Open Bar #89 - Ghostbusters Frozen Empire, The War For Gaming, Acolyte Season 2 Cancelled? 

Mauler's occasional rage is a thing of beauty and rarity, like a total eclipse or a sober Scotsman.

Ernie Hudson must be a vampire. No way that dude is pushing 80. Amazing.

I'm born 33 years after WW2 in a country that was not even in it and as a kid the hatred of the older adults against germans in parts of the country that bordered the conflict was palpable.

Acolyte is incredible, in that it seems to be created purely out of spite. No motivation, or inspiration, or a story that needed being told. Just spiteful people hating anyone left on the Star Wars ship.

Ten years ago I’d have waited hours in line to see Deadpool and Wolverine; but now I honestly can’t be bothered to care.

Is Acolyte subverting expectations when they make the space police the bad guys, or is that just what we’d expect from the message? “Down with rigid, law and order! We need Season 2!”

FYI: anyone who wants the closest watch of what was supposed to be the 3rd movie as written and intended by Ackryoid & Ramis, needs to play or watch a walk thru of Ghostbusters The Video Game, remastered preferably. The core story used for that game was penned by the duo to be the plot for Ghostbusters 3. Ramis freely admitted this in a making of behind the scenes video for the game, as all of the original voice actors of the 1st film, came back to reprise the digital early 90's versions of their characters; with Murray even arranging a role for his brother to voice the mayor. CHEERS!!

Pausing at 1:50:43 to disagree. Humans looooove sugar. The process of refining sugar did not oversaturate the market, it just heightened the desire for more. It takes serious effort, in fact, to turn your back on sugar. But what happens when you start injecting a bit of salt into it? Then, you start injecting more salt, and then even more? Now, are you going to actually sit there and proclaim, loudly to the masses, that the phenomenon we are witnessing of people turning away from sugar is due to sugar fatigue? People are not buying sugar anymore because of market saturation? Give me a break. If Marvel’s shows were all Netflix Daredevil quality, NOBODY would be calling these shows ‘D+ homework shows’. Nobody.

I'm sittin here listening to Mauler complain about how unbelievable it was that no one remembers the Ghostbusters or thinks ghosts are real even though the first two Ghostbusters proved to the world that ghosts were, in fact, real knowing that half my Gen Z classroom thinks 9/11 wasn't real/didn't happen 🙃

Watchmen by Snyder was great. Mostly due to story, but stylistically it was a great fit.

Vital clarification: Brandon Sanderson’s video about whether or not Gandalf is a “Mary Sue” is not at all what the super chat made it sound like. Sanderson is trying to make a point that the whole discussion around Mary Sues has gone too far, missed the point, and undermined more important questions. He goes into depth that a character’s role in a story, and how well they fulfill that role, is far more important than whether the character has similarities to a somewhat artificial and dismissive label. Essentially, he argues that Gandalf is a great character who fills his role extremely well, and thus the question of whether or not he resembles a Mary Sue is irrelevant. He jokingly goes through an old Mary Sue quiz, having fun with ways in which the questions *might* apply to Gandalf, purely to debunk the Mary Sue idea as far less useful than people think. A character can be extremely wise, powerful, charismatic, and virtuous, they can come back from the dead, and they can eventually achieve all their goals, and if it’s good for the story, that’s all that matters.

I have to agree with Red Letter Media's assessment that the overall approach Sony has with insisting on Ghostbusters as a movie franchise/cinematic universe has been a failure and continues to be. Afterlife kind of felt like a setup to a TV series, and Frozen Empire feels more like of a set of vignettes than a cohesive story in and of itself. It should have been a 6-8 part limited series, not a movie. After nearly half a dozen attempts, the most relevant Ghostbusters related thing after the original movie is still the TV cartoon. Episodic day-in-the-life adventures chasing ghosts is the perfect format for this franchise. Constantly trying to beat it into shape as a movie series just isn't working.

The worst part about TLoU2 was Fuckman trying to make a sympathetic villain by forcing the player to control her for half of the game. Meanwhile I just wanted to be tall grass gremlin Ellie raptoring the shit out of people.

The Endymion dude constantly interrupting everyone is beyond annoying. I wish he’d stfu and let Drinker and Mauler talk more. Plz don’t bring him back for a while.

Extreme Ghostbusters, a cartoon from 1997, did the "passing of the torch" really well.

I saw Bill Murray on the 1 train in NYC. He’s still pretty sharp and kind of taller than I thought. Also a polite human as he let me off the train first.

Critical Drinker should raise money and buy the Duke Nukem franchise and make the opposite of a Sweet Baby Inc. game.

