TMR 027 – Ghostbusters II

Total Movie Recall

Ghostbusters II (1989)

d. Ivan Reitman

Starring:Dan AkroydHarold RamisBill MurrayErnie HudsonSigourney WeaverAnnie PottsRick MoranisPeter 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