Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) – I resisted seeing this movie for years because… Do I really need justification? The original Ghostbusters (1984) is a perfect-accident comedic movie. Every line of the script could be (and probably is) on a T-shirt. Its release right in the era when home video and cable movie channels were taking off meant that, like John Hughes movies, it was watched over and over again by people who, like me, still know it down to the edits and minor musical cues. Nothing that came after in the franchise — not the best-forgotten Ghostbusters 2 (1989), not the animated series, not the unnecessary-at-best all-female 2016 reboot — could do anything but remind me by contrast how much better the original was, and how much I’d rather be watching that instead of the wrung-out imitations.
However. Amidst all of Hollywood’s “safety in remakes and reboots” forgettable flotsam, there’s a particular strain of nostalgia-service that acknowledges that its target audience knows the original like the back of their hands (no surprise that that ’80s era is the seedbed for such nostalgia), and respects them in their reprisals. The YouTube series Kobra Kai is a great example of this. (Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) was very much not.)
And because of that, Ghostbusters: Afterlife succeeds. It’s not a reboot (although it’s a foothold for the franchise to be reinvigorated), and it’s not simply a sequel. It’s a very loving Christmas card to the original from the son of the original director, and it prides itself on Easter eggs (yep, I mixed my holiday metaphors, deal with it) specifically meant for those intimately familiar with the original. From the initial establishing shot of the Shandor Mining Company, to the incredible music from Rob Simonsen which simply hinted at the original Elmer Bernstein cues… and then hinted a little more… and then a little more… This was a movie made by those who love the original, for those who love the original. And I appreciate it.
Warriors of the Wasteland, aka The New Barbarians (1983) – I don’t mind the cheap. I don’t mind the derivative. It’s an Italian Road Warrior ripoff, after all. But why does it have to be so boring?
A story about a strong, taciturn Hero-Just-Cuz fighting against a sect of white-clad nihilistic “Templars” (with huge shoulder-pads), led by Italian-flick stalwart George Eastman, who want to exterminate the human race in a post-apocalyptic world (which just looks like rural Italian farmland punctuated by more gravel pits than you see on Doctor Who). There is of course a girl to be rescued, which not only describes her plot utility but her entire characterization.
The story’s got no engine behind it, the editing looks like it was done with the aid of pharmaceuticals, the musical score is about as subtle as that guy who won’t shut up behind you in the movie theater, and Fred Williamson is absolutely wasted.
(And the “futuristic” sound effect for the gunshots… Ugh.)
Road Wars (2015) – This is The Asylum’s mockbuster answer to Mad Max: Fury Road. (It may interest you to know that, in response to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga this year, Road Wars is getting its own sequel, with the delightful title Road Wars: Max Fury.) And as The Asylum takes great care NOT to rip off the actual plots of the movies on whose coattails it rides, the plot here is more like The Omega Man (1971) dressed up to look like The Road Warrior (1981).
Now, lord knows, a lot of The Asylum’s movies aren’t just bad, they’re abysmal. Unwatchable. Less than worthless. But they don’t need to be. A decent indie movie can be put together on the roughly $1 million that The Asylum budgets for its average release.
But here’s the other problem: For too many people, The Asylum are the only bad movies they know. They’re the only non-theatrical movies they see apparently, and so they layer on the hate for anything from The Asylum… even those rare releases that don’t deserve it.
Road Wars is an example of that. From the sampling of comments on the IMDb accompanying one- or two-star ratings, these people’s familiarity with post-apocalyptic movies starts and ends with Mad Max: Fury Road — which is not just an incredible piece of visual storytelling, but also cost north of $150 million to film, making it far and away the most expensive movie in a genre which specializes in low budgets.
Road Wars isn’t a horrible movie by The Asylum’s standards; it also isn’t a horrible movie by post-apocalyptic movie standards. Yes, it’s cheap, and that shows (as viewers delighted in pointing out, one scene clearly shows a brand-new truck sitting in the background, and in another you can see traffic moving along in a supposedly deserted town). But cheap can be good for post-apoc flicks. Write a script that just requires a few rusty tricked-out cars, ripped layers of clothing, some desert, a few abandoned buildings, and a yellow filter on the DVCAM.
The finished product moves along at a good pace (as opposed to some Asylum flicks which are filler from end to end, and especially compared to Warriors of the Wasteland), stays focused, and doesn’t use but a fleeting bit of background CG. It’s certainly watchable, in a way that truly bad movies aren’t.
Gravel pits in ROAD WARS? There will never be a gravel pit movie to top X THE UNKNOWN.