08:56):
The, whole special liberty thing it was,almost just, it was embarrassing back in
the eighties when we were watching it now.
It's wow.

Ray (09:03):
As my

Nick (09:03):
kids would say, total cringe,

Victor (09:05):
I want to have a little sidebar just on, on that because
there's so much to cover still inthe first one before we get to it.
But yeah it's incredible.
Especially when you look at that year andyet obviously it's 1989, but we got to
talk about 1989 as a movie year, becausethat's like such an important year,
just like 84 was such an important yearfor the when this first movie came out.
But wow, it's just, it's really bad,but I think really what it comes down

(09:28):
to is the incredible chemistry of thethree guys primarily, but everybody,
like I think on Ernie Hudson's character,especially now looking at it, I think
he's way underwritten, but he bringsthis real charisma to the character
and he's not the I'm almost cringing.
When he shows up in this movie, watchingit now is he, going to be the guy
who's these white people are crazy?

(09:49):
Which was like 90 percent ofthe black sidekicks at the time.
And he's not that character at all,which I thought was really well done.
And not only that I think about likehow underwritten like Annie Potts is.
Now like I she's so memorable and i'mlike she's looking three scenes of
this movie But she really is like animportant part of the movie So all of
them are like so charismatic and thechemistry between all of them the three

(10:13):
guys obviously and like you said ray,I think it's like, you know It's all
orbiting around bill murray's core energy,but they all play off each other so
perfectly that it's like that chemistryis just incredible in that first film.
And that's what doesn't once again,I keep previewing second one.
We'll save it for that But that'swhat just does not work in the
second film for me at all, right?

Ray (10:31):
One thing that's interesting with winston is they introduce him
And then you get a little window intothe world building and the technology
like when he first joins in Welcometo the And they got all the traps And
then they literally systematicallyshow you how they load the trap, even
though they're just teaching Winston.
But they're really educating you on how

Victor (10:52):
the whole game goes.
There's always that audience surrogate.
They bring him in at that pointto show him how everything,
show us how everything works.
And

Ray (11:01):
I, wish there was some I don't know if they ever did these, but just
seems like where they tested the protonpacks or the PKE meter or something,
I would love some of that extra stuff.
And that's, where youmiss that in Ghostbusters.
But Winston gives you that opportunityto see some of that and as a lay person
coming in to, very much so we'll talkabout it, but in Ghostbusters too,

(11:25):
when Sigourney Weaver first goes.
To Egon, and he has hisparapsychology lab set up, like
where you actually see these guys.
You remember they had a grant in Columbia,so they must have been doing something.
They weren't doing it just to hookup with co eds like Bill Murray was.
So I that's

Victor (11:42):
what he was doing.

Ray (11:44):
Like they always come in later where they were doing something.
I love the fact that you saw his researchand then he's let's take the puppy away.
Smiles and It's perfect.
So it does give you that insight whenyou have the other people that are non
ghostbusters they get that little aspect.
So it's nice.
And

Nick (12:02):
then even you had, Dana, the interaction in , Between Dana and
her neighbor,

Ray (12:08):
Lewis Tully, Rick Moranis,

Nick (12:11):
man.
I was trying to remember hischaracter's name the whole Lewis
Tully thing is awesome too.
Where he's have a party, come over

Victor (12:20):
to the party, and

Ray (12:21):
it's awesome.
Vince Clothar, whatever.

Nick (12:24):
Vince Clothar.
The whole movie is just, it just works.
Every scene, and you know it's a greatmovie when it's oh, I love this scene,
and then, They go to the next scene.
There's no downtime in that movie at all.
It's just it's just onegreat scene after another.
It's one of the best as yousaid, one of the best 80s movies
and just a great comedy movie.

(12:45):
That it, it stands the test of time.
It's a great, it's a

Ray (12:48):
great flick.
It just, some of those linesthat, How Reimus just Ted Ban
delivers just, they're funny too.
They get a chance to be just as funnyMurray in a different way, right?
Where you like that one where it'sbeyond rational thought when first
looking at stay puff come downthat alley in the, on the street.
And it's just, it's, someof those lines are great.

(13:09):
They really are.

Victor (13:11):
Murray cracked me up.
Like just, it's obviously there's theiconic dialogue, but the ones I laughed
at the most that were like things thatwere like non consequential, but I love
when they're in the hotel And he liketurns on the maid and they almost kill the
maid and she's what are you people doing?
And he just casually says sorry.
We thought you were someoneelse Yeah actually, you know

Nick (13:31):
another good scene in the if you rewatch it, which
i'm sure you guys will when

Victor (13:35):
they catch slimer yes, that's the one that's the ghost

Nick (13:38):
in the hotel Yeah first ghost they ever catch and After they catch him
after they've completely destroyed theballroom and they're out there charging,
the, what the price is going to be.
You if you, watch it again, look atHarold Ramis, he's like signaling
to Bill Murray, how much theyshould charge and he puts up four.
Fingers for 4, 000 and thenanother, finger for 5, 000.

(14:01):
So it's a, great sort of a little wink.
If you look back at thatscene, it's hilarious.
How Ramis is like looking downand it's very stripes like when
they, like their chemistry andstripes, it's the same thing.
And Bill Murray's 4, 000.
And then you see HaroldRamis, like shaking his head
and putting up four fingers.
It's great.
It's great.
There's a lot of little, thingslike that when you, look back at

(14:24):
it that you, probably missed when

Victor (14:25):
you were a kid.
All that stuff is so great though.
Like I love when he gets slimed andthen the and then when they capture him
later on and he just casually walks in,he goes, that's the one that got me.
I'm like, that's theone which cracked me up.
That's the one is was whereyou're expecting like dozens
of other ones to be there.

Ray (14:42):
save.
Save some for me.
Yeah, I got slime.
You got slime.
Save some for me.
Save some for me.

Victor (14:47):
Yeah, exactly.
So much of this is improvised, by the way.
Murray, of course, was improvisingconstantly, but Annie Potts
character, she came in and theybasically cast her last minute.
She walked in and the right menimmediately threw her into the scene
that they were currently shooting.
She dressed herself.
From the actual people who arestanding around like the makeup girl.

(15:08):
He took her glasses put them on So shebasically just dressed herself in that
moment created the character on the flyand that's it And sigourney weaver, for
example the character when they cast herShe was a model and she's the one who
rewrote her character To be , more of highend high society Which of course makes
the whole thing instead of being thehot model that bill murray's trying to get
with There's a little class thing goingon there So there's all these things

(15:31):
that they're doing on the fly That areadding basically they're world building
like you said in real time and they'rejust , bouncing off each other perfectly
It's pretty incredible speaking of rickmoranis who Improvise all of his dialogue.
When he's in the party and he'stalking about those tax deductions
and this guy and what he does for, heimprovised that whole entire thing.
So he's they're justimprovising in real time.

(15:52):
And it's just it's, incrediblewhat they came up with.
Oh,

Nick (15:55):
wow.
I didn't know that.
That's great.
It's like an episode of Curb Your

Ray (15:58):
Enthusiasm.
Yeah, pretty much.
Now, again you bring up SigourneyWeaver and now She she is an absolute
sex pot when you think about it betweenthis show, you got heartbreakers where
she's in heartbreakers too, and evengalaxy quest to some degree, and she
is a great actress and she does agreat job, but she really plays it up.

(16:19):
And I agree with you,Victor, a hundred percent.
Not only is she she becomesslutty once she gets possessed,
but very sophisticated woman.
Very classy.
It just, it's a great role for her.
It really is.
It's an excellent role.
And again, was she just comingoff aliens when that was out?
Or was

Victor (16:38):
that Yeah, was it after it was after aliens comes

Ray (16:42):
after this?
So she's awful.
It's awful.
Close.
I think it's awful.
Close.
To raise

Nick (16:47):
the point, she really is an incredible actress because when
I was a kid, I actually, for me,it was really hard to almost.
Contemplate that it was the same actress.
Ridley was the sameperson as Dana Barrett.
I was like I was actually blown awayby that because she's you know, not
meek in ghostbusters it's almost likeWow, Ridley's like a badass in aliens

(17:10):
and then in ghostbusters she's worriedabout these ghosts, but meanwhile
in, in alien, she's a total, badass.
And I remember being, when I was a kid, Iwas like, I actually couldn't comprehend
that it was actually the same actress.

Ray (17:23):
1986.
86 aliens.
So two years later.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Still in our vir we're stillin our memory banks for sure.
Yep.
And that

Victor (17:30):
came out too.
I think that helped.
It to some extent, I don't knowif it's ever documented anywhere,
but I'm pretty sure that it helpedgetting aliens off the ground.
Was that her profile was so muchhigher coming off of Ghostbusters.
All right.
So here's some of the trivia.
So Dan Aykroyd startswriting this script in 1981.
I don't know if you know aboutAykroyd he believes in aliens and
he's got He's been on podcasts talkingabout all this kind of crazy stuff.

(17:51):
Apparently it like runs in his family.
His mom was a medium.
His grandfather wrote this likehysterical book about all the
supposedly real ghosts in the world.
So it's like his it's itruns in his family basically.
So he's always been fixatedwith ghosts as well.
So he'd written this script.
It was for him and Belushi,like you mentioned, right?
And also for it was going tobe Eddie Murphy's premiere.

(18:12):
Yeah.
His first movie, of course, endedup, the script got delayed, so it
didn't end up happening that way.
And it is supposed to be a throwback.
He had grown up speakingof Abbott and Costello.
He grew up with all those likeBowery boy haunted house comedies
of the forties and the fifties.
The Abbott and Costellois the Bob Hope ghost.
What was that movie called?
Catch that ghost or whatever it was.

