While my son and I are no strangers to YouTube and toy reviews, my daughter – not being Transformers-inclined – had yet to make the jump.
Well all that changed this weekend when Acacia presented a fun and facinating chat about the character Stitch from Lilo & Stitch. She informed viewers all about the character and the franchise as well as presenting some of her favorite figures!
In 2016 we saw Ghostbusters rebooted, which did not go down well with a goodly portion of the fans or at the box office. In 2021 we saw the original continuity resurrected with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, showing what happened to our most beloved paranormal investigators in the decades since having a smackdown with a guy in a painting.
Now in 2024 we get the sequel to Afterlife, the 4th movie of the original timeline and the 5th movie overall – so lets take a look at Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
Before continuing a reminder: this is a movie review so that means SPOILERS AHEAD.
We catch up with the Spengler family two years after the events of Afterlife. Gone from hating her father, Callie Spengler has, for reasons unspecified, moved her family and her boyfriend into the old Firehouse in New York and taken over the Ghostbusters franchise. Unlike Afterlife which was required to spend a great chunk of the movie setting up the story and characters, we are treated to busting right from the get-go as they chase a ghostly dragon through the streets, causing a great deal of collateral damage along the way. This results in the Ghostbusters old nemesis Walter Peck, gone from an Environmental Assessor to Mayor, telling the family to bench daughter Pheobe or be put out of business.
Thus starts a series of events that see’s Pheobe make friends with a ghost-gal Lind, the old Containment Unit about to burst and the return of the old cast as Winston introduces the Spengler’s to a new generation of Ghostbusting research and equipment.
The story arcs for most characters follow a logical and interesting progression, spliced equally with ghostbusting sci-fi and humour. Trevor is busy trying to trap Slimer, who evidently has been living in the attic of the Firehouse since the events of GB2, Grooberson is trying to be less a friend and more a father, Winston is attempting to bring Ghostbusting into the 21st century, Pheobe is chafing at not being allowed to bust ghosts while simultaneously making friends with one and Ray and Podcast are on the trail of the new big bad – Garraka.
Talk, dark and horny
All of these arcs run simultaneously and intertwine, leading up to the final confrontation with the new bad guy, a cold fellow who can turn fear into ice and make other ghosts do his bidding. Whilst I loved Afterlife for what it was, a love letter to the original movies and Harold Ramis, I had felt that bringing back Gozer had been a mistake. Thus it was nice to see the team have a new enemy to fight with new powers and abilities, perhaps making him/it the most chilling enemy in the franchise to date.
Another thing Afterlife was missing was humour. Oh there was some here and there, but whilst Answer the Call pushed the needle too far in one direction, with cringeworthy forced jokes and slapstick comedy, Afterlife went a tad to far in the other direction, perhaps in direct reaction to the negativity surrounding ATC. Afterlife was by far the most serious of the GB movies and seemed to forget that at their core the originals were comedies. Frozen Empire returns the GB franchise to its roots with lots of humour interspersed throughout the movie, without taking it to a zany place that nobody wants to see.
Both the original and new casts do a great job in Frozen Empire, with well-rounded and relatable characters. Admittedly Venkman and Janine add little to the overall story and similarly Lucky and Podcast seem more along for the ride. That said, it’s a big cast of characters – there is only so much you can fit into a 2-hour flick and the absence of the aforementioned characters would have been something negatively commented upon had they been left out. One is left wondering how many more Ghostubusters movies Bill Murray will show up for before, like Rick Moranis, he decides he’s had enough of the franchise, as Venkman puts in far less of a showing than the other original cast members.
We are introduced to some new characters; Lars Pinfield who is the head researcher for Winston and Nadeem Razmaadi who apparently took his cues from watching the Avatar cartoon and can bend fire. Both these characters work well with Lars adding some much needed scientific paranormal examination which was previously Egon’s domain, and Nadeem being a weird guy played solely for laughs, taking the place of Luis Tully.
Is this the perfect Ghostbusters movie? No. Some of the story plots feel contrived, such as it never being spelled out why the family decided to take up Ghostbusting and Pheobe deciding it would be a grand idea to turn into a ghost for a few minutes. Walter Peck is a far less interesting foe as the Mayor – he’s more mellow and thus more boring. His shutting down of the Ghostbusters is a total non-event – they simply pick the lock and a van full of new Proton Packs shows up almost immediately. Peter and Janine felt shoehorned in, as did Slimer though it was wonderful to see him back and he arguably did more than he did in GB2. The new big bad being able to freeze the proton streams rendered the Ghostbusters too impotent far too easily, thereby leaving the gang with their throwers in their hands and too obviously setting Pheobe up to save the day. And really, that ghost-girl hung about for decades just so she could light a match – that was her arc? Don’t get me wrong, the frienship/budding romance was sweet, but still.
That said, these are minor quibbles. Overall this is a really fun and entertaining movie with a great cast – the old and new cohorts having blended together nicely. It’s funnier than Afterlife and has a more involved storyline than Ghostbusters 2. And perhaps the main takeaway from this movie is that it is and is meant to be fun – it’s fantasy about catching ghosts, something your more serious critics and fans sometimes forget. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empirewalks the tightrope of treating the existing lore with respect and delving into new territory and walks it well. If you are a spectre-head who doesn’t mind a chuckle then it is highly recommended you get to your nearest theatre, as watching all the busting will make you feel good!
Rise of The Beasts is now finishing up in theatres, the 7th instalment in the live-action Transformers Movie franchise and the 8th Transformers movie overall. More than any other part of Transformers, be it the comics or cartoons or toylines, the movies have divided fans. Many Transformers fans have grown up on the live action movies, or were first attracted to Transformers by it hitting the big screen. Others have lamented films with more humans than robots, convoluted and contradictory storylines, unrecognisable classic characters and even coined the term ‘Bayverse’ – a derogatory term to refer to this part of the franchise as more concerned with big explosions than any form of storytelling.
But love them or loathe them, most fans who has seen all the movies has in their head their own personal list of ‘best to worst’, judging the films by their own personal criteria.
So here is Big Angry Trev’s own list of the Transformers movies, starting with my least liked and working up to Number 1!
Saw this in the cinema, and have watched the Blu Ray a total of twice, both times at the behest of someone else. This is a movie that ran for over 2 ½ hours and may have been better received if they had shaved a lot of that runtime off. Even upon multiple viewings the storyline jumps around too much to coherently follow – first they are hiding out in a junkyard, then they are racing through the streets of London, then they are undersea looking for a tomb and then finally up in the air fighting on broken bits of Cybertron. Throw in a few human storylines, most of which were superfluous, the appearance of Unicron’s horns which were never properly investigated, and Merlin to boot and you had too much going on to properly sit back and enjoy.
The movie did have some positives going for it. The reemergence of Barricade, Welker finally voicing Megatron, Optimus Prime becoming Nemesis Prime and having a smackdown with Bumblebee, finding out what happened to Cybertron after TF3 etc. Also a few good battle scenes; Crosshairs jumping from the back of a stolen Con flyer, deploying parachutes and blasting enemies will always stick in my head as one of the best visuals of the entire series.