On a subject of a Ghostbusters TV show..... they were already 2 of them made. Despite both being animated, the first expanded the world into a whole mythos with some absolute standout ghost concepts like the Boggieman's domain, the Grundle, Loch Hound, Ghash, and Ghosts R Us; a rival ghostbusting Franchise run by actual ghosts. And I dare bring up the childhood trauma of the were-chicken and zombie rooster. Following that was Extreme Ghostbusters that tried to do the generational hand down, keeping Egon as the mentor. It suffered from that turn of the century "make it edgy" reimagining of an existing cartoon show; but the characters were thought out, and the writers at least had some idea of what to do with them. It wasn't a bad show, it just couldn't live up to its predecessor. And its not like it can't be done. Batman Beyond is from that same time period, and has almost all the same problems. It took two seasons to thread this needle; but it was a massive narrative success by simultaneously fleshing out more of Bruce's character, while setting up Terry to be the best version of Bruce's intent with Batman. To make a world that wouldn't create another Batman; only find that someone is still willing to be Batman in spite of it. More people need to be made aware of this show. Even though it took years before people would look back and appreciate what it does, it shows how you can play with the format without having to disrespect what its continuing off of.

At 47 minutes speaking of Budgets, Keep in mind that the 1977 20 million budget for Star Wars would be nearly 120 million today just from Inflation. Of course that makes Minus One even more of a Miracle, maybe ALL movies should be filmed in Japan with a Strict Rice & Fish diet for Everyone!!

This has convinced me to avoid Endymion

The Titanic showed up in New York harbor! People forgot about that?

Welcome to the open bar with Drinker and Endymion.

Endymion's open bar everyone 🤣🤣🤣

Not gonna lie this is the first open bar that I am unfortunately not going to be able to finish due to a guest. I’m sure he means well but Endymion holding the mic hostage and not only talking too long, but over others as well got really old really fast. Maybe talk to him off air about how to behave on a panel like this.

I remember the War of the Worlds TV series in the 80s where everyone had FORGOTTEN THE ALIEN INVASION OF EARTH in the 50's. It was canon with the 50s movie.

In FFVII skin color is not mentioned even once. It doesnt exist. Barret is a friend and father figure to the rest of the cast. It is his choices that push the entire story forward. He is also brilliantly performed by John Bentley. To see him as one dimensional is the most racist egotistism that I've ever heard of.

I’m here for the conversation but I don’t watch Star Wars anymore - the franchise I grew up on after seeing SW in 1977 - Disney can’t produce its way out of a wet paper bag

"I don't even know if its worth the effort to roast the Acolyte" Oh that reminds me, I wonder if Little Platoon is ever going to finish Assoka

Mauler's postcoital scream @57:42!

Mankind is not evolving. Our technology is evolving. We are devolving. 😂

Ghost busters 3 will always be the video game, it respects the series has all the voice actors and does passing the torch pretty well, also written by Dan and Harold

Bummer. I always look forward to the Open Bar, but anything featuring a grifter like Endymion is guaranteed to kill brain cells. Oh well. Next time!

The original evil dead WAS a serious horror movie. Evil dead 2 and army of darkness created the camp masterpiece. I'm glad evil dead remake didn't try to replace Bruce Campbell, the world's greatest b class actor. It would be horrible to use modern humour

Ghostbusters should have opened with the "new" team struggling with a creatively designed ghost and getting their asses kicked, until the big guns, the veterans come in and save the day. Should have been focused on thre original guys passing the torch. Hollywood is fucking bereft of creativity.

I've always hated how the sequels do the "oh, people forgot about the ghosts that were terrorizing New York on two separate occasions, as well as when a giant marshmallow man and the State of Liberty had walked across the city for millions to see". I remember Linkara trying to defend it, but it still doesn't make sense because it's so one-sided. If there are people who reject it, no matter the evidence available, then there should be people who do believe it, which is never shown. It's a dumb way to keep to the status quo of the first film. Speaking of Afterlife, that movie would have been better if it was completely original and had zero connections to the Ghostbusters franchise. Imagine if the villain was original and the story was about siblings going to live with their uncle (preferably played by Paul Rudd) in a small town after the death of their parents and discover that he is a ghosthunter, and work alongside him in hunting down bad ghosts to keep the small town safe. Add in father-figure moments with the uncle and the kids, some comedy, and advertise it as "The Ghostbusters meets The Goonies".

Endymion is a rough listen

Endymion tv sure loves to hear himself talk

The Lore of Ghosbusters was well explored in the animated series, I loved that show! It was freaky as a kid, scared the crap out of me with that one non-ghost monster they had to fight, I think he was haunting Egon as a kid? That was really creepy to watch as a kid, but I loved it!