(18:33):
So it was like those films fromthe forties and fifties, which
interestingly had gone out of style.
And I was thinking like.
What happened to those movies and thenI realized you know what happened?
It was it turned into scooby doobecause those movies weren't big in
the 70s But the scooby doo, you knowbusting the ghosts every week had
become its own formula but it hadn'tbeen in the movies for a while And
more importantly they had not made abig special effects comedy like ever

(18:57):
because comedies just like they do nowcomedies don't Gross as much as action
movies or some of these other sciencefiction genres and stuff You So it's
pretty risky to make a comedy that hadthis kind of budget at the time, right?
And I think it was

Ray (19:10):
the highest one, wasn't it?
Wasn't the highest budget ever.
I think even

Victor (19:15):
to this day, it's crazy when, you look at the budget for this thing
as a matter of fact, so I'll getto the budget part of it, actually.
So he, they bring in right men to direct.
This is when they reboot the,whole idea of making this movie.
It's just a year has goneby since Belushi's past.
They're thinking about doing this again.
And, they decide to go forward withthis and they bring it to right men and

(19:39):
right men looks at the plot, by the way,this was , not a haunted house movie.
It was supposed to be these ghostbusterstravel through time, capturing ghosts.
So reitman looked at the script and saidthis movie's going to cost 200 million
dollars This is like a 1984 money.
This is not going to happen So hedecided to be like we need something a
little more grounded We could do it innew york A lot of the cast was doing
saturday night live at the time ofcourse in new york city And he wanted to

(20:01):
have something a little more, basic andgrounded He brings in harold ramis who
has been his writing partner for animal.
Animal house and for meatballsand for caddy shack So they've
been working together on and off.
So they bring him in and basicallythey bring this package to Columbia.
Columbia needs a movie for the summer.
Columbia does not have a lotof confidence, but they want

(20:23):
to work with these guys, right?
Stripes is huge and they want to say, Hey,if you can get Bill Murray and you guys
work together again maybe we break even onthis, but they're not that confident that
this thing's going to really be a big hit.
And right men actually is worried too.
He has no idea how much it's going to costThey ask him how much he needs he says he
needs between 25 and 30 million dollarsAnd he said he had no idea he'd never done
special effects before He was basically hetook the budget of stripes and he tripled

(20:47):
it and he goes I guess that'll do Andthen columbia gives him the green light to
start the movie but it has to be ready bythe summer So they have 13 months To write
the movie cast the movie produce it editit market it put it in theaters And they
have to make their date which usually thisis the beginning of a film that's total

(21:07):
disaster This is like whatever you hearabout a movie that goes over budget and
falls apart This is like beginning of thatstory in this case It wasn't the case, but
basically they start to put this togetherand they don't even have a script So now
acroyd and ramus take his original scriptand they stay at his house for three
weeks In martha's vineyard and they writethe script In the house together, but

(21:29):
on separate ends of the house and everynight they hand each other their script
and they keep handing it to each otherevery single night and rewriting each
other scripts until after three weeks,they stop rewriting the guy like, okay,
this is the final version of the script.
That's how they came up with it.
So now at least they have a script andnow they need to cast the movie and they
really need, bill murray, but bill murrayat the time was hesitant to do this.

(21:51):
He didn't know if he wasgoing to go through it.
So I have some casting.
What ifs that you might be interested.
Who could have been this

Ray (21:57):
guy?
Yeah.
I know that Bill Murray was this, likehe took a hiatus after this movie too.
He did.
Yes.
Yeah.
Did he really?
Yeah, he didn't come back tillScrooge, I think, after this.
So he took like a one or twoyear hiatus easily after this.
Yeah.

Victor (22:12):
So the only reason Murray does this movie is because he Razor's Edge.
I think it's called.
And it was a drama And he only made thismovie if they produced the other movie
came out like a couple months beforeThe ghostbusters they actually shot.
The other movie was a total disastercritics hated it And it was a financial

(22:32):
disaster and because of that he feltso burned by you know He basically the
ghostbusters the movie he didn't wantto make turned into a huge hit The film
he thought he was going to become likehis big Dramatic breakthrough is a total
financial disaster and it basically madehim not want to make movies for years.
And honestly, after seeing Ghostbusters2, I think he still didn't want
to be making movies, even in 1989.

Ray (22:51):
Did you actually watch The Razor's Edge?
I have never seen it.
I've never seen it.
I watched it.
I saw it.
He was a Tibetan monk.
Yes.
He gives up his life.
It's almost like the firstscene in Batman begins.
No one's because hedoes do the same thing.
He just disappears to Tibetalmost like Bruce Wayne does, but
he doesn't learn martial arts.
He just becomes

Ghostbusters (23:11):
a

Victor (23:12):
somnolent.
That'd be pretty awesome.
Let's re edit.

Ray (23:14):
And then he does get reintroduced to society.
And I just still remember the one scenewhere one of his friends is like The
equivalent of a hedge fund guy nowadays.
And he's got a ripping headache.
I got this headache, a headache,and he just comes up to him
and touches him in the temple.
And he goes, what did you do?
How'd you make my headache go away?
And it's it was, that's the onlyscene I remember from the movie.
Was it a comedy or was it a dead,serious movie, dead, serious movie.

(23:37):
It had elements of cast awayalmost cause he had just isolated
himself for so long and then.
Came back into society with this newideas of a tibetan monk and it just not
the only reason I watched it becausemurray was in it just to see and my
curiosity was Instantly satisfied like no,

Victor (23:56):
let me give you some casting what if but before I get there I
wanted to tell you a couple thingsmore about the development of the
script when they originally wrote thescript they the archetypes they had
and maybe you can see a little bit ofthis for the three lead characters.
Was the scarecrow the tin man and thecowardly lion so as I could be so that
was the original archetypes they wereworking with but they decided instead

(24:16):
because it was the 80s obviously toupdate these archetypes So one was like
the slick salesman, which of courseis the bill murray character like
the used car salesman The other onewas like the enthusiastic nerd, like
the whole idea of the anachronisticcharacter, the guy who's like way too
into something a kind of a puppy dog.
And then the you have a kind of theintellectual nerd, which is I think this
is why the film resonated so much withteenage boys at the time, which I was.

(24:40):
Or preteen anyway It's almost likehigh school stereotypes only that these
kids who would never hang out togetherin school are hanging out together
Which is basically the template forthings like stranger things nowadays,
which is obviously called back directlyOkay, so here's some casting what
ifs for you Definitely if murray haddecided to not do this because of the
whole razor's edge situation and thatwhole negotiation Michael Keaton.

(25:02):
What do you guys think?
Not bad, right?

Ray (25:04):
Okay,

Victor (25:05):
yep,
Chevy Chase.

Ray (25:07):
Oh,
different kind of comedy.
Very different energy, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, I don't think

Nick (25:12):
that, that will, I don't think that would have played.
Tom Hanks at the time.
Not bad.

Victor (25:18):
He's a year after splash, right?
This is

Nick (25:20):
yeah, you got splash and you have what is it?
The money pit.
So he could have been

Ray (25:24):
pretty

Victor (25:24):
good.
Robin Williams,

Ray (25:26):
Too, much energy.
Maybe

Victor (25:28):
I was always, Yeah.
Yeah.
Steve Guttenberg.

Ray (25:31):
Yeah, maybe.
He was hot at the time.
That was Cocoon, all that stuff.
He was always the he's, he was about

Victor (25:38):
It's funny.
He's, he hasn't broken out yet.
This is he makes Cocoon in 85, I think.
He's got 84 is the year of Police Academy.
So it's he's just about,he'd been in a diner though.
Diner had been already.

Ray (25:50):
I could have seen,

Nick (25:51):
he actually, that might've worked.
So that Steve Goodenberg

Victor (25:53):
might've worked.
He seems like the fullback guy He seemedlike he had so many hit movies back
then because it seemed like he was likeThe fifth guy on the call sheet every
time so it's like he just inheriteda lot of those roles Yeah, plus if

Nick (26:05):
you think about it, though, he would you know, like mahoney In
police academy is peter venkman ish.
So very much Not a bad that wouldnot have actually been a bad casting

Ray (26:15):
decision.
Yeah, I could see that Yeah,

Victor (26:17):
and the last one and this is a very different energy, but might
have worked but it'd been a verydifferent movie Is richard pryor?

Ray (26:23):
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
Interesting.

Victor (26:26):
Yeah.
Which is funny because he couldhave probably it could have been
the center of the movie, but theenergy of the film would have
been so different at that point.

Ray (26:33):
What about if Eddie Murphy was the Venkman character?
That too.
Yeah.
How about that?
That would have been

Victor (26:38):
interesting.
There is some casting whatifs there for that as well.
But of course he that the main thing wasthey, he moved on because while they were
working on the script, he of course was,he was in trading places right in 83.
So while they're working onthis script, he's working with
accurate in a hugely successful.
Creating places, but I think at thispoint he didn't, want like the third or

(26:59):
fourth most biggest role in this movie.
And of course he is currentlyshooting at the same, like in
Beverly Hills cop, which becomes aneven bigger hit than Ghostbusters.
Okay.
Here's the Egon casting.
What ifs?
These are some interesting ones too.
Christopher Walken.
Imagine

Ray (27:15):
that.
Oh God.
Yeah.
No, I don't

Nick (27:18):
like it.
Yeah.
That would have been,that wouldn't have been,

Ray (27:20):
Good,

Victor (27:21):
John Lithgow,

Ray (27:22):
yeah maybe

Victor (27:24):
Christopher Lloyd right before he does of course, back to the future,

Nick (27:28):
That would have been good, but

Ray (27:30):
yeah it would have been too crazy scientists though
are probably almost right.

Nick (27:35):
Depends how yeah, like maybe a little bit less of a crazy doc brown
But that I could see that working andhe was like, taxi was still going.
Taxi was still going.
I think that was

Victor (27:45):
done right just ended one or the other.
Yeah Jeff goldblum, that would have beengood, which I think could have worked.
Yeah, that

Ray (27:52):
would work Yeah, he is similar.
I could see him doing thedeadpan lines like ramus does.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah

Victor (27:58):
And keaton again keaton also auditioned for egon Which is funny
about you know What's funny aboutkeaton in that it could be either
way because keaton can play But likestone like that very the straight man
basically But he can also be way overthe top if he wants to so it was an

Ray (28:13):
Interesting cool.
Very cool.
That is cool.

Victor (28:17):
Oh, and by the way, so I mentioned

Ray (28:18):
What I was gonna say is usually Ramis doesn't act.
He's just the director or thewriter on all these things.
So it's rare where he gets in the movies.
But when he's in

Nick (28:27):
It's,
so deadpan.
It was between this and Stripes.
Oh, my goodness.

Victor (28:32):
Reitman wanted him in the role.
Yeah.
Like he didn't, actuallywant to be on screen.
Like you mentioned.
And right man having workedwith him previously, he goes
no, you are perfectly for this.
So you have to just, you just have to getup and get out in front of the camera.

Ray (28:43):
He always plays the straight and narrow character
to Murray's crazy character.
And that's, it just, that works.
That stick works like it stripes.

Victor (28:52):
And then, like I mentioned, Ernie Hudson ends up in the role meant for
Murphy, although he's Ernie Hudson spokenabout this already that the role was
significantly reduced, which makes sense.
You already had three guyson there, to be honest.
A lot of these they really don't needa fourth lead to be honest with you.
But of course, if Murphy had been inthere, they would have pumped that he
would have been like a co lead obviously.