But in the end none of this could make up for a French-sounding Hot Rod, Marky-Mark removing his shirt for no reason, Combiners that seemed to flow together instead of actually transforming and a plotline that left you going ‘huh?’.
If only the movie had been as awesome as the toyline!
I feel part of the reason this movie is so disliked by much of the Fandom is that it seemed such a letdown after the relatively well received first movie, and many feared such a sequel would put an end to the live action Transformer flicks altogether. Bay blamed much of the movies faults on the writers strike. Since another strike is currently occuring lets hope it doesn’t adversely affect next years animated Transformers One movie
This was a movie made for 13 year old boys. Considering its Transformers perhaps that should not be too surprising. The crass humour was dialled up big time and for me (as someone who has avoided even learning about Kiss Players) the most cringeworthy thing to ever happen in all of Transformers was watching Wheelie hump Mikalya’s leg. Devastator having testicles, dogs humping other dogs, a fleshy tongue on the end of a metal tendril trying to lick Sam, a sidekick in his underwear demanding toilet paper, a stoned mother and Jetfire farting a parachute – the childish humour seemed to never end. Add to this… urgh… the Twins, the most racially insensitive thing in Transformers since Carbombiya, and this movie felt like it was written by Beavis & Butthead after they discovered pot.
Like TLK, this movie still had some good points. The introduction of The Matrix, the Original Primes, The Fallen and the Pretender concept were welcome parts of Transformers lore to be included into the live action universe. Soundwave becoming a Communications Satellite was a clever idea and him ejecting Ravage in order to infiltrate an installation was very cool. This is also where Soundwave got his tendrils, a concept carried over into TF3, Prime and RID15. The way Devestator combined was dramatically done, even if he subsequently only smashed bricks and sucked sand. Despite only being a byproduct of the movie, it is also worth noting that ROTF brought us one of the best and most expansive toylines of the live action franchise, indeed Bludgeon who wasn’t even in the movie receiving the best toy he has ever had!
But once again despite all the positives, too many negatives were contained in this film to overlook, and thus Revenge of the Fallen comes second last in the Transformers list of fav movies.
Number #6 – Age of Extinction
Grimlock on the big screen baby!
The previous two movies are widely regarded as the worst of the Transformer flicks so I doubt them coming in at numbers 7 & 8 will raise many eyebrows. Likewise I doubt this movie will cause a lot of contention by not being #1. Age of Extinction had a lot going for it, a new human cast (Shiah LeBouf having taken to wearing a paper bag on his head by this point), new robots whilst still retaining a few fan faves that survived the slaughter of DOTM, an interesting plotline and a cool bad guy. Yes, Lockdown (imported from the Animated universe) made a refreshing change; a bounty hunter not involved in the Autobot/Decepticon conflict who could turn his face into a sniper cannon. The Autobots on the run, hiding out from being hunted down by the government was also a nice change of pace from being teamed up with Lennox and his crew. Throw in a few Dinobots, an evil Fraiser and the old trope of Megatron being reborn as Galvatron and you’ve got a winner right?
Well… sorta. In a franchise that often let its movies run too long in order to fit in as many Michael Bay explosions as possible, this one was the longest coming in at a whopping 165 minutes! Even if you are enjoying yourself, that’s too damn long! By the time Lockdown’s ship was using its gravity weapon to suck up boats and building, simply to dump them down again, your average viewer was exhausted. Like TLK, it may have been better received if it had cut at least half an hour of superfluous material. The Dinobots were very cool, but seemed to be more monsters than Dino’s, whilst Hound had transformed from a nature lover to a rotund, gun-toting drill sergeant. The whole storyline of Tessa Yeager was just fricken creepy! All the skimpy outfits and sexual innuendos attached to a 17 year old girl dating a 20 year old was just…. bleegh! Don’t get me wrong, I like looking at pretty girls on a big screen as much as the next guy, but this just made you feel gross, especially that ‘Romeo & Juliet Law’ thing. The Lucas Flannery character stating ‘There goes a couple of dune bugs’ while he leers at other underage girls paled in comparison and that’s saying something. The other negative for die hard fans was Transformium (not to be confused with the fantastic Transformatorium) – we want to see robots cleverly turn into vehicles and back – turning into a bunch of pixels is just cheating.
This was a movie that had more positives than negatives, yet one cant help think that if Cade was bereft of children this movie would have been shorter and less creepy on the whole.
Number #5 – Dark of the Moon
Optimus, save me from another movie like ROTF!
Okey Dokey, now we are getting to the better stuff! DOTM (in my opinion, remember – these are just my opinions. But because they are mine they are fantastic!) brought Transformers back from the depths that ROTF sent it tumbling into, giving us an action-packed and interesting movie full of battling bots destroying everything in their path. No street fight with a dozen bots, no skirmish out in the desert in Qatar – this flick gave us huge battles where Chicago got ripped to shreds as the Bots and Cons went head to head! This movie had a coherent storyline that seemed to stay on track and kept the plot moving forward at a good pace. It was not frantic enough you lost the plot, nor slow enough you got bored. The humans were at least tolerable (for the most part) though that toilet scene was plain weird and Sam’s mother had gone from amusing to disturbing. Optimus having his trailer, the appearance of The Wreckers, buildings toppling over from some giant driller thingie – all pro’s. With the addition of Laserbeak becoming a pink version of Bee so he could kill some kids Dad and you’ve got yourself a bonifide action movie boys and girls!
Was the movie perfect? Oh my no, hence why it sits at No #5. Sam’s as big a loony as ever, jumping around with a Con-watch attached to his wrist. The Autobots are far more brutal than the Decepticons, examples being the Wreckers ripping an enemy limb from limb and Optimus killing both Megs AND Sentinel at the end of the movie, even as the latter asked for mercy. Shockwave is grossly under-utilized for such a major character, and lets all thank the powers that be that they decided to make Wheeljack named Que instead, because he looked like Einstein got reanimated as a robotic skeleton.
Quibbles aside, this was a pretty good movie and if nothing else, acted like TF:TM by killing off a lot of the old bots so we could enjoy some new ones the next time round.
Number #4 – Transformers
Off to finally see some live-action Transformers!
Now, to clarify, I actually like DOTM more than the 2007 Transformers movie. But credit where credit is due, this is the flick that brought the franchise into the world of live-action movies and was successful enough those movies are still being made 16 years later, so ya gotta give it some props.
Yes, this was the movie that had some sections of the fandom crying ‘Michael Bay raped my childhood’ – and what a stupid platitude that was. You still see social media groups today that have vowed after the first live-action movie to never watch another one, or have deemed anything not purely G1 as an abomination. To these people I say: once you’ve closed yourself off to anything new, then stagnate you will, and so will the franchise you apparently love so much.
For me nothing will ever quite match the magic I felt as I watched Blackout transform for the first time. And as for Optimus transforming from Truck to Robot – I had to put a hand over my mouth and stifle a little sob of joy. It may not have been G1 but here was the Transformers finally done in live-action, and they weren’t f’ing it up!