As much as I loved the first Ghostbusters and liked the second one, I'm so glad I didn't join the nice folks who joined the fan groups and organized their lives around the franchise.

They should’ve just used the plot line from the Video Game. Where they have the elderly team of Ghostbusters training the next generation to hunt ghost. Lol

Endymion man please be respectful and give others time to talk…

Regarding if the movies was good and they still pumped out as much as they have done, I agree with Drinker, I think people would have eventually gotten bored. I'm an old fart, born 1965, when I was young we had to wait at least a year for the next movie to come out, at least a week to get the next episode of a series, and that made us exited about it. We longed to get the next Star Wars movie, it was an event, everybody was hyped. When you finally went to the movie theater it was huge, everyone was buzzing, talking about it, speculating about what we were gonna see. And after the movie we talked about it for weeks after. Now you can binge, there is tons of channels showing everything all at once, there is no hype anymore, not like back when I was a kid.

MauLer's Equip list: Ares Armor set Perk's: "Receive full Rage Burst when God or War Ragnarok writing is compared to God of War 3" X12

Sorry Edymion, it was fun the first 15 minutes when you spoke, but after that I just skipped every time you opened your mouth. Please let other people speak

Tom Hardy's voice for Bane was inspired by a gypsy accent he heard. There's an interview somewhere

One example of how bad Frozen Empire is: the stupid horns. What was the point of the horns? The plot made a big deal about the horns and then nothing ever came of it.

Regarding the original Ghostbusters, you have to remember back in the 80's these guys was on fire, they came from SNL and exploded on to the movie scene. They where the coolest comedy guys of that time, there is nobody that can fill those shoes now, nobody, so any new Ghostbuster movie will not be anything but pale imitations.

When you skip the 20-minute discussion on video games that are shit it's actually a fairly interesting podcast. Pity they didn't let Mauler say more on Ghostbusters

Regarding Ghostbusters, It was a thing in that time, brilliant, dry humor, with great comedians. The two movies is a stamp in that time period and we never needed any more of them. Sure maybe, as Drinker says, you could have done one in the 90's, but why? We don't need it, the two first once are enough.

Nolan batman trilogy always feels like real life batman. Not comic book or animated batman but still pretty great. Affleck was way closer to the animated ones.

Regarding Spider Man, to me Peter was, is, will always be my Spider Man.

I haven't seen the last 3 ghostbuster movies and I'm good with that

Hudson is a huge part of what makes the original Crow great. The new one will bomb.

Can we not have Griftymion back on until he learns to be less intrusive and maybe check he's not just talking face on so much.

Regarding Snider, my fav is still Watchmen.

Ironically, if the "modern audience" does exist, they're failing to strike a cord with them to 🤔

Ghostbusters was good because of it's unique story, but it's real nostalgic power came from how it penetrated kid's culture in the 1980s. As kids we enjoyed the movie that wasn't made for kids, but we loved the animated series, music video, the Commodore 64 game, and other cultural references.

The law doesn't apply to Hollwood, I refer you to the opening scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Female character leaves the sheriffs office after admitting to shrinking their vehicle.

Is it me or is Endymion tv cringe af

When I hear someone say "he Vaderd", it doesn't sound catchy but more disgusting. Something to describe when Darth Vader uses the force to take dump

just watching the first 40 mins of this now and the discussion of all these movies... jurpark.. ghostbusters etc you know what i watched the other night? The Great Escape with Steve McQueen... and MY GODS IT WAS SO GOOD! 3 hours... moved slowly but carefully... and i could not take my eyes off the screen. Absolutely fantastic fun and made me want to go right back to the much older forgotten movies.

Speaking of Andor. I find it ironic, that they had a gay couple in it, and nobody batted an eyelid because the story was well written.

Unpopular opinion probably but I preferred the old intro

ahh the 90s... The internet was BORN in 95... So it was an interesting decade. One gripe with this bar though.. EndymionTv.. He just PREACHES.. Keeps "explaining" and sounding so MUCH like the other side that it's irritating. Think I'll be SKIPPING any bars he's on from here on out.

“Me personally” Got me every time Nerdcrew4eva

Maybe Metroid Dread was so good because Samus Aran already female so SBI had no foothold to come in and ruin.

Was mauler even in this one he didn’t say anything for over an hour

"I don't like Jurassic Park: The Lost World, but I like Jurassic Park III." ... You're a monster.

The eighties were a good decade too 😢😂

New open bar. Lets go!