(29:13):
Speaking of how castingchanges things, by the way.
So of course, Eddie Murphy leavesthis because he gets the opportunity
to star in his own movie, whichis Beverly Hills copy first time
he gets to like, lead the movie.
On his own, so it's a big opportunityfor him replacing Sylvester Stallone.
So talk about how recasting a moviecan change a movie completely.
Think about Beverly HillsCop with Sylvester Stallone.

(29:34):
What a different film that would be.
I can pretty much

Nick (29:36):
guarantee there wouldn't be two additional and now a third additional

Victor (29:39):
movie.
Oh, exactly.
Yes.
That would have been thatfranchise would not have survived.
And that first film would not havebeen anywhere near as popular.
Yeah.

Nick (29:46):
Although the third Beverly Hills Cop should be That one's
even worse than Ghostbusters 2.
It's, that's that'salmost Caddyshack 2 level.

Victor (29:54):
I'm very curious to see what they could do with the new one though.
Yeah.
The new one I'm

Ray (29:57):
just actually excited about.
Yeah.
I don't know.
We'll get to that.
They have John

Victor (30:01):
Essend.

Nick (30:02):
John Essend's going to be in it.
They're bringing back, We'll see.
I don't want to

Ray (30:06):
take us off course.
I think they're I do believe they'rebringing back Walter Peck too for

Nick (30:12):
the Ghostbusters.
They are

Ray (30:13):
Peck's back.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's, we haven't eventalked about Atherton at all.
He was the eighties, he was thequintessential eighties douchebag,
whether it's, Die hard or real geniuswhere he's the professor and real genius.
He was great.
He was the person thateveryone hated whatever.
He's in one of those roles.
And so they got to bring him

Nick (30:32):
back.
You don't really, he likedisappeared after die hard too.
I don't even know whathe's been in since then.
He's

Victor (30:40):
very busy, but not in anything big.
Like I, I literally looked him upafter this 'cause I was just like, man
like he, it's like I had forgotten.
I knew he was in the movie, but I hadn'tthought about the fact that man, between
this and diehard, like how massively, and Ray exactly the same thing.
I'm like, this is guy likethe eighties douche bag.
Yeah.
I mean he was shit of a douche bag.

Ray (30:58):
He was classic and real genius.
He was great.
Yes.
Real genius.
So good, real genius.
Yeah.
Such a, it's such an evil character in it.
It was great.
That scene at the end with himand Deborah Foreman or Awesome, so
but I think he is in the new one.
That's what I saw.
Yes, he is.
He is in the new one Yeah,

Nick (31:16):
they've been tight lipped as to i'm guessing that Sigourney
Weaver will show up in this movie.
She She, was in the end credits ofAfterlife, I'm guessing she'll in
some way, shape or form be in thismovie, although they've been tight
lipped, and I don't think Harold Ramiswill be in it though, because he's
retired, but yeah you never know.
I they've, They may throwa couple of surprises.

(31:40):
Maybe we get

Ray (31:40):
a cameo.
So who didn't do this?
You're, looking through the creditsand they're rolling and you see it's
a Groney Weaver is Dana Barrett.
And you just, and you're saying toyourself, wait a minute, I don't.
Really remember boom.
It's right there.

Victor (31:55):
Exactly.
There she is.
Oh,

Ray (31:56):
wait a second.
There she was That was likethe craziest shoehorn cameo
just to get it in right there

Victor (32:02):
You know, they brought her in like I was about to say brought her in, you
know They didn't even bring her in there.
They went to wherever she was And theyhad murray sit there and they shot for an
hour And that's her cameo in the film And

Ray (32:13):
they bring that nostalgic ESP zapper just from the original film.
Right down to the same cardstoo, but that was actually I
I, don't know spoilers ahead.
That was one of my biggest laughs ofthe entire afterlife was that credit
role scene where Sigourney Reaverand I'm like, where is Sigourney?
Oh, there she is.

(32:35):
Oh, there you go.
So still got the comedy aspect to it.
At least that part.

Victor (32:40):
So a little more trivia for you.
They started shooting in NewYork city the week of Halloween
in 1983, appropriate enough.
So they can get some ofthat background stuff.
They stole a lot of the shots.
So like when you see him being chasedto Rockefeller center, those are real
security guards chasing them down thestreet, that whole sequence is so iconic.
In a movie where you have that scenewhere the music's playing and the gangs
all together and everything else It'slike that is the image you imagine with

(33:03):
the the daily news and all the newspaperheadlines popping up And at the time it's
really interesting when you think aboutit i've just been reading a lot of stuff
about new york in the 70s and 80s and youthink about how Every representation of
New York City was whether it's like taxidriver or mean streets or you name it,
escape from New York.

(33:23):
Any representation of New Yorkis that New York is a pit and a
hell hole and obviously had gonebankrupt and had all its financial
problems and everything else.
And they really were like we want toshow our version of New York, right?
So they really wanted torehabilitate it to some extent.
But at the same time they were like, areyou sure you want to shoot in new york?
It's dangerous.
It's just any other thing.
So they did shoot in new york However,I was surprised to realize this

(33:46):
they only shot in new york for a fewweeks, you know at the time There
really was no kind of productionfacilities in on the east coast.
Everything was shot in california Sothey actually shot in new york for a few
weeks, then they took a break Then theyshot the rest of the movie in California.
, everything inside the firehouse is inthey found one firehouse around Los
Angeles that is in that style, thattraditional New York style firehouse

(34:08):
really doesn't exist on the West coast.
So they found the one that matched andthey basically shot everything around
either on sets or around Locationsthat were near enough to the sets so
that they could conveniently shootwhenever they wanted to as opposed to
New York, which really couldn't do that.
But they did shoot in the public library,by the way, and they had to shoot
everything so quickly because they had alimited budget and they had limited time.

(34:30):
So they actually only shot thesequence in the public library 3 times.
They had to like literally pick up all thecards and re stack them all and then blow
them all over the place and shoot that.
And everything was shot like thatsometimes two or three times.
That was it.
And the only way that reitman even knewthat he had the shots he needed was
he had somebody running a black andwhite camera shooting 16 millimeter

(34:52):
right alongside the regular cameraAnd they would develop the film every
single day and he would literallyedit it at night afterwards and then
basically say What scenes are we missing?
And then they would be ready to reshootanything they were missing the next day.
Or if there was some improvisation andthey needed to connect two scenes, they
would shoot it the next day becausethey're like, we have no time to do this.
We only have one shot at this.

(35:13):
It and this is good.
Sometimes under limitations, you work

Ray (35:17):
better.
Yeah, you do.
That's it.
So the stress brings outthe best in you sometimes.
So that makes sense.

Victor (35:23):
Slimer cost 300, 000 and was called the onion head ghost.
It didn't get the name Slimer untilthe, cartoon actually, and they call
it the onion head ghost because the Itsmelled like rotting onions, apparently.
So no one liked having it around onset, but they spent a fortune on it.
Wow.
And they did all theeffects were practical.
Like you mentioned, thateverything was shot.

(35:43):
Like they're all puppets.
The special effects team that did this,you could probably tell it from the style.
Was also the same special effectsteam that did great as a lost
dark and poltergeist, and it hasa lot of the same kind of effect.
Styling.
As that, but they hadno computer animation.
This is all like claymation and stuff.
So they would take three weeks forone second of special effects footage.

(36:04):
So it was like they were workinguntil the very, very last second,
they were like really tight schedule,
but then they show a roughcut to some random people.
They pull them off the street.
And Reitman says that the audiencelikes it, the effects aren't finished
yet, audience laughs in all the rightplaces, he's really worried that the
state of Marshmallow Man is not goingto work, they get it, they laugh at it,
they jump at the scary parts, they laughat the funny parts, so he's good, we

(36:26):
don't have to reshoot any significantpart, we can make it on budget.
Meanwhile, at Columbia, theyshow it to a bunch of insiders.
Nobody laughs.
Everybody's like whatthe hell is this crap?
They are ready to lose their shirtson this coca cola who had just brought
columbia Literally had internal memosto this day about like we're gonna lose
so much money on this movie And they'reready to like basically lose it completely

(36:50):
Interestingly, this is very bizarre andI remember this back in the summer They
released the movie on the exact sameweekend as gremlins, which Both movies
turn into huge phenomena, obviously ButI find it really weird that you put this
out the same weekend as you couldn'tspace these things out Like you have
two movies that are horror comedies Thatare probably geared towards younger men
across the board and you open them onthe same weekend It's like you couldn't

(37:10):
put them two weeks apart at least likeit's a very strange choice, right?
But that's how it went And of courseit opened it opened almost with
the exact same amount of money asgremlins But legged out and ended
up becoming the most successful Youcomedy of all times until Beverly Hills
Cop beat it just six months later.
Still a huge, phenomena.
Bill Murray got paid points onthe backend and they estimate that

(37:31):
he made about 30 million just forhimself and that's in 1984 money.
So that's some pretty serious.

Ray (37:37):
Wow, geez, he was smart.
Yes, very smart.
Definitely.

Victor (37:43):
And oh, one last piece of trivia before we move on to the next
one is you may notice that, Ghostbusterssounds a lot like I want a new drug.
Yes, you lose the news and it turns out.
During that scene the walking down thestreet montage while they were editing
they put I want a new drug on as atemp score And then they had a bunch
of people come in and basically come upwith an alternate version of the song.

(38:05):
They asked Huey Lewis to write a new songfor them, but he was already busy working
on back to the future So he couldn'tcommit himself to another movie So they
just ripped it off and they basicallywrote the exact same song with different
lyrics for Ghostbusters It turns intoa huge hit but Huey Lewis does sue them
and he is now has a writing credit on

Ray (38:23):
there you go But that was the whole scene with Casey Kasem, right where
they're doing the top 40 or whateverYeah, that little montage scene.
I that's interesting.
I did not know that either I'm not

Victor (38:34):
so funny that it sounds the same and then I was reading
the trivia and they're like thatliterally was the temp Track i'm like
no other they sound the same Theyjust wrote a new song over the oval

Ray (38:41):
Sorry, boys.
You're sorry boys.
You're just too loud

Nick (38:44):
Wow, I you know, that's now you say that it's like I can't believe
I never realized that it is the same

Victor (38:51):
song Yeah, it's exactly the same song what is it?

