TMR 027 – Ghostbusters II

Ghostbusters II (1989) d. Ivan Reitman Starring: Dan Akroyd Harold Ramis Bill Murray Ernie Hudson Sigourney Weaver Annie Potts Rick Moranis Peter MacNicol On this week's episode of TMR, Steve and Ryan watch 1989's not-quite-classic sequel Ghostbusters II. Ryan talks about the time he broke his dad's heart and may have inadvertently killed the family dog, Steve breaks down the way this generation's kids consume content, they speculate on the complicated mythology of Bill Murray, and both wish they could walk around inside Dan Akroyd's weird, crazy noggin'. Ivan Reitman's sequel to the phenomenally successful Ghostbusters is looser and more self-assured than the original. The film opens with a title reading "Five Years Later" and finds the ghostbusters living in hard times. A restraining order has forbidden the boys to partake in paranormal warfare, and as a result they have had to seek other lines of work. Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) spend their time performing at children's' birthday parties, and Egon (Harold Ramis) is busy conducting experiments investigating the effect of human emotions on the environment, leaving ghostbusting behind. Venkman (Bill Murray) and Dana (Sigourney Weaver) have split up. Venkman now hosts a local cable show called "The World of the Psychic." Dana, now divorced and the mother of a little baby named Oscar, works as an art restorer in a museum -- and this is where the plot kicks in. While Dana is restoring a portrait of a 16th-century tyrant by the name of Vigo the Carpathian, the portrait becomes hexed. The evil Vigo wants to return to life by taking over the body of Dana's little child. Vigo has enlisted Dana's boss, Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), to compel Dana to cooperate. Soon dirty sludge and slime flow through the streets of Manhattan, and the ghostbusters have to reunite to save the city from a funky paranormal evil. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi Things discussed in the show: Hail, Caesar! - The Cohen Brothers, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich The Big Labowski, Burn After Reading, O' Brother Where Art Thou, A Serious Man Steven Spielberg Sam Rockwell Ghostbusters (2016) Spy - Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Jason Statham Bram Stoker's Dracula Leslie Nielsen - Naked Gun The Rover - Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson Animal Kingdom - Ben Mendelsohn The Revenant The Oscars - Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith Amy, What's Happened, Miss Simone? Spotlight, Mad Max: Fury Road, Brooklyn Bobby Brown & Whitney Houston Aliens - James Cameron Ninja Scroll The Untouchables Cthulhu, Dungeons & Dragons, DragonCon Scrooged, The Razor's Edge, Groundhog Day, Operation Dumbo Drop Rushmore, Lost in Translation Zombieland, A Very Murray Christmas Saturday Night Live Stripes, Caddieshack Motörhead - Lemmy John Belushi, Eddie Murphy Samuel A. Aykroyd Child's Play The Omen Wilhelm von Homburg He-Man, Masters of the Universe Beastmaster G.I. Joe The Real Ghostbusters Proton Packs Star Wars Rancid, The Clash, The Kinks Radiohead, The Violent Femmes Jackie Chan Evil Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Cabin in the Woods Coneheads Richard Kelly, Jake Gyllenhaal Next Week: Donnie Darko