Oh the Geewunner in me decried a lot of the movies aesthetics. Megatron and Starscream were as ugly as sin, Ironhide and Ratchet were the wrong colours and so on. And that’s when they were actually on screen – for a lot of this movie you sat there wondering ‘When are the robots going to come back?’ For a movie called Transformers, they certainly seemed to take a back seat a lot of the time.
The humans? Well besides taking up too much screen time they weren’t too bad. Sam hadn’t gone insane yet and neither had his mother, her short performances being the comedic highlights of the film. Mikayla was quite a strong character for someone who the male audience was supposed to primarily drool over, and Lennox and his team did their best to not be simple jarheads, actually adding to the plot nicely.
So yes, this movie had a lot of faults, but for bringing Transformers into the mainstream and giving the franchise a gigantic shot in the arm which it still benefits from today, Transformers 2007 comes in at Number #4 for me.
This is the movie that so many die hard fans wish that Transformers 2007 had been. First we are treated to a scene with all the bots battling on Cybertron, and they look like themselves again! No weird colour schemes, no faces and bodies so mashed and distorted that once they move you cant tell what part of a bot you are looking at, all those aesthetic quibbles gone. Cybertron looks like Cybertron again too, its not some Hexagonal mesh covered in bots that are the same colour as its surface and it’s not in bits and pieces flying over the Earth either. It was all so beautiful it could bring a tear to the hardest Geewuners optic sensor.
Of course this did not last long and off to Earth they went, but not many of them. Yes, by only having Bumblebee, Shatter and Dropkick on Earth you got to see their characters actually develop, interact with humans, interact with each other – you know, actually act like characters in a movie instead of murderbots.
Charlie Watson remains to this day the most likeable human out of the entire movie franchise. You empathise with her woes and you celebrate her victories. She’s not going nuts, or trying to shag someone, or being overly heroic or sexualised or insane. You hate Tina Lark and laugh when Bumblebee smashes up her car, you root for Memo as he tries to step up to be a hero despite being scared shitless, and manages to show his romantic interest for Charlie without being sleazy.
And how much 80’s nostalgia could they pack in eh! The music, the aesthetics – all spot on. Bumblebee is a Volkswagen Beetle as we always wanted him to be and reprising his role as the sweet best friend of the central human rather than just bashing up Barricade a lot.
There is very little to fault with this movie. Oh sure, Blitzwing looked more like Starscream than the live-action Starscream ever did so the ‘changing bots beyond recognition’ concept from the Bayverse movies hadn’t completely disappeared. It was also confusing to many fans that this was billed as a prequel rather than a reboot, yet it contradicted so much that had come before, such as Bee hitting Earth in 1986 rather than having been around so long he had been battling Nazi’s.
This was a wonderful movie, with a lot of heart and fully deserves it’s place in the Top 3 Transformer movies of all time.
Yes, I have to give it to the latest instalment of the franchise, Rise of the Beasts has been the best live-action movie so far. With far less humans and far more Bots, new factions and – gasp – Unicron himself, we get a fantastic movie with Transformers banding together to save the world itself!
I love Bumblebee, I do. He’s a great character and my son’s favourite. However many of us were suffering from Bumblebee overload. Every movie, every cartoon, every toyline, everything from 2007 onwards he has been front and centre. And sure, it makes sense as he’s the posterbot for the franchise now. But enough was enough, so I was very happy to see Mirage step up to take his place and Bee to be sidelined for much of the adventure.
Was this the Mirage of old. Well, no. In fact when you first see his altmode you think ‘Jazz is back!’ It’s rather odd how much they made his vehicle look like Jazz, though they did give a holographic shout out to his old mode. His invisibility is gone, but his holographic powers from the original tech specs and the Netflicks cartoon are in evidence. For me he was a tad too cheery, a tad too immature and he was able to swap altmodes far too easy – he can have the bulk of a garbage truck but be as small as an exosuit? Transforming seems less special when you make it almost limitless.
Optimus is sounding old and weary. And who can blame him, Cullen is 82 now! The poor old bloke will be on his deathbed and still have a boom hanging over his head so he can voice Prime. One wonders if they cast Prime in the ‘concerned weary leader’ role just to take into account the voice actors age. That said, he still rocks it as he always does and he is respected and loved by beast and bot alike.
Scourge makes a passable bad guy, an amalgamation of his G1 and RID(01) incarnations, being a black truck with his Sweep minions (looking like Frenzy’s cousins). Battletrap is awesome in the battle scenes with those chains of his, it’s only Nightbird that doesn’t add much to the trio. The Maximals Optimus Primal and Airazor get a lot of dialogue and screentime, though fan favourites Cheetor & Rhinox do little indeed. Arcee seems a good mix, looking similar in bot mode to the Bumblebee movie and similar in altmode to her ROTF incarnation. Its just Wheeljack that got fans annoyed, and it turned out there was a lot of noise over a character that barely appeared. And like many fans, I’m remaining hopeful of a Stratosphere action figure.
And perhaps this is why this movie ranks for me as the highest of the live-action movies – I can spend all this time taking about the robot characters. Yes, they were finally characters with dialogue and weren’t one-dimensional killing machines, a precedent set in the Bumblebee movie that was thankfully followed on.
There were a couple of humans too of course, and it was nice to see there wasn’t a romantic/sexual story between them, a refreshing change. They weren’t annoying either. And whilst they got a lot of screen time, perhaps for the first time since the 80’s the robots were truly the stars of a Transformers movie.
And speaking of the 80’s, that leads us to…
Number #1 – The Transformers: The Movie
A movie so good I had to recreate it in action-figure form
C’mon, you all knew this was coming. TF:TM remains the high point for many of a franchise nearly 40 years old. Yes it was a glorified toy commercial. Yes it was designed to kill off as many old characters as possible so that Hasbro could flog the new toys. And yes, it sent many children out of the cinema in tears as they watched their beloved Optimus Prime die.
But it did SO MUCH. And it introduced SO MUCH! A slew of what is considered quintessential to Transformers got it’s start here. The Matrix of Leadership, Megatron becoming Galvatron, Junkions, Quintessons, Sharkticons, Optimus dying (to one day be resurrected) and so on. Hot Rod, Kup, Blurr, Arcee, Ultra Magnus, Cyclonus, Scourge – all these iconic characters got their start here. Not to mention Unicron, perhaps the biggest big bad to ever exist in pop fiction ever! Galactus drains the energy from planets, well our bad guy eats planets and swallows moons whole!
Now this isn’t to say the movie isn’t without flaw, there’s plenty. Two Cyclonus’, a miscoloured Rumble, Snarl appearing and disappearing randomly, characters that die showing up later etc. And though I loved it as a kid, the adult in me cringes a bit watching them having a dance off on Junkion. Hasbro was way too brutal with killing off fan favourite characters, though one could argue this is one of the things that makes the movie so memorable – this was a no-holds barred slaugherfest in places which set it apart from many of the other 80’s toy movies.