Ray (38:53):
You got eight chords or something.
If you go past that, it's like acopyright infringement or whatever.
Is that it?
Eight chords.

Victor (39:02):
Oh now you can now they're suing people for just like reminding you of
another song, which is ridiculous, butthat's a straight up rip off when you
listen to those two songs back to back.
That's just a straight up rip off.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yes.
But Hey, everybody got rich off of it.
Hey, that's it.
Even Huey Lewis got his part.
Yeah.
That's probably a probably not hisbiggest hit because of he's got

(39:23):
some other pretty big ones, butall tied into back to the future.
But but I'm sure every Halloweenwhen Ghostbusters gets streamed
everywhere, you're making money.

Ray (39:31):
Definitely talking about comedy horror.
Ghostbusters, the original.
Really?
Unless you're like, what, 10 years old,it's not really a horror film at all.
It's just, there's notreally a horror aspect to it.
I like you Mitch mentioned, Nick,I think Ghostbusters two is a much
more darker movie in that sense.

(39:51):
Yeah.
My

Nick (39:53):
opinion, the scariest scene in Ghostbusters is the.
The scene in the public librarywhen the library that scared the
crap out of me when I was a kid.
That, that was the scariest sceneI think in the, entire movie.

Ray (40:06):
Really

Nick (40:07):
Even, when goes or shows up at the end, it's not really that scary.
Ghostbusters 2 had manymore jump scares to it.
And it was much darker.
Much darker film.
Even the scene when, I forget theguy's name, Godish, whatever, he's
the, takes the baby comes out ofthe sky with the baby carriage.

Ray (40:25):
That's dark.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, that's true.
Definitely.
Yeah.

Victor (40:28):
I don't want to get baby in danger in general,
although they try to dampen it.

Ray (40:31):
Sorry.
Can we just skip over?
Can we just skip over Ghostbusters 2?

Victor (40:35):
I
don't have much to say about it, butI do have to at least mention it.
But before we move on to that, whathas aged the worst in Ghostbusters?
These are some of the things I noticed.
Was it getting a ghost BJ?
Is that, is Dan Akron getting a ghost BJ?
The one thing that's pretty bad, whichI think was in the music video as well.
Now in retrospect, I'm like, I'm not sureif that was appropriate for the, kids

(40:56):
to be watching that in the afternoon.

Ray (40:58):
That's true.
Yeah, that might be it.
I think or just again, his overalldemeanor, just hitting on those college
girls as the professor, the inappropriaterelationship there that I would say.
But other than that's still pretty good

Victor (41:13):
Some of the when like at the party, like whenever you see the dog
the claymation dogs, I guess theyare, and it's not in when, you see
the actual puppets, when there'ssomebody inside the dog puppet,
it actually looks pretty decent.
But every time you see it, likerunning down the hallway or
whatever, it looks really, bad.
Like really,

Ray (41:32):
But that's almost like a throwback to like was it Ray Harryhausen, like Sinbad
movies or Clash of the Titans, almostthere's almost an element of classic
like pulp wow, that's cool looking.

Nick (41:48):
But why, can I ask a question?
Why does it?
Look so bad now.
Is it because the, obviously the CGIand the stuff we've got today, we're
accustomed to it and it's better, butwhy didn't it look bad to us back then?
Is it just, is it because thestandards have changed so much that

Victor (42:05):
standards are higher?
And I think the other part of it too,is it's just too high resolution.
I have not seen this yet.
But i've heard the abyss by the way isjust available for the first time in
4k And I haven't seen it I wanted tosee in the movie theaters because they
released a little bit back in christmastime promote the The 4k coming out

(42:27):
and I haven't seen this but people saythat it looks incredible But that first
of all that they've made a decisionto clean up the print to make it look
digital So you got rid of the film grain,which is one thing that might make it
look a little too clean But worse thanthat is that the effects You We're
all done like at standard definition.
And now you're looking at the originalspecial effect is in standard definition

(42:49):
and everything else is in 4k.
So it's just Whoa, that looksreally rough disparity there.
So like a lot of these, a lot ofthese conversions, like when you
see the everything in ghostbusters,the print looks pretty clean.
Like I couldn't see any film grain oranything on the version I saw anyway.
So.
it's probably like all 4k andthen you have this claymation
blob running across the screen.
We're used to seeing this on VHSprimarily at 420 lines of resolution

(43:14):
versus thousands of lines of resolution.
Now, like it's too much resolution.

Nick (43:18):
And that's what I was getting at.
Not that obviously our standardsare much higher now because
of CGI, not, not, stating theobvious, I was getting to that.
In other words, is there something withfrom a, a video standpoint that it's
making it stand out as so bad now, andI think that's what you, I think that's
the answer is that the resolution is sohigh and we're seeing this in such higher

(43:40):
resolution that these special effectsare exposed to, to, Being so awful.
Cause it's almost when you see thoseclinician dogs running, it's almost as
bad as like when you're seeing like amovie from sci fi movie from the sixties
that like the ants, the big what was it?
They, those ants lookhorrendous, but it's wow.

(44:01):
Now these dogs look justas bad as those did.
And I'm like, man, we'rewatching this in the eighties.
I don't remember it looking that bad.
But that's why it's cause theresolution it's, just gotten so, so
much better that we're seeing we'reseeing these movies in resolutions
that we originally weren't intended to.

Victor (44:19):
Yeah.
It's not even, you don't even have togo that far back to see some of this.
I just started rewatchingthe, there they are on VHS.
There you go.
Exactly.
See Ray, by the way, foranybody who's listening.
So Ray just went and got his, Who vhsghostbusters 2 which is probably the
best way to watch those movies at thispoint If you have a vhs player speaking

(44:39):
of what you were just saying nick withthe resolution I was saying that just
watching lord of the rings again Thatsome of the special effects now just blown
up to high definition don't quite holdup Like you really see the separation
of the actors versus the backgroundsSo some of that is like once again too
much resolution But I definitely thinkabout that with horror movies, right?
There are horror movies that when Isaw as a kid That scared the crap out

(45:02):
of me and on the little VHS or likeon a little television and now blown
up and you see how cheesy the specialeffects look and everything else, like
it just it's not very anymore unlessit's practical, by the way, I think
that's why people like practical so much.
I just watched the thing John Carpenter'sthing recently and it looks incredible.
Like it still looks incrediblebecause it was all actually shot.
So you blow that up.

(45:22):
It still looks incredible.

Ray (45:23):
Same with Jurassic Park.
All the, Ray Winston dinosaurs,the practical dinosaurs.

Victor (45:29):
They're mostly puppets.
Yeah.
People don't realize that the reasonthe effects are so good is that there's,
I forget what it is, but there'sonly dozens of effects shots in there
and everything else is practical.
So it's just the things that kindof transition from one to the other.
And that's why it stilllooks incredible to

Ray (45:42):
this day.
Dennis Dennis Murren also, that's anotherguy that does the practical stuff.
It's a lost art.
I don't think you could even resurrectit nowadays, who would you have to
call those guys probably to get apractical effect the right, the way
it is now, and the cost would be

Nick (45:57):
prohibitive anyway.
Yeah, even e.
T.
was all practical.

Ray (46:01):
But the cost would be prohibitive anyway, probably,
at this point, alright, we

Victor (46:04):
gotta talk about Ghostbusters 2, at least for a little bit.

Ray (46:07):
Oh,

Victor (46:08):
gosh, man.
Okay, so it comes out,it's five years later.
My first notes on Ghostbusters2 were, What is going on here?
That's my first quote.
Because I was like, the opening, Itotally forgot this, the opening scene
of Ghostbusters 2, Is Dana and sheputs the baby in the cart and she's
having a conversation with a doormanand the baby goes rolling around
New York city and then that's it.

(46:28):
Then we get the Ghostbusters tosplash and I'm like, this is how you
decided to open the Ghostbusters like

Ray (46:35):
it did.
The carriage did rollover some mood slime.
So you have the impression, butunless you watch it again and again,
you missed that whole service.
No purpose.
No,

Victor (46:45):
definitely.
And then of course, I rememberseeing this in the theater.
I didn't remember the whole opening scene.
This is where we open with a babyroller stroller rolling around New York.
I didn't remember that.
However, what I did remember washow literally you could feel it.
When you're in a movie theater, youcould just feel like the energy,
just brushing down everybody beingwas when the Ghostbusters show up

(47:07):
and they are doing kids parties.
Cause they're total losers.
I gotta tell you as far as not thatyou should always go for fan service.
But you're waiting five years.
This is one of your favoritemovies of all times.
And this is where you start the movie off.
Literally, you could feel the energysucking out of the movie theater.
Like we were all like, Oh,

Nick (47:25):
yes, I remember.
I remember a similar, and I'm notgoing to take us on that tangent.
I won't, I promise.
But.
What you're describing is what happenedwhen I went to see Phantom Menace.
Star

Victor (47:35):
Trek 5.

Ray (47:37):
Phantom Menace had that same feeling.
Everybody was like, what thehell are we watching here?

Nick (47:41):
But yes, Ghostbusters

Victor (47:43):
2.
I saw Phantom Menace.
I'm not gonna digress that much, butI saw Phantom Menace at a preview
screening and I was just like,you, like you said, everybody was
this is great, and after 10 minuteseverybody's oh my god, no, it's not.

Nick (47:53):
I saw the Phantom Menace.
I won't, yeah I won't, send usoff on this, but I saw the Phantom
Menace at the Beekman in Manhattan.
The night it opened, I was there atmidnight and I remember 10 minutes
in, everybody literally was like,what the hell is going on here?
And there was a similar going backnow, exactly what you just described
with regard to Ghostbusters 2.

(48:13):
Same, sort of feeling.
We were all psyched.
It had been five years.
You get in there and, again, it'sthis concept of, I don't know what
it is, but just destroying thesecharacters that had been built up
to heroic, these heroic characters.
And you're just, you've turned theminto complete losers and jokes.

(48:35):
Venkman's he's on TV as a, it's the world

Ray (48:39):
of the psychic or whatever.
Yeah.
Now, let me here's a littlecontrarian hot take on that.
Okay, I actually enjoyed this part ofGhostbusters 2, and I'll tell you why.
Because there's that element of thesuspension of disbelief, and it almost

(48:59):
was the same angle as the Incredibles.
Where they had to hang it up because toomuch liability, too much property damage.
And it's this, makes,this is, this makes sense.
This is like putting Ghostbustersin a reality kind of matrix now.
So I, dug it actually.
I liked where they started on that.
I really did.
So I, that's my hot take on that part.

