Gruesomely sentimental.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 6, 2022

[It] relaunches the franchise with a mostly funny and solid offering. Hearkening to the great movies of the 80s, this film follows a group of very capable and hilarious kids who save the world from destruction.

| Nov 24, 2021

It has its moments... but they don't make up for a general flat-footedness and tendency to wobble.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 22, 2021

Haunting, but not in the good way.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 22, 2021

The film's main appeal is not what it appropriates from other Ghostbusters pictures, but that it's a nostalgic nod to the Spielbergian family adventures of the same period.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 21, 2021

Jason Reitman's Ghostbusters: Afterlife is what one gets when a franchise finally throws in the towel and gives its fans exactly what they've been waiting for all along.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 20, 2021

A good story is key, and this sequel doesn't have it.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 20, 2021

In this outing, original director Ivan Reitman passes the funky fedora to son Jason, who directed and cowrote a breezy script with percussive, jokey dialogue. It's all gooey fun, with garrulous ghosts and anarchic mini Stay Puft marshmallow men.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 20, 2021

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is simply the things you already knew and liked, but repeated with unearned gravitas.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 20, 2021

I've no doubt that there is genuine intent on Reitman's part to honor his father's work. But otherwise, Afterlife exists solely to restart a moribund franchise, so that a dormant conveyor belt of product may groan back into motion.

| Nov 19, 2021

Reitman's film is guided by a barely hidden contempt for the intelligence of the fans it so desperately courts.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Nov 19, 2021

This Ghostbusters takes the series' mythology way too seriously, approaching what should be a light, silly comedy as if it were serious science fiction. The result is an awkward and unwarranted feeling of reverence.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Nov 19, 2021

Ghostbusters: Afterlife isn't original or appealing enough to stand on its own.

| Nov 19, 2021

Somehow they manage to change what worked in the original, misuse what is new, and keep only what shows us how much better the 1984 original was.

| Original Score: B- | Nov 19, 2021

At its best Ghostbusters: Afterlife simply delivers a good time, combining the upgraded special effects with comedy and youthful angst, while taking a little too long to get to the good stuff.

| Nov 18, 2021

There's a story, sure, though you don't care and neither do I. What matters are the jokes, energy, boos and characters, who are appealing mostly because the performers playing them are too.

| Nov 18, 2021

Should you be a Ghostbusters admirer who goes into this franchise extension wanting to see an actual, y'know, movie, you'll feel as if you trespassing in someone else's house of worship. But at least you'll who'll not to call next time.

| Nov 18, 2021

The original Ghostbusters thrived on irreverence, and to see it treated with such moon-eyed worship feels terribly counterproductive. Not every hit movie from the past needs to be cherished like a holy text.

| Nov 18, 2021

It's nostalgic, it's easy, but it's empty, and it doesn't bring anythingfresh to the table.

| Original Score: D | Nov 18, 2021

It's arguable whether franchise filmmaking is inherently a bad thing, but "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" certainly makes a case for those who claim the irredeemable soullessness of the model.

| Nov 18, 2021