But damn, there is a reason they are STILL selling toys based directly on this movie 37 years later, its just too good! It had stellar cast of pop culture icons such as Lenoard Nimoy from Star Trek, Eric Idle from Monty Pythons and a song by Weird Al Yankovic, as well as other big name actors such as Orson Wells himself playing Unicron. It even managed to make Daniel and Wheelie not annoying (if only S3 of the cartoon had managed such a feat).
Space battles, motorcycle chases, Dinobots, Constructicons, a bad guy the size of a fricken world – it’s amazing they could fit all this into such a short movie. Throw in a soundtrack which is so 80’s it makes you want to run to the nearest music store to buy an electric guitar to learn such tasty licks, and you’ve got a movie that is still beloved nearly 4 decades later. Yes, The Transformers: The Movie sits at number #1 as the greatest Transformers movie of all time; it had both the touch and the power. Heck in spots it even dared to be stupid! And one suspects will retain its throne for many years to come, until Galvatron gives it a hint at any rate.
So how would you rate the 8 Transformers movies from worst to best? Similar to myself or completely differently? Pop your list in the comments section below!
After a 5 year absence of giant shape changing alien robots in theatres, Transformers Rise of the Beasts has hit cinemas worldwide June 9th. Thanks to the generosity of Hasbro and Paramount Pictures, some of us lucky folk even got to attend Special Preview Showings on Thursday 8th, being able to quench our thirst for Autobot antics a day early.
Even Mirage got invited to his own flick! Love Hasbro & Paramount putting on these special events!
Warning, this is a Movie Review – so SPOILERS!
One of the main complaints of the live action Transformer films is having to wait around for ages to finally see some robots. No such complaint can be made here. One of the main groups of protagonists – The Maximals, and the main antagonists – The Terrorcons and their gigantic master Unicron, are introduced at the outset, setting the stage for much mayhem to come. We are also introduced to the AllsparkMatrixControl PillarSeedStaff of MerlinTranswarp Key, a… glowy thingie… which will be used as an excuse for robots to travel to Earth, trapse all over the globe and fight each other to obtain it.
I can eat whole planets – but can be defeated by the lack of a glowy thing the size of your forearm
And then of course we transfer to the obligatory human characters and their backstories. Firstly Noah Diaz, an ex-solider who is about to embark on a life of crime in order to support his younger brother who, I dunno, has a pain in his hand or something. And Elena Wallace, an undervalued researcher in a museum. So yes, we have humans but good news – there is no romantic subplot! That’s right folks, a live action Transformers movie with no romantic awkwardness between teens or overt sexualization of young women – can I get an amen!
We are never scantiy dressed or sexually attracted to each other – are we sure this is a Transformers movie?
Anyways, these humans need to meet the Transformers for the plot to advance, so Noah tries to steal Mirage, police chase ensues, they escape and we get introduced to the bulk of the Autobot cast. Brooding Optimus & perky Bumblebee, the mainstays of the movie series are on hand with Arcee, returning for her third outing, combining her robot look from the Bumblebee movie with her motorcycle altmode from ROTF. But its Mirage who takes the staring role both in this scene and for much of the movie (oh thank you, thank you Primus for not making yet another movie all about Bumblebee and Optimus again!).
We are fam-i-ly!
Lets take a look at Mirage shall we. Originally in Generation One the character was a blue & white Autobot Warrior, a member of the upper class who wants the war over so as to return to his lavish lifestyle on Cybertron, who could turn into an Indy Racer as well as cloak himself with invisibility.
‘A giant robot race car that can cloak? I rock!’
Here he seems to be a pastiche of other G1 Transformer characters. He has the youthful exuberance of Hot Rod, the altmode of Jazz and the holographic powers of Hound. That said, at least there is some resemblance to previous incarnations there.
‘You are really going to enjoy me’
Mirage also seems to be able to turn into anything. Yes I know that’s the point of Transformers, that they can change their forms, but Mirage can change into most anything on a whim. In short order he transforms into a Porsche, a Lamborghini and an Indy Racer (in an homage to his G1 counterpart). Yup, all cars approximating his mass and size, so what’s the problem? No problem as such yet, but a short time later he transforms into a garbage truck bigger than Prime himself, and near the end an exo-suit for Noah which is not much bigger than the human. By making Mirage seemingly able to be anything, it waters down the specialness of the transforming ability in general.
Wait, wasn’t I like 100 times bigger only an hour ago in the movie?
It isn’t long before, in pursuit of the glowy key thingie, the Autobots meet the Terrorcons, with much fighting and general violence taking place. Thankfully for the franchise it learned from Dropkick and Shatter from the last flick as in a few fleshed out bad guys can prove more interesting than an army of generic ones (don’t worry, that happens later too). Scourge, the Terrorcon leader and main Herald of Unicron, is powerful and commanding enough as the main villain, though can’t be said to be breaking new ground – at least he comes with a couple of deployable Freezer minions. Battletrap is pretty cool, using chains with clamps and wrecking balls on the end in both his modes to hurt his opponents, often using the environment around him to help smash his foes. Nightbird can fly to provide her group air support, she also produces her signature swords near the end of the movie but doesn’t do much with them.
I will use the one ring to rule you all!
The glowy thingie is found, but oh no! It got all broke up and now we need to find the second half! Cue off to Peru, courtesy of Stratosphere, a pretty cool old transport plane character. They meet up with Pablo Wheeljack who has an idea where the second half may be. There we see the Autobots actually using their ‘robots in disguise’ moniker by hiding around the city in vehicle mode while the humans do their thing. Then off to the jungle where the Maximals are hiding out where they are most definitely not robots in disguise. Don’t get me wrong, they look cool. But they are all way bigger than the animals they are supposed to be disguised as (the glowing eyes don’t help much either). Maximals and Autobots team up, get their arses kicked, the glowy thing is put back together and thus the final act is underway. The transwarp portal is opened, allowing Unicron to come and chow down on Earth.
‘Wait, you can tell that I’m not an Earth-gorilla? How?!’
But things don’t happen that fast. Despite the transwarp portal castle thing materializing in seconds, it takes a long time for the portal to open enough for Unicron, so even though Airazor is now dead and Bumblebee near death himself, the remaining bots go to stop the portal opening, Optimus and Noah learning the magic of friendship (or something) and trusting each other. Here we get the big final battle, with all the good guys who survived near dying at some point but never quite managing it, while the bad guys (along with the promised hordes of weaker bad guys to go smashy smashy on) get their comeuppance. Cue some post battle scenes and that’s a wrap folks.
So yes, the plot is very formulaic and nothing you haven’t seen in a hundred other flicks. So is this movie worth watching?
Yes, yes it is! This is actually to my mind the best live action Transformers movie to date, as well as being the most fun! The majority of robots are treated like actual characters, receiving their fair share of screen time and character development, not simply murderbots to show up to kill each other between prolonged human scenes. Speaking of, they finally seem to have struck the right balance for robot-to-human screen time – it’s a Transformers movie with actual Transformers!