(49:20):
I, I actually enjoyed howthey started the development.
In the beginning of the movie anyway,

Victor (49:26):
And I want to be to your point, right?
I actually do like when they I likethat whole kind of counter narrative
that you like, for example, theIncredibles do a great job of that.
But what I was describing waslike the experience of the
fans not wanting to hear that.
But what I would say is I could see ina that what they're trying to do there,

(49:46):
except for the fact that I'm watchingthis movie And we're like two thirds
the way through it and Finally like inthe courtroom the brothers get released
or whatever else but this happens likepretty deep into the movie and i'm like
if they had have some kind of resurrectionor you know They're actually working
behind the scenes with the this isactually borrowed from like the all female

(50:07):
ghostbusters Where they know something'sgoing on, but then Knife you in the
back into the public because they'retrying to keep the story under wraps.
If you did something like that, butthe idea that they did just are just
schlubs that everybody doesn't like.
And it takes a really long time foranything, to happen in this movie.
Like nothing happens formore than half the movie.

(50:27):
And I'm just like, Oh my God.
And by the way, so they're just going toCoast on Bill Murray being an adorable
babysitter and that doesn't work either.
So I'm like, wow this is, rough.
They literally don't know what to do.
They bring back the entire cast.
Everybody gets bigger roles, allthe side characters, and they
have no idea what to do with them.
It's

Ray (50:45):
pretty horrible.
It was horrible.
It was horrible.
That was horrible.
There really wasn't.
Mood Slime.
Mood Slime.
Really?
Mood Slime?

Nick (50:52):
Mood Slime.
I did the score.
The score every brother's seenthough in the courtroom was like.
Yes.
That was probably the highlight of the

Victor (50:58):
movie.
The effects are a lotbetter there for sure.
That kind of shows off that theeffects have gotten much better.

Nick (51:03):
When they're in their electric chair and they break out of the
electric chairs and althoughbeing a lawyer I do have to say.
Say the there is no death penalty inNew York unless it's a murder one.
So that was wrong.
But however,

Victor (51:14):
That was back in the day though.
That was

Ray (51:15):
back in the

Nick (51:16):
day that, that was back in the day . But, no that was really
my favorite part of the movie wasthat whole Cleri brothers thing.
And then it just as you said earlierit just, completely fell off the rails.
That whole natural liberty thing.
Honestly when I'm wa,when I watch it again.
And I just watched it again inpreparation for this, I was actually

(51:37):
just looking at the actors to just seeif they were embarrassed by the sheer,

Victor (51:43):
how

Nick (51:45):
could they even want to be associated with this?
It was horrible.
Yeah, I'll never watch that.
I will never watch that movie

Victor (51:54):
again.
Absolutely.
And the funniest thing aboutit, this is another note.
I'm just looking at my own notes.
There's like literally nothingin this film that was above.
Which other than maybe some of theeffects here and there but the film felt
cheap by the way, you know Even thoughthe effects are better here and there
this is a really expensive movie theoriginal ghostbusters they made between
25 and 30 million dollars Which wasn'tthat much more expensive by the way,

(52:15):
right and then return of the jedi So itwas pretty expensive this one cost over
40 million dollars And some of that,

Ray (52:22):
it costs that much to make the toaster dance on the pool table.
I can't imagine 40 million and

Victor (52:28):
it looks cheap and it's not, and worse than that is just, like I said,
like hardly anything happens in the plot.
And then even though I really don'tlike anything I'm watching, I guess
I'm enough getting enough of a vibeof just getting these guys back
together, that I was leaning, I'llgive this like a three star, right?
And I had forgottenhow bad the ending was.
We get to the last twenty minutes ofthis movie, and it is Excruciating.

(52:52):
I'm like that knocked it downto two stars immediately.
I'm just like, this is this, is awful.
We've got a face off with a painting.
Like it's and the Statue of Liberty,the big payoff is the Statue of
Liberty marching down the street.
It's, yeah,

Nick (53:06):
it was, it was, just really bad.

Victor (53:09):
Ray was so upset.
He storms

Nick (53:10):
off.
I think he went to go findsome more Ghostbusters.

Victor (53:13):
It's got more power finale to bring back.
Yeah.
So the other note I put down here, whichwas that I think that there is this
kind of revisionist history that thismovie wasn't as disliked as it was.
But this comes out in 1989.
This is the year that Batman comes out.
This is the year that Indiana Jonesand the Last Crusade comes out.
This is Lethal Weapon two comes out.

(53:34):
Honey, I shrunk the kid comesout speaking of Rick Moranis.
And anyway, you can always tell how muchpeople actually like a movie by looking
at what's the multiplier, what's thefirst weekend versus the final box office.
And so indiana jones in the lastcrusade comes out and has the biggest
opening weekend of all times Andit goes on to make almost seven
times as much money as it's open.

Nick (53:55):
Yeah.
And again, not going off on a tangent,but Indiana Jones three is as good,
if not better than the first one.

Victor (54:01):
I still prefer the first one, but it's right up there.
It's it's a, true classic.
You love that movie andvery watchable, obviously.
And then later in the summer youhave Batman comes out, has the,
at that point, the biggest openingweekend of all times it gets makes
over six times it's opening weekend.
Lethal weapon 2 comes out later in thesummer makes seven and a half times
opening weekend Honey, I shrunk the kidmakes nine times its opening weekend.

(54:23):
That's how much And in the middle of allthat ghostbusters 2 comes out at the time
when it opens has the biggest openingweekend of all times And it makes three
times three three and a half times moreor less it's opening weekend, which is
like half of what all these other moviesor more worse than half of what all
these other movies were because Peopledid not like this And understandably so

Nick (54:43):
So 89 also for as I have a baseball enthusiast out there, Victor
knows, I'm a baseball podcaster.
89 was a big movie for baseballmovie, a big year for baseball movies.
You had Major League,Field of Dreams that year.
Yeah.
Two big ones.
And Christmas vacation was also 1989,although Christmas vacation picked

(55:04):
up more, popularity, Die Hard as,the years went on and people saw it.
On video and then DVD and now streamingbut yeah me, whenever I, whenever somebody
mentions 1989, I always think in moviesin 1989, I always think of Batman.
You mentioned Major League Field ofDreams and then Roadhouse, of course,

Victor (55:26):
which Roadhouse.
Oh, we got to talk Roadhousebecause Roadhouse is

Ray (55:29):
Man, yeah, there's a remake

Victor (55:32):
is coming out this week.
Oh God, there's a remake coming out.
Yeah.
Jake Gyllenhaal.
Sorry.
Jake Gyllenhaal.
Yeah.
So got totally jacked for the role anddirected by Doug Lyman, by the way, the
guy who made the first two Bourne movies.
And the edge of tomorrow with Tom Cruise.
He's definitely, yougot a talented director.
The reviews are inalready and they're mixed.

(55:53):
I gotta tell you, I just in preparationfor that, I just saw roadhouse for
the very first time, just last night.
And wow.
That is I got mixed.
I got it.
I got opinions about that.

Nick (56:03):
Don't get me started on Roadhouse.
Roadhouse is in my opinion, theper that you Ray was talking
about perfect eighties movies.
Roadhouse is the quintessentialperfect eighties movie.
There's nothing that is thegreatest movie in the 1980s.
Ben Gazzara, Dalton, come on.
It is unbelievably great.

Ray (56:22):
Oh yeah, that's

Nick (56:23):
Sam Elliott, there's nothing better than that.
Roadhouse is one of the greatest movies

Ray (56:27):
ever.
Talking about movies,

Victor (56:29):
I'll just, leave it out.
If you had not seen it untilthis point in your life, you
might have a different opinion.
That's all I'll say.

Nick (56:35):
Bear fell on me at the end, the last line, a bear fell on

Ray (56:38):
me.
That blonde I just have still havefantasies about when I was a teenage boy.

Nick (56:46):
Yeah.
I the funny thing is, I occasionallyremember the scene when Ben Gazzara
is driving and he's He's got the carand he's, going between both lanes
and he's doing like the zigzag.

Victor (56:58):
Yeah.
Just cruising along through the music.
I

Nick (57:01):
do that every so often.
If there's no one on theroad, I'll do the Ben Gazzara

Victor (57:04):
move.
Live out your Ben Gazzara fantasies.

Nick (57:08):
No, it's that, that movie was oh I, love roadhouse.
I, can't, I just can'timagine, Remaking it.
I'm actually somewhere along the line.
I remember they were doing the remakeand then I completely forgot about it.
And up until this second, whenhe mentioned it, I had completely
forgotten that they were doing a remakeand wow, it's coming out next week.
You can

Victor (57:27):
watch it on this Thursday.
You can watch it on Amazon

Ray (57:30):
prime.
No kidding.
No, I have to check it out.

Victor (57:33):
I'll definitely check it out and give you my you can, listen into my later
this week when I give you my review of myoriginal impressions of roadhouse, which

Ray (57:41):
yeah, if it wasn't for roadhouse, you wouldn't have the Kelly Lynch
resurgence in Charlie's angels there.
That's right.
Oh, really?
It's her man, and the originalCharlie's Angels, the original movie.
The the one with Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu.
Yeah.
That's Kelly Lynch.
That's from the roadhouse.
The same girl.
I didn't know that.

(58:02):
Yeah.

Victor (58:03):
All right.
Let's move forward to we got acouple, we got more than two more,
two more movies, let's cover two more.
And of course the, There was so muchoutrage on the internet when the
Ghostbusters, the all female cast,Melissa McCarthy, Movie came out 2016.
I guess it was and and I didn't see itI mean like I had like my experience

(58:23):
of I loved ghostbusters 1 Did notlike ghostbusters 2 at all had not
seen ghostbusters 1 even in quitesome time And didn't really feel a
need to run out and see Ghostbusters,the and the and the outrage, was
didn't help sell it to me either.
Anyway.
So this is my first time watching it.
And my thoughts on this were, firstof all, was Hey for basically adjusted

(58:45):
for inflation, it's the same sizebudget as it was back in 1989.
I thought the effects workwere incredible in the movie.
Actually.
It was very impressed.
It looked great.
The cinematographer isPaul Feige's or fight.
If I, he is what's his name?
Marvel.
But the director here he's alsoworked like he did bridesmaids
with the Melissa McCarthy also didspy by the way, which is great.

