#this movie shouldve been set in london which is a WAY sadder more depressing place than nyc

[homestuckreplay]

you have a weak electrochemical bond!

John Egbert doesn't seem like a phone call type of kid, but you know who he IS gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS. I watched Ghostbusters II tonight, and overall I don't think it's a good movie - the message is glaringly over the top obvious, the characters feel flat, the special effects are awful, and I don't think it strikes the balance between realism and absurdism that I think it's going for - but despite all that, I had a pretty good time watching it. Some individual scenes were fun, and much like John, I love some slime.

Both Con Air and Ghostbusters II deal with family relationships where the mother raises the child and is close to them, and the father is absent - but either the real father or a surrogate father really cares about the kid and wants to be with them. It's a really specific parallel with a few different interpretations - possibly John wishes he had a mother figure and lives vicariously through these characters. Possibly he's commiserating with the kids in these movies about having a dad who's way too over the top, or he wishes his dad was over the top in cooler ways, shooting up a plane or blasting some ghosts instead of going to clown con. Or, my favorite theory - since these are movies from when John was very young or not yet born, maybe his dad showed him movies with positive, loving family relationships to show John that he's loved despite not having the typical two parent family.

The Big Thing(tm) in this movie is that the giant slime beneath New York City reflects the emotions surrounding it, both positive and negative. John's emotions seem so strong and so changeable based on what's immediately around him too - I can see him weirdly relating to the slime. I think this ties into this movie and Con Air both being very fast paced, intense, and action packed, neither of them allowing the viewer much downtime. This and the way he's always wandering around his house poking at things without settling - he really is a small bug looking for enrichment, looking for something to feel and then having extreme reactions to the tiniest things because at least something is happening.

The ghostbusters attempt to take a scientific approach to learning about the slime and how it operates, which really cements that this is the source of John's interest in paranormal lore, as well as ectoBiology. The actual science they try seems like a weird mix of chemistry and psychology, instead of biology, but it's close enough that I think this movie inspired John's chumhandle. I bet in elementary school someone asked him what he wants to be when he grows up and he said "ghostbuster."

Despite Slimer being John's favorite character (judging by his shirt and desktop wallpaper) he only has a couple of brief scenes in the movie. The funniest interpretation is that John has never seen the original Ghostbusters, only the sequel, but has become obsessed with this benign hungry slime ghost based exclusively on these cameos. Someone's gotta tell him this guy is in more movies.

MOVIES WATCHED: 2/11

MOST RECENT MOVIE: Ghostbusters II (1989) - Rating 6/10