Oh, God... The annoying Endymion grifter again... Was Reaper not available? How about Echo Chamberlain? Please mute him next time if you invite him. Bro doesn't know when to stfu

11.10 I'm not gonna defend this movie, but this particular bit struck a nerve with me. I'm twice as old as any of you (I think) and recently I've found that old age changes you as far as keeping in touch goes. Time contracts; years pass the way months used to; and suddenly your once best friend has died without you ever reconnecting. It's shitty, but it seems to be true for so many people. I understood this bit, even if it came too close to reality for a movie in the Ghostbusters franchise.

I don't know what it is with Mauler and GOW but every time it comes up, Mauler turn into a person he usually make fun of.

Superman would work better as a period piece. Superman in the 1930’s would hit harder.

They really should have combined Frozen Empire and Afterlife. Ghostbusters should have been a national thing, with Winston being the CEO and Ray and Egon being the heads of R&D. Ray and Egon go to Summerville to explore the origins of the Shandor building because they need a new way to dispose of ghosts due to the containment units at the various HQs across America being too full. The idea is to just send the ghosts to the Netherworld by building a portal similar to the Gozer Temple. Egon gets killed due to the experiment failing. Garakka seizes on the opening between the Netherworld and ours. The remaining OGBs and new team members get together to stop the threat.

Don't forget films like Zemeckis' The Frighteners,Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow and The Others(in which Nicole Kidman is a tour de force),all of them excellent ghost stories in their own right. 😱

20:30 "once in a moon" 🤣🤣 So very often then? 🤣 I personally love using idioms, metaphors and analogies to help explain or describe things. So I'll always find it either hilarious or infuriating when someone butchers or incorrectly uses one of the sayings.

The fact Balder was a redhead with a rough exterior and demeanor are arguably minor inaccuracies in GOW 2018, but the fact he WANTED to fight enough to coax Kratos into initiating it was, to me, the biggest character assassination of the series.

Deadpool is going to be a huge let down remember disney is the destroyer of franchises 😢

Did Endymyon ever even pause for breath?😂

I literally wrote this down (to get it out of my head) before the 2016 abomination came out. I made a few notes in parathesis. In hindsight, I wouldn’t want to be quite so dark How Ghostbusters III should have gone... Background: Following the defeat of Vigo, supernatural activity dies down in New York once again. The Ghostbusters team tries to ride their new notoriety, but without ‘busting work to be done, lose focus and purpose. Peter and Dana marry, Peter adopts baby Oscar (now Oscar Venkman). Peter goes into marketing the Ghostbusters, making all the toys, lunchboxes and the cartoon that we all know. Egon and Ray return to their true passion of research, opening a paranormal institute to further their work. Winston does Black guy things. (my thought of this morning, he starts a Ghostbuster Fitness company) Head canon from the first two movies: Ghosts only materialize at the level to require Busting when a strong presence is “approaching.” After Zuul’s defeat, they disappeared until Vigo started again. I also hate coincidence, so my reasoning is that Vigo chose Dana in the second movie because, having once been possessed, she is psychically marked, like a beacon. He likely even manipulated events to bring her to work near him. Which is the same reason I think that Oscar will be the focus in 30 years, he was possessed as a baby which highly attuned his unformed mind to the psychic world. Thus, ghosts have not been a major problem for 30 years, because no major entity is juicing them all up. Opens in the year 2016 (27 years after the events of GHB 2). The tales of the Ghostbusters have largely faded from the public collective memory. They are a curiosity, a relic. And a joke to many. Paranormal activities are so low that no one believes any of it exists. (yes, I wrote this exactly this way in 2016. Despite Mauler’s objections, I went with the premise that once it couldn’t be seen routinely, the general public just stops caring about Ghosts.) Oscar, now 28, has lived his whole life haunted by his brush with the supernatural as an infant. He has lived in fear that someday, paranormal forces would come for him again. This fear and anxiety leads to a life of obsession with the paranormal. He does not master the field in curiosity or academic love -- but out of terror (I would change this now, to passion instead of terror). This obsession leads him to become a self-taught, non-academic genius in paranormal and parapsychology, aided by the influence of his adoptive father and surrogate uncles (Peter, Ray and Egon). He lives in a state of constant preparation for the day the ghosts come back to get him and New York. His knowledge is intuitive, erratic. He is the heir to Venkman’s rock n’ roll style. Due to his infant experiences, he may even have heightened paranormal senses. (I would add, maybe even random knowledge that he doesn’t realize he never read) The Spengler/Stantz institute is a dying, sad place. Funding has long since dried up, and research has completely stalled. The institute is staffed by a female PhD candidate. She is the intellectual heir to Ray and Egon, studying under Ray (Egon having passed away some years before). Her’s is the professional approach to Ghostbusting. The hard science and deep book knowledge. She believes in the work of her mentors, which makes her an outcast in the larger scientific community. She does not care about the flashiest parts of the Ghostbuster saga (the proton packs and Evil boss showdowns), but is committed to the nitty-gritty research to prove it exists and can be interacted with. (again, I'd make this less sad now. But the point was, she viewed Egon and Ray as father/mentor figures. She stays with Ray out of affection and loyalty.) The third character is a fanboy, a hero worshipper. A few years older than Oscar, but less than ten. He remembers the defeat of Vigo, and he has never lost his love and awe of the Ghostbusters. His knowledge is enthusiastic, but often inaccurate. He’ll have old Ghostbusters souvenirs and posters in his workspace and apartment. He reads every theory and crazy story he can find on the internet. He’s also subscribed to any scientific journal that will publish articles from the Spengler/Stantz Institute. He dreams of getting to be a Ghostbuster. He’s the one who’s truly enamored of the “Superhero” part of being a Ghostbuster. He likely goes to the scene of supernatural sightings, both in hopes of seeing something spooky, and secretly hoping to spot one of the Ghostbusters back in action. Still not sure who the fourth should be. Don’t like the idea of just adding another tough black guy. So of course, the catalyst for this movie is a new resurgence in paranormal activities. Through some sequence of events - Fan Boy spots Oscar inspecting a recent crime scene and confronts his hero -- these people are all brought together with different motivations -- but all sharing a deep desire to take action. Oscar becomes convinced that this resurgence portends the growing power of yet another major, world ending entity -- like Vigo or Zuul. He becomes even more obsessed and erratic as he seeks to uncover the true culprit. It’s possible that Oscar himself is revealed as the new villain. His mental connection to the paranormal causing him to garner power at a subconscious level, until the power consumes him and takes over. Perhaps bring back Ernie Hudson/Winston as a mentor -- someone still physically fit enough to actually go ‘busting with the youngins. Yes, it's incomplete.