(59:07):
I is hilarious.
If you've never seenspy, you got to see it.
It's so funny.
And anyway he's a cinematographer,standard cinematographer, but also
does all of Wes Anderson's movies.
So anyway, that movie looked fantastic.
Special effects were great.
I actually enjoyed most of this.
I thought the humor among thecast members didn't always work It
depended on who's bouncing off whothey were trying too hard to make me

(59:30):
laugh Once the plot starts moving.
I actually enjoyed it a little bit more.
Chris helms was having a lot of fun Ithought the the action sequence at the end
was pretty strong I thought the villainwas pretty cool like this idea that
he's like harnessing These these ghosts.
It's not the ghosts are invading.
It's like he's trying to harnessthem to get revenge on the New York.
That's ignored him all thistime, but I like most of this.

(59:50):
I think it's completely unnecessary,but I was surprised that I was
expecting this thing to be like theworst thing I'd ever seen in my life.
And I'm like for this type of bigbudget special effects comedy, What
you get and it's better than some.

Ray (01:00:04):
I look, if you did not have the original ghostbusters franchise at
all, and this was a standalone moviethat came out in 2016 with those women,
actresses who are all comedians, Iagree with you a hundred percent.
I did not think it was that terrible.
I did it.
And if you also look at it at the angleof yes, it's a reboot, but it's altered.

(01:00:26):
Just an alternate universe.
It's not the same universe even.
So this is a, it has to be right.

Victor (01:00:31):
Cause you have the cast members show up and they like kill.
That is the biggest mistake.
I think the biggest mistake in this wholeentire movie is to your point, right?
I think make this movie about ghostbusting girls that has Nothing
to do with Ghostbusters, right?
And don't spend like the specialeffects actually were really well
done I think don't spend 150 milliondollars on it spend like 50 million

(01:00:53):
dollars on it Like don't so it doesn'thave to be a huge blockbuster, right?
And then hey if you want to make likea side Ghostbusters tangent, you could
even say, Hey, didn't something likethis happen in New York and then you
could even have them show up at theend, which is basically what they
end up doing with afterlife, by theway, it's like they could do that.
And then you say, Oh, look, thisis in the same universe, right?

(01:01:14):
I think that by basically sayingthis is Ghostbusters, and then
having the Ghostbusters come in,But not play their original roles.
I'm like, what was that?

Ray (01:01:22):
That's just bizarre.
That's just well, justas an alternate reality.
So they could have easily brought in theparanormal, the ghosts and had a literally
like a cross dimensional scene at the end.
Where they all did come in as the originalGhostbusters from whatever, Earth Prime
or Prime Ghostbusters Earth versus thiscurve, and it just explained it away.

Victor (01:01:42):
Imagine they were the first ones that did the multiverse,
that would be hilarious.
Yes, like a

Ray (01:01:46):
multiverse thing, and I think if they had just done that.
Most of the crowd reaction would havebeen tempered and they would have
understood that this was not intendedto be a sequel and it was just its
own universe, be it as a standalonemovie, but they didn't do that.
So that's where everyone wasjust like, what's going on here?
I swear that's what theoriginal public reaction was.

(01:02:09):
Because they just had the wrong ideawhat this movie was going into it.
It's anything else.
You go in with expectations a certain way.
And then when they don't meet yourexpectations, whether it's a Marvel
movie or whatever, you either get reallyannoyed or you get really disappointed.
There doesn't seem to be any.
There's no in between.
Unless there's EndgameEndgame was probably the best.
So I

Nick (01:02:29):
agree with both of you.
I actually enjoyed the if therewas no other movie to compare
it to standing on its own, itwas actually an enjoyable movie.
I, liked Kate McKinnon, which is.
Hilarious.
I like Melissa McCarthy.
Hemsworth was hilarious.
Kevin, the whole Kevin,the concept was, awesome.
I thought, that was hilarious.

(01:02:49):
So I actually, I enjoyed the movie.
I thought the specialeffects were really good.
And the story was pretty solid too.
So it wasn't a bad movie.
It was just like did itreally need to be made?
And I think, the way I view it and, Iguess, you Where it exists, it's in an
alternate universe, but I actually thinkit would have been, it actually would
have been a better movie if it existedwithin the Ghostbusters universe, but it

(01:03:12):
was in a different city, so to speak, ordifferent, somehow rewrite it in a way in
which it's existing in the same universe.
Because there's just, that was the issue.
There was no continuity and itwas just completely, not a reboot.
And the way you have to reviewit is it's just in a different,
completely different universe.
So it's a movie that didn't have tobe made, but, on its own, I thought

(01:03:32):
it was actually a, pretty solid movie.
I thought it was funny.
I was certainly funnierthan Ghostbusters too.
I would watch

Victor (01:03:38):
that much, but yes, I would definitely watch
this book before I'd watch,

Nick (01:03:42):
I would watch this movie again.
For sure.
And there, there's some really, honestly,there's some really funny scenes when
they're interviewing Kevin for the job.
And he's Oh when they're like,Melissa McCarthy asks them, she's
like, where are the glasses?
He's I realized it was,becoming a pain to clean them.
So I just took them out like thelenses, just like the whole thing.

(01:04:03):
And then the, my cat can I bring my cat?
And they're like I'm allergic to cats.
It's my cat's a dogand they're like, what?
And he's the name of my dog is my cat.
It was just, it was likethe whole it was just.
Silly, but it was funny.
It was good.
I thought, it was a good movie.
I actually enjoyed it.
I, just again it's a movie thatprobably didn't need to be made,

(01:04:23):
but, on its own it's a solid, it'sa solid movie and quite funny.
I would put it actuallyif you have to rank them.
Definitely.
It's ahead of Ghostbusters 2.

Victor (01:04:33):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.

Ray (01:04:35):
If there's somebody that's enjoying being in the movie, like Murray was in
Ghostbusters 1, Hemsworth is definitelyenjoying his role in that movie.
He just loves the fact that he'splaying basically a ditzy blonde
male now instead of a female.
And it's certainly empoweringfor women and stuff.
And they love how turning thetides on us on that resort.

(01:04:55):
So that was even funny in itself.
Of who it is even you know, it's just

Victor (01:05:00):
a couple of things I think are so funny though in retrospect that you
know I once again care less about thiscultural conversation at the moment But
I did review it a little bit just forthis and first of all this And I do think
it's a miscalculation that they erasethe original cast rather than making this
like an addendum like Something like thishappened before and yada And then that's
all they needed to do to preserve theoriginal lineage But I think the two huge

(01:05:22):
things I think are a mistake here YouOne is by having the cast come back and
then in these alternate characters, iterases the original mythology, which, of
course, is what people got offended by.
But I think the other part of it isthat there was this conversation that
this these women are, like, takingaway the original Ghostbusters,
which, in a way, they did.
But what's so funny about it isthe production company is Ghost

(01:05:42):
Corps, and Ghost Corps is the fourguys it's Ramos's, who had died
at this point, so it's his son.
And then and the rest of the cast members,but they all have 25 percent like they
all four unanimously can't be a majorityunanimously Have to green light Whatever
gets so they signed off on this likethey're literally signing off on all of
this like they didn't say Oh, you got toyou know carve out our original mythology

(01:06:06):
or whatever else they're like sure have adragon throw me out the window and kill me
like two minutes after I show up on screenlike this is what they're signing off on.
So I'm like, don't blame the creatorsof the movie for doing this to them.
They were the ones whookayed the entire project.
And the second thing is broader.
I think this goes to all IP, by the way.
It's like why I think a lot of theMarvel films have been failing as well.

(01:06:27):
It's seeing the scale of this movie.
, no wonder this movie failed.
, why would they spend somuch money on this movie?
If you want it to build up to havea massive, Film like this make it
like the second or third movie ifthe first one is successful But
like where would they go from here?
Is this going to be as big as an avengersmovie this if this had been successful?
The next movie would havecost 300 million dollars.

(01:06:49):
It's like where are you going?
This is ghostbusters Like chill out calmdown with this 150 million dollar budget
like it's unnecessary to say the least

Ray (01:06:56):
I was,

Nick (01:06:58):
oh, sorry.
I always felt that the cameos thatthey had in that movie and the sense
I got was it was almost them puttingtheir stamp of approval on to, for
the benefit of the people that were socritical of that movie that was being
made and everybody knew it was women,ghostbusters and blah, blah, blah.

(01:07:20):
I, feel like they inserted those cameosin there to you Give, I don't want to
say lip service to the, fans of theoriginal Ghostbusters, but to almost
make it seem like we're putting ourstamp of approval on it and the fact
that yes, it's our production company,but we're also even going to be in the
movie to show that word support of this.
So you shouldn't beover overly critical of.

(01:07:41):
Of this movie.
So that's the sense I got.
It was almost like, fan slash lipservice to the fans to put them in there
because well, Ackroyd was the cab driver.
Yeah.
Ernie Hudson was the uncle to Leslie Joneswho gave her the the hearse, and then I
forget what Annie Potts's character was.
She shows up.
Gordy Weaver shows up.

Victor (01:08:00):
She's like the, at the very, she's in the credits too.
That's like her thing.
Yeah.
This shows up in the

Ray (01:08:04):
credits.
Yeah, definitely.
I think the Sony and the GhostCorps that whole project to
build the whole franchise.
I think they learned from theirmistakes from 2016 with Afterlife.
They, realized what the fans do want,and it was not the 2016 version.
So I think they did realize that if theyare going to make this a new Cash cow or

(01:08:28):
whatever you want to call it Sony, youlook at Sony they've got the Spider Man
that they hang on to where dear life andthey'll keep producing stuff to keep it.
Oh my God.

Victor (01:08:37):
I just saw madam web.

Ray (01:08:39):
But it's it's the same with the Ghostbusters.
They don't have, they have very limitedfranchise where they could try to
build on this on movie after movie.
And I think afterlife wouldhave to seem like a huge success
compared to the 2016 film.
Yeah,

Victor (01:08:53):
sure.
You know what it actually this is whatgoing back to the original point of
like how they got their entire budgetand that first movie rather than
splitting things up the reason thisone gets a sequel is because it made
almost the same money as the previousone they really gross the same amount.
But they spent half as much.
So guess what?
You spend half as much, you make moneyon the same exact amount of money.

(01:09:14):
Speaking of let's just transitionto that part of it too.
I liked after life too.
Like once again, didn't love it.
And I think Ray, you have probablystronger feelings about it than I do.
I actually enjoyed this.
I thought most of the actionsequences were pretty good.
Most of the comedy worked for me.
I liked the kids.
They didn't find them annoying.
I liked them going with they wentfor nostalgia, but if anything, they
went for like a Spielberg type feel.
And leaned into the mythology a lot more.

