Movie reviews: Despite stand out performances, 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' is a ghost of the original

This week, TV pop culture critic Richard Crouse reviews new movies: 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife,' 'King Richard,' 'The Power of the Dog,' and 'Jagged.'

With the release of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” the supernatural comedy now playing in theatres, the Reitman family proves they ain’t afraid of no sequels. The fourth film in the franchise sees Jason Reitman, son of the original director Ivan, reinvent the series, this time for a younger audience.

The reboot begins with single mother Callie (Carrie Coon) inheriting a rundown old house from her estranged OG (Original Ghostbuster) father Egon Spengler. Located just outside the tiny town of Summerville, Okla., it’s “worthless aside from the sentimental value,” but Callie is desperate. She’s been evicted from her city apartment and sees the move as a way to start a new life for her two teenage kids, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace).

“We're completely broke,” Trevor tells a friend. “And the only thing that's left in our name is this creepy old farmhouse my grandfather left us in the middle of nowhere.”

Summerville is far from New York City, the original epicentre of "Ghostbusters'" supernatural activity of "human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together and mass hysteria," but it turns out the sleepy little town is also haunted. Phoebe, who takes after the grandfather she never met, is sensitive to the ghostly goings-on and with the help of her grandad’s old ghost traps, new mentor Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd) and some familiar faces, she will attempt to get to the bottom of the paranormal problem.