We are in the film! We are in the film lots!
The only time I got sick of the squishies was the final battle scene; a huge stunning battle taking place with the Maximals and Autobots fighting the Terrorcons and a legion of their minions while Unicron decends from above, and they halt the action for two full minutes for Noah to have a heart-to-heart with his brother over a walkie-talkie?! Shut the hell up Noah – we want to see the robots fight! This did detract from the exo-suit scene for me, as I was all pissed off with Noah ruining the flow, but thankfully times like this in the movie were rare – no 10 minute scenes of Sam Witwicky having a mental meltdown in class, followed by talking about how a kiss had a deisely tinge to it. The pacing of the movie is spot on, keeping you entertained without things going so fast you don’t know what’s happening, the humour gives you a few genuine laughs without it ever sinking into the gutter, in short this movie seems to have listened to all the fan gripes about the first 5 movies and rectified them, producing a fun and entertaining flick about our favourite giant, shape-changing alien robots!
I give Transformers Rise of the Beasts 9 out of 10 stolen Autobot badges.
You like me, you actually like me
Have you seen this movie? What did you think of it? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
One comes to enjoy the perk’s of being a celebrity. Whether one is acknowledged for their skills as a radio personality, film star, internet blogger or Transformers expert, it is nice that society values you above the regular folk and treats you as such.
Earlier this year I took my family to Sydney to experience some live shows. My son and I were off to see Weird Al Yankovic, while my wife and daughter were off to see Hairspray. As Hairspray was showing at the Casino, our family decided to book a modest room at The Darling Hotel next door.
Of course, the inevitable happened. Despite having booked a normal room, once the staff saw Big Angry Trev walk through the doors, we were immediately given a free upgrade to the Penthouse (not bad since it cost over $3000 more a night than the room we had booked!).
So when one is treated so well, it is only fitting to give some words of thanks in return. So lets take a look at The Penthouse Suite at The Darling.
Now THIS is what a Hotel Room should look like
I loved the fact that our room had it’s own foyer you walked through before you reached the actual room. Upon entering one is treated to a gorgeous open-planned kitchen, dining and lounge area, with one wall made up exclusively of floor-to-ceiling windows that offered a breathtaking view of Sydney Harbour.
The view by night
Exploring the area, one finds that not only is every room climate-controlled – but dual climate controlled, so that if one person wants their side of the room at 26 degrees, and the other at 28 then the room can accommodate. Handy for when you have more than one person sharing a bedroom. And the bedrooms – I swear they must have murdered a dozen flocks of geese to make the beds that soft, perfect to watch the multiple widescreen televisions from.
The bathrooms (yes, plural) that also were climate controlled, were fabulous. The showers had their own room – 2 showers with 3 heads apiece side by side. At the other end of the Penthouse was a private steam room, with a spa bath next door that could accommodate a small family.
When not enjoying the opulence of our Penthouse, we decided to take a dip in the rooftop swimming pool and jacuzzi – just the thing to help us relax after a hard day of comfort and luxury.
Rooftop Swimming PoolRooftop Jacuzzi
The next morning, we decided to order a room service breakfast, easily accommodated given the 11am checkout time. You have to appreciate a hotel that gives you this many options for eggs.
Awaiting my breakfast
So when staying in Sydney, do yourself a favour darlings and stay at The Darling. Friendly staff, incredible food and accommodation worthy of even Big Angry Trev himself! 5 Stars darling, 5 Stars!
Weird Al is easily the most beloved comedic singer of all time. One of only four artists in history that has managed to have a Top 40 hit four decades running (the others being U2, Michael Jackson & Madonna), his enduring popularity and relatively clean material means that adults and kids alike have been enjoying his music for nearly half a century!
Well, Weird Al has been touring once again with his self-deprecatingly titled show ‘The Ill-Advised Vanity Tour’ and luckily for residents of the land down under, this tour has included Australia.
My son is as big a Weird Al fan as I, so what better to be the first concert of a 10-year old than to see the funny man in person, which we did at the Enmore Theatre.
Originals – Yes, Parodies – No
Weird Al is best known for his parodies of other singers works, but chose to leave them out of this tour, instead focusing on his original songs (of which he has written over 90). Whilst this was somewhat of a disappointment for those for whom songs like Fat or Foil are favourites, it meant that for many of us we were hearing some of his lesser known songs for the first time which was a treat indeed.
Still kickin it at 63
Despite the fact he looks much younger (he practices a level of clean living I could never attain) Weird Al is now in his mid sixties. When first entering the stage he did a high kick that would make the most stringent Karate master proud… and then sat down. For the rest of the show Weird Al and his band, also getting on in years, stayed seated with just some thrashing of the heads. Whilst this took away somewhat from the spectacle of the show, it did not detract overall and Al’s voice has lost nothing over the years – he could still belt out the hardest rock with an intensity that would rip my vocal cords apart. Lighting was used to excellent effect, adding some much needed visual appeal.
The Sound
Perhaps the one disappointment of the show. Either side of the stage were huge walls of speakers. Whether they were aging themselves so not as crisp sounding, or simply were cranked too high, the volume was such that there were a few songs where you simply couldn’t understand what Al was singing. Hopefully this is something they can rectify for future shows. The volume was that intense that at one point I could feel myself getting a headache and my son was covering his ears with his hands, despite us being a full 20 rows back from the stage.
Despite these few quibbles, the last 3rd of the show really kicked buttock! Al finished off his main set with an even longer version of ‘Albuquerque’, a song of his that I had never cared for but that night had me in hysterics! This was followed by a most surprising encore: first Weird Al sang Paul Simon’s‘You can call me Al’ – and no it wasn’t a parody, he just sang the song. It would be the first time in 40 years I’ve heard Weird Al sing a straight cover of another performers song and he did it quite well.
This was followed by a huge pastiche of bits of Al’s own parody songs (such as Amish Paradise) along with snippets of other songs like ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ – garnering him and his band a standing ovation from an appreciative crowd.
Other attendee’s reactions:
David from Sydney
It’s always a massive joy to see one of your favourite performers live, and it’s even more enjoyable when they surprise you! A really unusual selection of songs and bits of banter that reminded us all that Al has a hugely wide range, and just doing parodies isn’t his jam. sometimes you need to play a full set of your own weird idiosyncratic numbers that some folks may not know as well. but still showcase the bizarre brain of the man himself… The Pre-show set of Emo Phillips was a weird throwback to an older style of comedy that is both timeless and at the same time strangely dated. It therfore felt even weirder when making up to the minute gags about Russia and American foreign policy along side “kill my wife” that could have been from the 60s, 80s or 90s….
It was a great show, but the band and Al himself are definitely showing their age. A little less running around the stage, a little more 3 guys on stools playing great technically brilliant music.
I would have been happy to have seen any show, but “funny feeling you don’t love me anymore” is one of my all-time faves so it made me very happy that i got that one on my night. Oh and the dada-ist poem and rhythmic chanting in the end was a piece of pure magic!