(01:09:37):
But I, most of this work, I, you knowwhat, I got a little choked up at the end.
I got to say bringing back a ghostEgon, but it, most of it worked for me.
I got to say do I want to see a sequel?
Not really, but I didn't mind watching it.
That's basically what it came down.

Nick (01:09:52):
I my, before I let Ray go into it, cause I think Ray's got strong
feelings, like you said I I, liked it.
I would have liked my issues withit were I would have liked more

Ray (01:10:01):
comedy.
I would've liked.

Nick (01:10:03):
Yes, definitely.
Yes.
Closer to the original Ghostbusters.
More comedy.
Have Paul Rudd in there.
So you could have really, yeah,

Ray (01:10:09):
you could have really could have could we have any comedy
would be more appropriate.
That's a good point.
That's a pretty good point actually.

Nick (01:10:15):
Again, you guys I always Victor probably gets nuts when I do this
but, and again, it also, this moviealso violated my Star Wars rule,
where you've got the original cast.
Let's get them more involved inthe movie and don't shove them in
the last 10 minutes like everybodywanted to see the original cast.
So I think you probably should havebrought them in to the movie sooner,

(01:10:39):
not just Dan Aykroyd and then youdon't see Winston, you don't see
Venkman until the very, very end.
And I think that, and you don'tsee Dana Barrett until the credits.
So I think if you're going to bring themback, they should have probably had the
original cast in a little bit earlier.
Before we go to Ray, I do feelI'm, excited about the movie that's

(01:11:00):
coming out because you are goingto have now the original cast.
You're going to get what you want.
And I'm really hoping youbring Ghostbusters back to New
York, it's in New York city.
You got the original cast now with the,new cast, which I liked the new cast.
I like Paul Rudd.
The kids were good.
You got the kids from a stranger thingsand the, door and the granddaughter.

(01:11:21):
So I think it'll be, I think I'mlooking forward to the new movie.
I think it's going to begreat, but I'll let you know,
but they better do some work.
There better be more comedy.
It's got to go back to the, firstmovie where it was, more of a comedy
than took itself so seriously.

Victor (01:11:36):
Yeah, it just went way, way more.
The tone really shifted that way.

Ray (01:11:41):
Obviously the Ghostbusters franchise doesn't like Ghostbusters two either,
because if you look at afterlife, wherewas the Ghostbuster two references, if
there were any other than Ray's occult.
The store.
And I think I saw thetoaster at one scene.
Other than that, I don't think there wasany Ghostbuster two references whatsoever.

(01:12:02):
It's almost like they decided itdidn't exist right down to have the
original Ecto one, where's Ecto one a,what did they repaint the car again?
And then put it in mothballs.
I.
It was amazing how they justskirted over Ghostbusters 2 and
with going with the same plotline with Gozer as the antagonist.
I, look, I agree withyou a hundred percent.

(01:12:23):
I think the Ramus send offwas incredibly emotional.
I thought that was done very well.
That's, the way to, to do a CGIcharacter who's post humorously.
I thought it was great.
If you know the background between himand Murray And the battles and the feuds
that went on right after Groundhog Day,it's even more emotional when you see

(01:12:44):
that scene because they they didn't havea chance to do it together in person, but
it really, I think that really rescued themovie scene, rescued this movie because
other than again, I love the callbacks.
I love the nostalgia,but Nick, like you said.

(01:13:04):
Where was the comedy there just was not,it was like I felt like I was watching
an episode of strangers things like very

Victor (01:13:12):
much.
Yes,

Ray (01:13:13):
way more drama, look, I enjoyed all the callbacks.
They were great.
They gave, they got a chuckle every time.
Many times I felt they wereshoehorned in just to do it.
Just to get it whether it's a Nestle'scrunch bar and his jumpsuit or a Twinkie
in the the the glove compartment, butlike even the book stacking they, they

(01:13:35):
stack the books and is, a house, right?
But it's wait a minute, they'rehaving an earthquake every day.
How do those books stay stack?
There's the writers,the writing on this was.
Atrocious.
I'm sorry.
They need to tighten thisup with this Frozen Empire.
They went from Egon's granddaughterwatching A laptop with the original

(01:13:57):
Ghostbusters commercial trying to learnabout her grandfather to the next day.
They already have a proton packand they're fighting a ghost.
I'm like, where was all this?
How I you gotta explainthis a little bit better.
You gotta make it tighter.
I get it.
It's a fun movie.
You will go to the movies to.
Escape.
It's a form of escapism, butat the same time, you've got

(01:14:21):
to have some world building.
You've got to.
It's just like, where did they get it?
And I get it.
The other kids fixing thecar up, but I don't know.
That's what really lost me.
And then again.
I'm going to bring up StarWars now because here we go.
Ghostbusters afterlife, right?
Was the equivalent of Star Wars toforce awakens because mid movie.

(01:14:45):
Yeah, we've got this same movie now,a same movie right down, to some of
the same setups and the same scenes.
And I'm just like, okay, I get it.
I know they're goingfor that nostalgia, but.
Let's have a real story, a differentstory here, and it's the same story.
I was shocked that thatwas Olivia Wilde as Zer.

(01:15:05):
I thought that was a, oh,I didn't even notice that.
Yes.
There was no depth to any of thesecharacters other than probably Egon's
granddaughter is the only one that I haveany sense of an emotional attachment to,
as far as this, the strangers that thingskid, he could go work in the belt and the
the food place, wherever he wants and hispseudo girlfriend or friend or whatever.

(01:15:26):
I just, I don't know.
I just didn't, I just didn'tfeel it till the end and the end.
I don't know.
At the end, brought it back up, but theygotta do a better job this next movie.
I, they just

Nick (01:15:37):
do.
Yeah.
They, like I said they neededto have, they needed to have the
original cast and more in the movie.
As opposed to just the end.
It was like that's the big payoff.
I get it.
But, you wanted to see that.
And that's the thing that I alwayscri I'm super critical of among other
things with, Star Wars you bring theoriginal cast back, how do you not.

(01:15:57):
Put them all togetherand it's the same thing.
How do you wait until the last 10 minutesto get Ray Egon, I know Egon's gone
you get all four of them back together,not until the very, very end, the other
thing, to to raise point the whole JKSimmons he was, a Shandor or whatever.
The guy that built the,

Ray (01:16:17):
yeah

Nick (01:16:19):
He, built the building in New York, right in, the first one.
He dies, he's in 30seconds goes or kills him.
I don't get that.
I was like what just happened

Ray (01:16:29):
there that's the other thing was he really alive?
Was he a zombie?
Was he a ghost?
Also, like I couldn'tunderstand that either.
Yeah, that was weird.
They

Victor (01:16:38):
don't explain that I think there's probably more there that they
probably cut out because obviously Youdon't get him in there if you don't
explain it more but yeah, I thinkthere's some they just probably try
to tighten up The runtime basically.

Ray (01:16:48):
I did like the continuity of he was mining selenium where they
made the girders out of seleniumand his own building in Manhattan.
I get all that.
If he already had a duplicate temple ofZuul right there in the mining colony.
Yeah.
Why do you need the building in New York?
Why is the building New York at all?
Why are you exporting allthis all the way out there?

(01:17:11):
And I think that was another thingit's in the country, which is it's.
Just a different environmentfor Ghostbusters.
You really need New York city.
And I think hopefully the end scenewhere you see Winston bring Ecto 1 back,
it's okay now we know, and obviouslyyou see the trailer, Frozen Empire is
going to be in New York city where theGhostbusters need to be and should be.

(01:17:33):
That's it bottom line.
I thought they even did the EgonSpengler character disjustice.
With how I just disheveledhe I guess he had become and
such a recluse and all that.
It's again the same thing.
It's trashed my version and opinionof Egon, even though you do see how

(01:17:54):
he was trying to protect the world andall, but at the same time, they just.
They just pull the characterthrough mud in a lot of ways.
I don't, know why they had to do that.
I just don't understand that.
And I just, is there any referenceto Egon having a daughter in
the original Ghostbusters?
I cannot find it whatsoever.
And who was it?
It's not Janine, because obviouslyJanine's like the the the, I don't

(01:18:16):
know if she was the real estate agentor just had something to do with
maybe his last will and testament.
I don't know.
Sure.
But maybe she had power of attorney,like that one little scene.
And she has a sly grin looking over atCarrie Coons Oh, that's Egon's daughter.
But But

Nick (01:18:33):
maybe,
we find out in this moviethat it's her daughter.
I don't know because she

Victor (01:18:38):
had, but she looked at family pictures.
So it's as if she knew the momand I don't think it was any pots.
No, yeah, but by the way, that'smy pet peeve of that whole thing
is that that Janine shows up.
To be like here he was a tough guyto get along with blah blah blah
blah That whole situation right andthen you know within a day or two

(01:18:58):
It's oh my god, everything happened.
New York is happening again, and janinedoes not decide to be like Let me
tell you what's going on right now.
Okay, like she doesn't decide to come backShe's just like I dropped off the keys.
My work is done.
My work is

Ray (01:19:09):
done here yeah,

Victor (01:19:11):
exactly like she can't be that far away She knows something's going on if the
earth is opening up every day back in the

Ray (01:19:17):
homestead You I just didn't understand, like you said, Nick, why
they had to make it so convoluted and sodistant and obtuse until the very end.
It just, I don't know.
It just, it

Nick (01:19:28):
was like you were watching a movie that again, I didn't mind.
I liked it.
It's just, I had issues with it.
And, it's like you, were watching for anhour and a half to just get that 10 minute

Ray (01:19:39):
payoff, right?

Nick (01:19:41):
So it's an hour and 40 minute movie.
Yeah.
An hour and a half just to get to seethe four original Ghostbusters together.
And it's you could have just donethat an hour earlier, maybe set it
up for 45 minutes and then get that,somehow get it back to New York with
the four of them or the three of them.
And then the ghost of Egon or some,somehow I would have done it that

(01:20:03):
way in some way, shape or form.
Somehow the granddaughter hasto get to New York to warn Dan
Aykroyd they could have just,they could have done it like that.
And it would have, just been much,much better again not, horrible
because there were moments in itthat you had a lot of throwbacks.
And then of course the end was, agood payoff, but, it's, a little bit

(01:20:25):
frustrating to watch knowing that you'vegot the cast and you're wasting time.
Getting them together.
And I'm hoping that

Victor (01:20:32):
I don't think the cast wanted to be in the movie, right?
That's once again is they I thinkthat they are more on board with
this most recent version now

Nick (01:20:40):
that off the baton, so to speak.
But, yeah they'll, be in themovie now Paul, it looks based
on the poster, Paul Rudd is the.

