TMR 027 – Ghostbusters II
Episode description
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
Spy - Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Jason Statham
The Rover - Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson
Animal Kingdom - Ben Mendelsohn
The Oscars - Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith
Amy, What's Happened, Miss Simone?
Spotlight, Mad Max: Fury Road, Brooklyn
Cthulhu, Dungeons & Dragons, DragonCon
Scrooged, The Razor's Edge, Groundhog Day, Operation Dumbo Drop
Zombieland, A Very Murray Christmas
He-Man, Masters of the Universe
Evil Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Cabin in the Woods
Richard Kelly, Jake Gyllenhaal
Next Week: Donnie Darko