Orion from Rural NSW
It was a really good concert, Weird Al sang ‘Albuquerque’ really well. I liked how he would say every berry donut they probably ever made in it. He mixed up lots of his parody choruses in one bit for the encore.
Jamie from Sydney
Weird Al Yankovic was such a joy to see in person! Performing at his very weirdest, he put on a show that included such dubious classics as “Dare to Be Stupid”, “Don’t Download This Song” and “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota”. Demonstrating his phenomenal range, he performed some of his songs in different styles, including a Reggae cover of Word Crimes. Friends of mine went to the show the next night and got a completely different set – I know I’ll be buying tickets for both nights if I’m lucky enough to see him again!
Aaron from Perth
I think the show itself was pretty dang great. Biases aside Al is still extremely funny, and he and his band legitimately rock on stage. Admittedly the sound system wasn’t the best so during many of the songs it was difficult to understand any of the lyrics, which could hurt the enjoyment of any songs that I or other audience members aren’t intimately familiar with.
That said, the songs I didn’t know I enjoyed which was only a few, and he also played a few of my all time favourites of his (including a style altered version of my absolute childhood favourite). And the finale was a mind bending spectacle I couldn’t have seen coming.
Less to do with the show itself, but I did find the audience a tad underwhelming, it seemed barely anyone was reacting most of the time in contract to my family and I headbanging along with Sue for instance (and that’s not to mention the one guy that wouldn’t stop yelling “Albuquerque”).
All in all, a fun experience that my family and I loved.
Finally after being a fan of his for so long, I got the chance to see him in concert. And it was no disappointment. A great artist with alot of music out there, parodies and his own. Both are great.
Did you see Weird Al live in concert? What did you think? Feel free to pop your thoughts in the comments section below!
The pandemichas put a dampener on live music and theatre over the last few years, with the industry only now beginning to recover and live entertainment making its way onto our stages once again.
Thankfully, we’ve managed to get some of this entertainment out here in the countryside too. And thus this December we were treated to the Twin Town Players performance of ‘Murder at Aunt Agatha’s’.
Murder at Aunt Agatha’s is one of those classic who-dunnit plays, where all the characters are gathered in one house for the reading of a will. And in classic style, those characters keep getting murdered, both keeping the audience entertained and leading them to speculate on which character the murderer could be!
This production of Aunt Agatha starred many locals from the Rylstone and Kandos area, and was directed by the talented Ms. Cathy Heap. Spanning 4 days, the Rylstone Hall was packed with people eager to watch some live theatre once again. So lets work our way through the characters and the talented actors that brought them to life upon the stage.
The Earl Family
A comedic ‘nerd’ family, made up of a Mother (played by Rachelle Connellan), Father(Roger Heap – its rumoured that he got the role by sleeping with the director!),Daughter(Phillipa Kilminister) & Son (Ryan Gallaher). These characters are some of the few that have any brains in the play, though not a lot of common sense. The younger actors wore headsets in order to be heard by the audience and the family unit received lots of chuckles, before being unceremoniously killed en masse by poisoned ink.
The Vamvleet Family
Posh with a side of dark sheep. Mrs. Margaret Vanvleet(played by Leanne Bessant) and her daughter Alexandra (Kyrstal Thorn) are high society types that look down upon those around them, including their own relations. Leanne played a fantastic Margaret, a character prone to dramatically fainting, whilst Krystal shone as the petulant, spoiled Alexandra, always threatening to leave if it wasn’t for the money. Margaret’s other son, Reggie Vamvleet (Isabelle Furner/Big Angry Trev) is the black sheep of the family, fresh out of jail he turns up hoping for some inheritance money, spending his time either insulting everybody or sleazily flirting with some of the female characters. Isabelle played Reggie in a very ‘Fonzie’ style whereas the other actor, well… we will come to that later. Margaret meets her end via poisoned moonshine, Alexandra meets her end via a cliff and oddly Reggie is one of the few characters to survive.
The McSwine Family
Cousins, disturbing cousins…
Relatives of the snooty Vamvleets, these are the quintessential hillbillies which makes for a funny juxtaposition between the two family branches, played out over several scenes. The mother Mrs.Katie Mae McSwine(played by Owain James) and her three daughters(Emily Gallaher, Jess Gallaher & Janine Maw) are all extremely funny on stage and tick all the stereotype hillbilly boxes such as loving Elvis, drinking moonshine, winning spitting contests and, most disturbingly, having a crush on their cousin. And with the experienced thespian Owain dressed as the matriarch, that old tradition of men dressing up as women on stage was kept alive. The three daughters, all of whom were involved with the KHS production of Pricilla earlier in the year, came across very relaxed on stage and maintained character extremely well – it will be interesting to see their progression as actors in future theatricals.
The Movie Star & her Agent
Sounds like something out of Gilligan’s Island, but no. Gina Starlet (Mary Boxsell) and her long-suffering agent Maxie(Anne Attwood) have shown up looking for a share in the inheritance. Mary plays the faded-starlet character beautifully, and she and Anne share the most dramatic death scene in the entire play. The two of them choking to death earned a huge roar of approval and round of applause on the third night of the play, their dramatics delighting the appreciative crowd!
The Evil Siblings
The dastarly domestic staff in the front row
Bridgett(played by Kirilee Besant) and Hildegard(Ryan Attwood) were in the service of Aunt Agatha and are now hoping to scare off all the relatives so that they can get the cash for themselves. These are some of the more in-depth characters portrayed in the show – they are siblings but are pretending to be twin sisters rather than brother & sister, despite the fact that Bridgett talks with a French accent and her ‘sister’ talks with a German one. Part of the humour is that Hildegard really does look like a man in a dress, and for most of the play he seems the most obvious suspect to be the murderer. Ryan did a very funny and over-the-top rendition of Hildegard, and boy can that boy scream! Kirilee was fantastic as Bridgett, and would often improvise stage movements, like roughly shoving away the lecherous Reggie at random times, or fixing the blankets on the couch playing to the French Maid theme of her character.
The Lawyer, Aunt Agatha, Police & Prompter
Taking on multiple roles can be tough, but Chantelle Williams did it seamlessly. Chantelle provided the voice for Aunt Agatha’s recordings, as well as coming on in the last scene to arrest the murderer. Perhaps even more importantly, she was the prompter on side of stage, providing much needed help whenever anyone would forget a line. Full credit should also be given to Willow Connellan who was a dynamo backstage as well!
Willima Cleanyou, played by Belinda Innes, is Aunt Agatha’s laywer and is a very strong and stern character, showing the most authority in the play before the Detective enters. Belinda’s performance of this embezzling lawyer was flawless, never missing a beat!