Ray (01:20:49):
Lead.
Yep.
Definitely.
You

Nick (01:20:51):
look, if you see the the, poster he's really the lead of
the movie, which I like Paul Rod.
So

Ray (01:20:56):
we brought up practical effects.
Okay.
The practical effects inafterlife, , like for instance,
the two dogs, the terror dogs.
Yeah.
And afterlife.
Look far worse than the practicaleffects and the original Ghostbusters.
I just unbelievable.
They looked, atrocious in that Walmart.
I'm like, what?
I could have made that mybasement for crying out loud.

Victor (01:21:17):
Did you?
They didn't look great.
Anything really under unless youspend a fortune on it, if you don't.
Anything that's shot in like brightlight is usually gonna look weaker,
but I don't know, like it's stillbetter than that first Ghostbusters
movie, but it is 40 years later.
So

Ray (01:21:31):
again, you always want to have characters in movies and you want to
understand their motives and what drivesthem to do these things in scenes.
For instance, you take theanalog scene where they're you.
Chasing a muncher who I guess is likeSlimer and then in the afterlife,
same comedy, comic relief ghost andMain Street, which is the analog
to the ballroom scene, right?

(01:21:52):
Again, there's this element of,oh, we've just been haphazardly
thrown into this Ghostbuster thing.
But why?
Like, why do they haveto chase this ghost?
They have no reason to chase this ghost.
In fact, if it was reallife, they probably wouldn't.
So like why all of a sudden are theyendangering their lives, destroying
property just to chase a ghost?
What are they gonna do with it when they

Nick (01:22:12):
catch it?
No, that's actually, that's a goodpoint, Ray, because think about
it, like what are they doing?
A whole setup in the originalGhostbusters is there are these three.
They're professors lost their grant, sothey need to figure out a way to make
money, and they become Ghostbusters,and that's why they get slimmer.
That's the mo that's the motivation here.
I agree with you.
That's actually a good point.
I didn't think of that.
It's just yeah why this ghost?

(01:22:34):
Just

Ray (01:22:34):
let the

Victor (01:22:34):
damn thing go.
Who cares?
Because that's why.
Yeah, because that's what their granddad.
What her granddad did.
It's

Ray (01:22:38):
Okay, you don't know.
I worked in the private sector.
They expect results.
So that's why they weredoing it in the original.
Come on, man.
So it's just, I don't know.
That's just, that's what those arethe things that lose me in movies when
it's just, you start really questioningthe motivation of characters or is
the character there to just have anexposition of this, or is there a real

(01:23:01):
reason that they're doing these things?
And I, just never quiteGot that feeling at all.
I don't know.
We'll see.
We'll see.

Victor (01:23:08):
To be honest with you I You're making me like the movie less, right?
Oh, I'm sorry.
Oh, no.
Don't worry about it.
It's not that important to me.
But I was going to say that the, I forgavea lot of those type of things, which
are absolutely Accurate because to meit's like a throwback in some ways in
the same way that stranger things is athrowback To honestly a lot of those not
necessarily spielberg movies from the80s But like spielberg adjacent movies

(01:23:31):
from the 80s where you know The kidssuddenly are the heroes of the movie for
whatever reason right and it is prettyarbitrary whether they are The last
starfighter or the kids in gremlins orwhatever where it's like, you know They
suddenly save the city And they're like,because they do, so I think I saw it from
that framework and forgave it for that

Ray (01:23:49):
its own form of nostalgia.
It's great for escapism.
It's great to have a good time.
It's just, if you're a hardcoreghostbuster fan and, again, you,
maybe you like the technology aspectof the ghostbuster stuff again,
You got to show some backstoryon this where was the power?
Where were they getting thepower to charge all these things?
They did mention he, he did run awaywith the remaining plutonium or whatever.

(01:24:14):
So I guess that's one of thereasons they power the the
proton packs but I don't know.
It just, fell a little short to me and.
Luckily at the end, itredeemed itself so we'll see.
I just think, just how old someof these characters looked.
Murray just looks so old.
Oh, it just, and it really justputs it in perspective for you even.

(01:24:35):
Like we said, 40 yearsago, so it's a long time.
It's a long time to expectmiracles and expect the continuity
to last, but hey, here we are.
So

Victor (01:24:45):
they did go that's where the craziest thing about it.
When you think about the all female castthat was, what is it almost 30 years
later and that they could not get theircrap together to make another movie for
all those years until and then they, onlygave a green light by the way, because
they had lost one of the cast members.
Wow, if we're ever going todo this, we got to do it soon.

(01:25:06):
But it took one and now you've lostand then just passed away too, right?
2022,

Ray (01:25:10):
right?
Son has taken over.

Nick (01:25:14):
It is pretty crazy to think about, like the, that this franchise
was dormant for so many yearsuntil the the female Ghostbusters
movie came out and, which is odd.
And, but a bad movie will do that.
Look, at Beverly Hills cop.

Ray (01:25:28):
I think Ghostbusters 2 did this.
Ghostbusters 2 was a knife to the heart.
That was it.
Look at,

Nick (01:25:33):
Killed that until now.
And now you've got this summer andthat's going straight to Netflix.
I

Victor (01:25:37):
think that's a Netflix thing.

Ray (01:25:38):
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you look at it from a marketingperspective and the original Ghostbusters
never was intended for that, butthat movie is made for marketing,
whether it's the figures, the protonpacks, the scenes, the firehouse,
the car, like it's unbelievable whatmore they probably could have done
even with that if they wanted to.

(01:25:59):
Cause I don't really remembera big merchandising push
after Ghostbusters, right?
There was now there's some stuffout, but when we were kids.
No.
They didn't do that stuff.
Meanwhile, star Wars was still doing it.
There you go with your . I gotI'm looking at all my fun puffs.
Right here.
There, you go, man.
I got, the state

Nick (01:26:18):
puff marshmallow man

Victor (01:26:19):
right here.
. That's the that's one of the mostinteresting things you just said there,
Ray, is that in my research was that.
The Ghostbusters franchise isfrom a marketing perspective.
It's a multi billion dollarmarketing and you compare that to
Star Wars or Marvel, which is liketens of billions of dollars, right?
But when you consider, like yousaid, that you're really working,

(01:26:41):
the iconography is all comingoff that first film pretty much.
And, no, nothing else has reallyresonated with the fan base.
So just this kind of thumbnailsketch, but I think it's impressive
the amount of world buildingthey make in that first film.
That, that you have they've built upthis universe, like you said, and the
vast majority of the money they'vemade is not from the other movies.

(01:27:02):
The vast majority of that money iscoming from all of the, the iconography
from that first film, and it's justlike the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man,
and like you said, the the, GhostbusterMobile, and the, We just lost Nick, by

Ray (01:27:14):
the way,

Victor (01:27:16):
but it's the, yeah, so just like all of that stuff comes from that first
film and it's still generates money to

Ray (01:27:23):
this day.
Yep.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And the video games,but that's all the same.
That's true.
If you look at that 2009 video game,I had that for Xbox and I loved it.
I thought it was great in alot of ways for me, that was.
Ghostbusters three,because it did tell a tale.
There was interwining aspects of Gozerand that story with Shandor in it too.

(01:27:48):
And if you went through the wholecampaign you got a full movie out of it.
And it was pretty cool.
And you were the quote rookie tryingto earn your spot on the team, but it
really did tell a nice story of the,and I think they did, I think they re,
Issued it later on, like maybe, 2016,they remastered it a little bit more.

(01:28:09):
I don't think they ever didit for PC platform, but they
definitely did it for X Box one.
And it was a great, itwas a great video game.
Even that, I mean that you can actuallyhunt a ghost and the controls were pretty
cool, actually get a proton pack and howit would the, dynamics of it were great.
And it was a lot of fun.
It was a really fun video game.

(01:28:29):
And look, I think Sony's looking at thisas a possible future, brand to continue
to milk and we'll see how they do.
They've got a chance here withthis next movie, but I don't know.

Victor (01:28:42):
I hope we will see how much.
How do you feel about that?
How much confidence do you have?

Ray (01:28:47):
I, think it'll at least be as good as the afterlife, probably better
because Nick had alluded to, I thinksome of those main characters seem
to be in it a little bit more, but.
You can't go by trailers.
You don't know.
Maybe you're just looking at acouple cameos and that's it, right?
Yeah, I do

Victor (01:29:04):
worry when I think about how the cast has been so reluctant to put in
hours, on these other films but hey, thiscould be their last shot at glory here.
So hopefully Paul

Ray (01:29:17):
rudd's a great character in the sense of he can carry movies now he's
done that he's not just a peripheral guy.
He's proved that with ant man You I mean,look at Ant Man and the Marvel Universe.
Who would have thought that Ant Manwould have been so popular in the
whole Marvel Cinematic Universe?
I so he does do a good job.
So I think he's going to do a lotof heavy lifting in this film.

(01:29:37):
That's what I think.
That's what's going to come down.
All

Victor (01:29:39):
right.
So let's Check it out and then we cantouch base again and see how that goes.
And Hey, while we're at it, whydon't we watch that roadhouse
movie and then talk about that?
Cause I got a lot of, I am prettyfascinated by roadhouse, one of those
blind, one of those blind spots for me.
So I'm just like, okay,finally caught up on that.
And I'm like, Oh boy.

Ray (01:30:00):
Roadhouse.
If it's on cable, that's one of thosemovies like Armageddon is another one.
If you catch it.
You've got to just watch it now.
You can't, click it.
If you see roadhouse and youclick onto it, that's it.
You got to watch it.
So I don't know how many timesI've seen the original roadhouse.
So it's, that's a good one.
Yeah, definitely.
Definitely like Armageddon.

(01:30:20):
And that's another one diehards.
Another, these movies, some ofthese movies just have great replay
ability and replay potential.
The original ghostbusters hashigh replay potential to no 2016.
No afterlife.
No either.
Roadhouse definitely replay value.
So we'll see if JakeGyllenhaal can represent.

(01:30:41):
As good as Patrick Swayze.
So we'll see Conor McGregor's in it too.
You think he's his friend or you think

Victor (01:30:46):
he's the entire, Oh no.
I think from what I've seen, they'redefinitely not our friends in there.

Ray (01:30:50):
Oh, so they're the, he's the antagonist guy.
Huh?
All right.
We'll see.
We shall see, man.
All right.
All right.
Good talking.

Victor (01:30:56):
Thanks.
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