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David McK (3676 KP) rated Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) in Movies

Nov 28, 2021 (Updated Dec 20, 2025)  
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
2021 | Action, Sci-Fi
Who ya gonna call?
Ghostbusters 2 was released in 1989.

Ghostbusters: The video game in 2009.

At that stage, it was - unofficially - touted as Ghostbusters 3.

The (atrocious) remake was in 2006.

This was released in 2021 - so over 30 years since Ghostbusters 2 - and is now the 'official' third entry in the franchise.

Having said that, there is absolutely no mention of Ghostbusters 2 during it, so you could easily skip that if you wanted a rewatch before going to see this.

This follows a new family, who find they have ties to a Ghostbuster of yore, when they are evicted from their tenement and inherit a farmhouse out in the rural countryside: a farmhouse that has secrets of its own, as does the surrounding neighbourhood.

It's also no secret that this relies heavily on nostalgia for the original and that family is at the core of the movie, written - as it is - by the son of the late Ivan Reitman (Jason Reitman) - and paying an elegiac tribute to the late Harold Ramis (1 of the original 4 Ghostbusters - Egon Spengler - , who passed in 2014.

Oh, and the post (not mid) -credits scene? Goes some way to making up for how Ernie Hudson was treated in the original, when he saw his scenes drastically cut from what was intended.
  
Ghosts of Manor House
Ghosts of Manor House
Matt Powers | 2017 | Horror
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Ghosts of Manor House by Matt Powers is a book with a lot of unmet potential, to put things nicely. It’s clear the author spent a lot of time planning his story out, but beyond that… well, it’s lacking. It also doesn’t help that the majority of the book is written in passive voice–a pet peeve of mine. Passive voice really disrupts my flow and, despite having read the most recent edition sent to me by the author, I feel the book could use another go-over from an editor.

The characters of Ghosts of Manor House exist, in so much as the fact that they are present in the book. If you’re looking for a reason to get attached to any of them though, you won’t find it. There’s a strange sort of distance between the reader and the main characters, Edmund and Charlie. There’s also no depth to either of them. In fact, there’s more of a connection to minor characters. I absolutely hate it when I can’t feel any sort of emotion for a fictional character; it makes whatever happens to them less severe. When it comes to horror, this is a huge letdown. I want to feel fear for the protagonist in a story, I want to be on the edge of my seat with excitement. In this book… there was none of that.

When it comes to plot, Ghosts of Manor House is a mixed bag of tricks and treats. There’s several continuity issues and the whole use of some wacky sort of time travel is a huge turn off. It took me a little while to realize what was going on because Powers doesn’t explain or note the presence of this science-fiction element. Additionally, the locale changes from Hope County to Salem County, though after that change, Powers sticks with the latter. On the good side of things, Powers certainly excels at detailing a haunted location. If you’ve read Kill Creek, you might remember the main character, Sam McGarver, lecturing about the importance of this in horror novels. A well-thought out history for these spooky places is paramount to maintaining interest and in Ghosts of Manor House, Manor House’s past is most definitely intriguing.

Overall, I feel like there’s a lot that went to waste with this book. While it is deliciously short, I would have preferred reading something longer, where I could actually develop feelings and connections to the characters, as opposed to feeling like I watched a dull movie. I would like to thank the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
  
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LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated X-Men (2000) in Movies

Jun 7, 2019 (Updated Jun 8, 2019)  
X-Men (2000)
X-Men (2000)
2000 | Action, Sci-Fi
The first X-Men has not aged particularly well, but it's important to recognise it's impact on the movie landscape, especially for comic book films.
Although there has been comic book movies before, X-Men paved the way for everything that has come since, the good and the awful!

At the time it was almost magical, seeing characters I had grown up with flying about the screen (I was 12 when it was released), and the casting was inspired for the most part - Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman and Anna Paquin in particular.

It also started the trend of lacing the theatrics and seriousness with subtle humour thought, and the balance here is pretty good.

Even now, the CGI isn't terrible (certainly better than the later released Origins)

By the same merit, the costumes look goofy these days, some of the scripting is very 2000s, and why on Earth did they cast Tyler Mane as a weirdly mute Sabretooth will always be beyond me.

All in all, there are much better X-Men films out there, and there are a lot worse, and I'll always have a soft spot for it!
  
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Joel Schumacher recommended Blade Runner (1982) in Movies (curated)

 
Blade Runner (1982)
Blade Runner (1982)
1982 | Sci-Fi
8.5 (75 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Speaking of that, we must go to Blade Runner — true visual genius, and also in a class never matched. I saw it the first show, the first day, with a bunch of my friends. I can remember that because it was at the Cinerama dome in Hollywood, and it was on that huge screen with that incredible sound system. I still remember that great Vangelis music. But that opening — it’s embedded in my mind, that opening, with that scape of the city and its almost Mayan-like temple formation and those fires out of nowhere shooting up. Plus, Sean Young — that interview [with Harrison Ford’s Deckard] is unbelievable. I got a lovely letter from her last year. I worked with her on Cousins. Amazingly, amazingly beautiful. And of course it has the great Harrison Ford, and Edward James Olmos, and we could just go on and on with that movie. Daryl Hannah is great in it. And the doll guy, William Sanderson, who I got to work with on The Client — he played one of Tommy Lee Jones’ posse. One of the great things about my job is that I’ve been able to cast, sometimes, my favorite people."

Source
  
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
1986 | Comedy, Drama, Romance

"I was in college. I had the chicken pox so I had to stay in my dorm room. I wasn’t even sick. I had like two pox. Not like the rapper, but like two pox, and I had all this energy, and I was like [makes sick noise], and I watched Hannah and Her Sisters with two other friends of mine in the dorm that had already had chicken pox, so they could be around me. I’d never seen filmmaking like that, although, in high school, I watched New York Stories by Woody Allen, which I also was a big fan already, so I was like, “Oh, this is great.” I feel like Hannah and Her Sisters was just a beautiful film. Such a beautiful film. The work that he gets out of the actors… He casts these amazing actors, but then he gets these phenomenal performances out of them. There’s so much vulnerability in that movie that it just struck me. It was like an amazing artistic truck just running me over. I was already studying acting and knew I wanted to do that, but it really, really landed on me."

Source
  
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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Final Destination 3 (2006) in Movies

Oct 18, 2020 (Updated Nov 26, 2020)  
Final Destination 3 (2006)
Final Destination 3 (2006)
2006 | Action, Drama, Horror
Rather chintzy and objectively garbo but a complete and utter blast almost from start to finish. Just plain cruel, reeks with the stench of death - whereas in the others the characters pretty much all reacted to impending demise with paranoia and/or denial, here we see them react with sardonicism, competitiveness, and even boredom. The deaths nor the effects aren't as good but this is infinitely better than the second one because the melodrama filler is actually back to being semi-entertaining (if never 'real movie' status) and has some pretty interesting musings about death's presence in these films. The whole product seems rushed out the door but has a good talking + dying ratio and it's also super funny with as enjoyable characters as can be expected for a mid-2000s horror sequel with none of the original cast. Plus the acting's decent again! Feels like Wong is winging it but even most half-assed Wong products look better than Ellis at his best. The tanning beds are one of the elite deaths in the entire franchise - and then the smash cut to the coffins right after? Lmfao, dug it.