The Leading Man & Lady
Two of the stand-out performances of the show were by Emily Gardiner, playing Rose Bloom, and actor of stage & screen Blake Prosser, playing Detective Sam Club. Rose is an overtly sweet character who is not all she appears, hiding the deviousness within, and managing to initially charm Sam. Sam himself is a hard-talking, no-nonsense gumshoe who turns up just before the end of Act 1, and his striving to find the killer is one of the main plot motivators for the second half of the show. Rose likes everyone whereas Sam suspects everyone, so naturally these two disparate characters develop an attraction for each other, even if it is short lived. Like Bridgett & Hildegard, these are two characters that are more fleshed out than most of the others, giving the actors a chance to display a range of emotions rather than simply playing a one-dimensional role, and both Emily and Blake were up to the task, delighting audiences with their performances night after night.
The Ghosts
5 local children – Allison George, Ellaria Jonkers, Ashton Thorn, India Jonkers & Ryder Robinson – played the Ghosts of Aunt Agatha, interjecting some welcome cuteness into a play that is otherwise all about murder and self-interested characters. The ghosts come on stage twice during the production, and the audience loved it every time!
And, er, the other guy…
If you don’t know the lines, just move around a lot
Yes dear readers, Big Angry Trev did strut the stage again, and strut is probably the best way to describe it – what I lacked in script-knowledge I made up in swagger.
Unfortunately the actor playing Reggie was sick for 3 of the 4 shows so I had to step in at the last minute and play the role. And it was very last minute – I didn’t meet the cast until an hour before showtime, didn’t get a chance for a single run through and said the lines out loud for the first time during the opening show! Despite having script in hand I still forgot a lot of lines and a lot of cues, so thankfully the rest of the cast were good at subtly prompting me or prodding me in the right direction.
It t’wernt me gov!
Reggie is a sod of a character, which made him a lot of fun to play! That said, all the horrible insulting things I had to say to Krystal, Emily, Jess & Janine, as well as the sleazy pick-up lines I had to use on Kirilee & Emily, made me cringe a little inside at times. But I found that there was a certain liberation with having been to no rehearsals – no one could get mad at me for missing cues and lines because I was stepping in last second, and I could pretty make up what the character Reggie was like as I went along – by the 3rd show I was swaggering around the stage, walking almost crotch-first, busting out insults and pervy comments right, left & centre. All in for some reason a slightly cockney accent. It was great fun! Full cred to the girls for getting their revenge though, Kirilee’s character was shoving mine a lot more than the script called for. And the cousins Emily, Jess & Janine enjoyed tormenting me/my character with overly-theatrical sniffing and plucking of head hairs – it was all I could do to not to burst out laughing on stage!
Part of the joy of community theatre is that it really is made up of members of the local community. This means instead of a bunch of egotistic actors all coming together in order to practice their art and further their careers, it’s regular folk from the local towns who have decided to put on a fun show. Murder at Aunt Agatha’s cast and crew were made up of husbands & wives, mothers & offspring and even 3 siblings from the one family! It also put everyone on a level playing field, there were 6 students and 3 staff from the local High School and it was pleasant to see how these teens and adults interacted with each other as peers, any pre-existing power dynamics from school now non-existent.
This all made for a warm and convivial atmosphere and this came out backstage, on stage and with the casts interactions with the audience, which every night consisted of a sea of smiles.
Full credit to the cast and crew for putting on a fantastic show! I heartily look forward to watching the next production by the Twin Town Players. And who knows, maybe they’ll need another sleazy cockney guy to show up at the last second again to join in with the fun!
For only the 4th time since World War 1, Labor has ousted the Liberal party in order to claim victory in a Federal Election.
Given Labor’s relative inexperience with winning, it is unsurprising that their victory party was not as polished at it could have been.
For a report on the evenings events, we once again turn to our ace journalist – Pastor Fazool – to report on the story:
Sources have confirmed that the Australian Labor Party’s post-election victory party took an awkward turn on Sunday evening, once it became Member for Maribymong and former Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s turn to pick the next song on the karaoke machine.
‘I should be so lucky!’
Both the mood and the music had been upbeat until this point, with rousing renditions of iconic victory anthems such as Queen’s “We Are the Champions”, Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration”, and of course a mix of Aussie classics such as “You’re the Voice” and “Working Class Man”, the latter being specially dedicated to Prime Minister-elect Anthony Albanese. Eyebrows were somewhat raised at Kristina Keneally’s choice of “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves” given that she had not in fact actually Done It For Herself, instead losing the traditionally-Labor seat of Fowler to Independent challenger Dai Le. However, everyone agreed that Tanya Plibersek and Katy Gallagher’s stirring duet of Tina Turner’s “(Simply the) Best” was extremely uplifting, topped only by Penny Wong’s perfectly pitched (if perhaps slightly ungracious) delivery of Steam’s 1969 one-hit wonder “Na Na Na Na Hey Hey-ey Goodbye”. Hero of the night ‘DJ Albo’ was, naturally, in his element, and a good time was being had by all….
…until, that is, it was Bill’s turn to pick the next song.
While Opposition Leader in 2019, Mr Shorten chose to embark on a ‘big-target’, ‘optimism’-based election campaign, featuring a forward-looking policy platform of ambitious(-ish) action on climate change, massively boosted funding for health and hospitals (which may have come in handy during the massive worldwide plague that was to follow the very next year), and, perhaps most controversially, ever-so-slightly winding back a number of the extremely generous concessions tailored almost-exclusively towards rich property-investor Baby Boomers such as negative gearing and franking credits. This proved to be no match for then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s ‘policy-free’ approach of ‘hiding your entire frontbench from the public’, ‘calling the other guy childish nicknames’ and ‘just plain making shit up’, aided and abetted as it was by massive free advertising campaigns from both Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party and the 80% of Australia’s media landscape owned by News Corp, Nine, and Seven Media Holdings. Mr Shorten subsequently lead his team to lose the so-called ‘unlosable election’, with Mr Morrison enjoying a landslide victory of a single-seat lower-House majority. Under Mr Albanese, in contrast, Labor opted for a small-target strategy, and at present count is believed to be on track for a similar landslide as Mr Morrison three years earlier.
It should probably not have come as a surprise, then, when upon being handed the touchpad, a drunken Bill Shorten immediately opted for a rather more…poignant number. And so, before any of his colleagues could cry out “For the love of Sonny, No!”, Mr Shorten was passionately-but-off-keyedly belting out the chorus of Cher’s 1989 smash hit “If I Could Turn Back Time”.
It is presently unknown if Mr Shorten’s bar tab from the night was actually the Bill He Could Not Afford. Mr Albanese has however confirmed that as Prime Minister, if he could reach the stars he would indeed give them all to you.
Thank you Pastor for that fascinating report.
Note: The above article is fictitious and written for satirical purposes only. Thank you to Pastor Falzool for submitting his humorous take on the 2022 election results.
Ghostbusters fans aren’t as hardcore as say those of Star Trek, Star Wars or even Transformers, but they are a loyal bunch. The 80’s movies, along with the cartoon, are still much beloved and fondly remembered to this day.
Yes I am one of those fans
Many fans had hoped the franchise would be revitalized in 2016 with the new Ghostbusters Movie: Answer the Call. Instead they got a box-office flop filled with toilet humor and forced jokes, tarnished further with constant social media bickering and cries of ‘misogyny’ whenever anyone dared to criticize the film, whatever their gender.