2:03:02... YES! Infinity WAR wasn't a War (in the movie) cuz it was just the Length of the Movie with some off screen stuff. Kinda like Dune 2 that should have had a 3, should have had the Infinity War Trilogy with the Fallout in End Game being all of a part 2, & End Game would be part 3. Oh well.

Insomniac's Wolverine will likely have SBI influence. As per a 2021 Sept 11 tweet from Evan Narcisse, him and Kim Belair are working on the Wolverine story as consultants. Not sure what has happened over time with regards to the story, but I imagine there will be a big fiasco surrounding that game when it comes out and I imagine they will be doing their best to cover up any SBI involvement. (BTW, Evan Narcisse was credited as a consultant on Spiderman 2, so I think he's someone who's pushing the same narrative.)

Mauler stroked out after that GoW comment 🤣😭

Nolan said he purposely made the fight scenes crap because he didnt want to make action film but instead a drama

How is it still legal for Mauler to talk about videogames? Every single time hes takes are not just wrong, but the opposite of right.

I would love an EFAP on Mathewmattosis's video on GOW 2018; he actually makes good points on how the potentials of that game were wasted, as oppossed to just saying "it's woke bruh." A position which i totally understand by the way.

Drinker,it was 27 yrs between Ghostbusters 2 and 2016😅

My bad life choices and erratic schedule thank you for the content, fellas

i could feel the darkness grab hold of mauler when Ragnorok came up

Endymion- this isnt your channel. You need to let other people talk and stop interrupting them. Its just proper etiquette. Let others on the panel share their views. You dont need to chine in every single time

Tifs and Aerith background 11/10. Well done lads.

Another franchise bites the dust.

Watching Eric July playing Pal World cussing everyone else and running around like drunken weetardid mascots is surprisingly hilarious.

I can't believe that Mauler hadn't seen Afterlife before! It's one of my go-to examples of everything that's wrong about modern Hollywood. People who said it was a good movie upon release, like Drinker, ought to be ashamed. It was a trash movie which fundamentally misunderstood the entire point of the original (a movie which treated a high concept with utter irreverence), coasting by purely on nostalgia.

Don’t invite Endymion ever again, EVER!

As a kid i never even got the fact that barret was black, he was just the badass dude with the machine gun arm wtf

Ghostbusters 1&2 felt made much more for adults and as a child they were pretty scary. The effects worked much better and now they are just mostly cute cgi stuff for kids

"You're not obliged to swallow anything you despise." Sleeping Lessons, The Shins.

The list of game developers/publishers who’s games I won’t buy anymore is steadily growing