3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): We Have a Ghost

2023, Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day) -- Netflix

I spent too much of this movie pondering the diversity elements of the movie, more so distracted by my own train of thoughts about us being in 2023 and still seeing a wide gap between race & representation in greater North American pop culture. On the forefront, this wasn't a "black movie", it was just a movie starring popular Anthony Mackie and a supporting cast playing his family. But almost immediately, I commented on how in most movies, the teenager grumpy about having his family once again transplanted to a new house would have been a white goth or rocker teenage girl in most movies, but it was a refreshing choice. I don't shirk away from my own age old thoughts on diversity, but its annoying that we are still in that place. Was it me noticing choices made by the purple suits, or was it just me over-thinking things because I am an aging white guy who cannot escape his own prejudices, which hopefully never stopped being chipped away at?

Any way, it was a nice, fun little movie that kind of suggested that maybe Landon should be given the reins of another Ghostbusters movie?

So, yeah Dad (Anthony Mackie, Outside the Wire) is a bit of a loser, always chasing get rich quick schemes, losing out and being forced to move his family onto the next opportunity. Thus, they buy the haunted house, which comes cheap and without the disclaimer its haunted. By the books setup. Grumpy Teenager Kevin (Jahi Wilson, The Dead Don't Die) likes rock & roll and plays guitar, and sings with a pretty good voice. We thought that would be a setup for something tied to the ghost, but... no, its just a thing to make him a loner. Not sure why; even black kids who like rock & roll (as opposed to Hollywood cliché rap or R&B) and perform it well would be considered cool in a lot of circles. And almost immediately he meets our Ghost, Ernest (David Harbor, Stranger Things). But he's not afraid, more amused and captured by the cool factor. They become friends.

Then his Dad and family get involved, and Dad goes down his usual path of finding a way to make a buck off it, using social media and all the usual venues 2023 provide.  Of course, paranoid low- rent Fox Mulder / Ray Stantz stand-in, Dr. Leslie Monroe (Tig Notaro, Star Trek: Discovery) catches wind of it, and resurrects her government funded project to capture ghosts so they can be used for military purposes... oh, gawds just stop me now. The more I write the basic plot of this movie, the more I realize how much I dislike this bad copy of 80s plot devices. So, yeah every trope in the book. Notoriety leads to family issues, leads to running away, leads to government chases, buddy road trip, dark histories revealed, pew pew ghost lasers, family bonding, etc. If anything, it was well constructed and executed to be mildly entertaining. 

But there is not a lot of heart to this movie. You already know well that I am all for easily digested entertainment, especially genre entertainment. But for me to say, "I Liked It" requires that something stand out a wee bit more than just Harbor's ghost act; it really was the only truly enjoyable bit part in this whole movie.