With this utter failure to revitalize the franchise, many Ghostbusters fans resigned themselves to the idea that Ghostbusters, much like the creatures they hunt, was dead. But never underestimate the appeal of making more money to Hollywood, and thus in 2021 (a 2022 release here in Australia) we received Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Unlike Answer the Call, Afterlife is not another reboot attempt but a continuation of the original films universe. In fact this movie, despite having predominantly an entire new cast, could be best summed up as a 2-hour love letter to the original 1984 film. Whilst new viewers will no doubt enjoy the movie, it is very much aimed at existing fans and those hardcore Ghostbusters nuts will spend their time picking up on a thousand Easter Eggs that reference the first Ghostbusters Movie – everything from stacked books to a collection of spores, molds and fungus.
The story center’s around Egon Spengler, one of the original Ghostbusters, who was played by Harold Ramis and the only star of the first two movies to have passed on. Egon has become a recluse in an old farmhouse and very early in the movie gets killed by a Hellhound in a way instantly recognizable to fans of the original flick. Thus to all but the uninitiated one becomes immediately aware of who the main bad guy (or girl – its whatever it wants to be) is going to turn out to be.
From Ghostbuster to Dirt Farmer
Enter Egon’s estranged daughter and her two children. Being broke and evicted from their home, they have come to sort through Egon’s possessions in the hopes of finding enough items of value to pay off their debts. Phoebe, the 12 year old daughter, is the star of the show and instantly recognizable as Egon’s granddaughter with her round glasses and odd behavioral patterns.
Over the next hour of the movie we watch Phoebe, guided by whom she soon realises is her grandfather’s invisible ghost, discover her families past and learn the ways of busting, aided by her summer-school teacher and new school-friend Podcast. Her older brother Trevor meanwhile resurrects Ecto-1 and the busting is back on! This is a movie of likable characters, all of whom bring something to the story and help the humor and the plot move along nicely.
Nice to see kids actually get outdoors and play!
For those looking for a brand new Ghostbusters experience, they may be somewhat let down. This movie is very much about the main character discovering her past and uncovering that once again Gozer is looking to conquer Earth. She hunts ‘Muncher’, whom appears the be the metal-eating version of Slimer, all while uncovering more about her grandfather and how he has been holding Gozer at bay single-handed for many years. Same equipment, same main bad guys – it is less a new take and more a trip down memory lane. It is nice to see Ecto-1’s abilities showcased more, now displaying the gunners seat it had in the original 80’s cartoon.
How much would you pay to ride in that seat eh!
The movie culminates in the face off with Gozer, though apparently she forgot to grab herself a Destructor form this time around. Just when things look lost who shows up – Ray, Peter and Winston! And when they don’t prove enough Egon’s ghost finally makes a visual appearance and the four originals, along with Phoebe, take Gozer down for good. Cap it off with an emotional scene with the living Ghostbusters and Egon’s family talking to their departed love one and that’s a wrap folks!
As stated at the start of this review, this is a very Egon-centric movie. Given Harold Ramis is no longer with us the special-effects crew did an astounding job of creating a ghost version of Dr Spengler and it is a very emotional moment when he appears at the films climax. Yes, I’ll put my hand up that I did have tears in my eyes, even my wife cried too and she’s not the rabid fan I am. Seeing Venkhman, Zeddemore and Stanz firing their proton packs alongside a spectral Spengler really tugs at the nostalgic heartstrings and one can understand why so many fans have reported leaving the cinema with a lump in their throats. The movie is not only a love letter to the 1984 Ghostbusters Movie but to Harold Ramis himself, and one could imagine that if ghosts really did exist, then Harold’s ghost would be very moved indeed.
Is this movie worth watching? If you are a fan of the original movies then definitely – it pays homage to everything you loved, though perhaps is the first ever part of the Ghostbusters franchise to lack Slimer even having a cameo. Whilst the pace of the first half could have been better and it would have been good to see a wider variety of ghosts near the end, this movie ticks all the nostalgic boxes. If you are hoping for an all-new Ghostbusters experience then you will find this movie entertaining enough, but lacking the depth that hardcore fans will undoubtedly find within it. If the 2016 movie was more your cup of tea then don’t bother with this film, with no new gimmicks and no subpar slapstick comedy, this movie about a 12-year old girl is probably too mature to entertain.
I give this movie 4 out of 5 proton packs.
Got something to say about this movie? Pop it in the comments section below!
Books are awesome! Nothing better than a good book!
I’ve always loved reading, as has my wife. We’ve been reading to our kids every day, as well as before bed, since they were born so they have developed a love of reading too. Our son has reached the age that he now reads to himself after we say goodnight and during the lockdownwe let him stay up late in bed to read his favourite books.
Our daughter however still much prefers to be read to than read herself, though her skills improve every day. Like all kids she’s got some particular favourites that she wants to have read to her again and again…
…and again.
I never thought I could get sick of Cat in the Hat but damn I’d like to grab that hat, pull it all the way down to his feet and then toss that trouble-making feline in a river! Our daughter loves books under the Dr. Seuss banner and night after night we work our way through her extensive library of them. Books beloved from my childhood have now become a chore to read, yet none so more than friggin Go, Dog. Go!
What a fucking pain in the arse this book is! Written by P.D Eastman under the Seuss banner it follows Dogs… er… doing things. Sitting on a house. Sitting under a house. Dogs going in. Dogs going out. You get the picture. And whilst I can appreciate that the book is good for beginning readers to read themselves, its gruelling to get through as an adult when you are reading it to your kid for the 50th time in a row.
And no one is more of a pain in the arse in the book than this fucking bird:
Annoying entitled little green bastard!
Let me set the scene. A bunch of dog are, naturally, driving their cars:
Hey dogs? Ever hear of leaving two car spaces between you and the car in front?
The dogs are approaching an intersection, going hell for leather. There isn’t a single other car on the road. There is however a prick of a bird walking down the center of the road for some damn reason instead of using the footpath:
Get off the fucking road!
Now the bird sets off the traffic light and stands there in the middle of the damn intersection, yelling at the dogs to stop! Nearly causes a multi-vehicle pile up in doing so! The sense of entitlement in this action is Karen-worthy!:
Surely this is an arrest-able offense?
Then the little fucking bastard, after causing all this hassle, walks off down the road, giving permission to the dogs to go again. Look at the expression on those dogs! You can tell they want to jump out of their cars and maul the bird to death and I wouldn’t blame them:
Oh you little turd you!
Not only should this bird not be walking down the middle of a road meant for cars, let alone standing in the middle of an intersection yelling instructions at the motorists, but why the fuck doesn’t he just fly?! He’s a goddamn bird!
I swear, if ever they invent a way for people to enter books I wont be going into a Harry Potter novel to do a ‘Voldermort’s got no nose, how does he smell?’ joke at the evil one, no. I’ll go into Go, Dog. Go! and wring that birds scrawny neck.
