RELEASE THREAD: Return of the Ghostbusters

I'm going to do Hank Braxtan a favor and announce this here for him.*

Hank's leatest (and easily greatest) movie is now complete & available for viewing online. There's a streaming version, as well as a downloadable high-res DIVX version (torrent file) & versions made for Ipods & Zunes. Sorry, no QT version, but I suppose if someone wanted to they could convert one; Hank has said that he is willing to link to any alternate versions that anyone has.

So, head on over to returnoftheghostbusters.com and give it a watch.

For those of you who don't know, this movie is the sequel to Freddy vs Ghostbusters (which is hosted right here on TFN), following the storyline of the Denver Ghostbusters. There's no Eugene O Fizpatrick (played by Jason Cook on FVGB), but there is a new character named Paval Karnov who is excellent (not just a cheap replacement, either).

I don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil anything, so just go over and watch. Oh, and if you like the movie, please help by spreading the word (and seeding the torrent of the DIVX version).

I will say this, though: Great, fun movie (would say more, but I know that over-hyping often has a negative affect on people's experiences).

I hope I'm not out of line or anything; it's just that Hank bas been pretty busy working on the movie & preparing all the different versions, and I figure this is just one less thing for him to worry about.

Edit: For some reason half of the thread title got cut off the first time I posted. Weird.


Ok, so here are a few pics (I took these pics from the DIVX version of the movie):

[image=http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/7880/ahmetzs7.png]


[image=http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/3008/mayanghostgz3.png]


[image=http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/5312/protonstreamil7.png]

If you want to see more pics, you can go here (though these are lower-res):
http://www.braxtanfilm.com/ghostbusters.html

 

A link would be helpful.

 

www.returnoftheghostbusters.com

 

I can't believe I didn't leave a link.

Thanks, Bojac.

 

I hope some of you guys take the time to watch it. It's a VERY well made film. Not even "for a fan film," this stands on its own as a well-made low budget independent feature (that can never be sold for profit).

 

Fantastic film, the whole crew have done an excellent job.

 

Bah - I REALLY want to watch the hi-res version, but I don't have an account for Demonoid, and registrations are closed. Any other way we can get it? Any plans to put it up on Stage6, for example?

 

Braxtanfilm's main website forums have a link to a hi-res bittorrent file.

 

Yeah, just check the forums. There are a few couple mirrors for the bittorrent listed.

 

"Few couple mirrors"? Man, I must have been up late when I wrote that (wouldn't surprise me; I stayed up awfully late last night downloading the high-res DIVX & prepping to burn it to DVD.

 

I don't post here much, and mostly lurk, but have to say, that film was fantastic.

It's a shame that it seems that the crew of the film don't seem to be posting here, because I thought it was a really excellent film and they deserve a huge congratulations.

The best fanfilms, to me, are those that make you forget you're watching a fanfilm. Thing with Return of the Ghostbusters is that it did that 80% of the time for me. I quite happily watched the majority of the film forgetting that it was a fanfilm made and distrubuted for free, and on a nearly non-existant budget too.

And to top this off, I was watching it on ifilms, and still got sucked in! (Sadly, I'm at university, and torrents are banned here, so I couldn't download the divx version).

There were a few fanfilmy moments, I felt, the odd line delivered, the fact that the CGI, while very impressive by independant standards, wasn't Hollywood (mostly, the shots of the car driving down the streets firing and some of the city wide effects at the end could have easily come from a major summer film), but it was all very minor and didn't have an impact on the overall film. I'd imagine with a bigger budget, you could have had a better room for the final showdown to take place in, but what you used did its job well enough.

Ironically, the ultimate thing that drew me out of the film were the references to other movies, which was odd, because that's what I loved in Freddy vs. Ghostbusters. But here, the film was so strong as a Ghostbusters film, it felt a shame when things like the Aliens motion tracker appeared as it drew me out of the film universe.

But enough negatives. There's so much to love here. For starters, the characterisation is very strong. Pretty much every single character that is featured in this film is both memorable and interesting, and the main characters in particular are great fun to follow. Not easy to make every character likeable, but here it was pulled off. Even the villain (who's performance I really enjoyed, although I could see some people finding it a little wierd) had his sympathetic moments, which was very impressive.

Also impressive was the new ground the storyline tread as a whole. When making a fanfilm, it's very easy to tell the same story all over again as the films it's based on, and here this was completely avoided. The idea of using the Ghostbuster technology in a sinister way is a fantastic one, as well as arguments about the 'rights of ghosts' being a really nice idea to tie into our PC 21st Century world.

The new designs of ghostbusting equipment were fantastic too, and didn't look out of place in the slightest, which they easily could have done were the designs handled in a poorer way. As it was, however, it all intergrated seamlessly with the existing Ghostbuster technology, making it seem exactly as it should; slightly more futuristic ghostbusters.

I haven't said everything I could about this film, but I also want to avoid spoilers for anybody who watches it. I just hope the team responsible at some point can read this thread so they know how much I appreciate their work. A really amazing film, one of (if not the best) fanfilms ever, and frankly a perfectly satisfying 'Ghostbusters 3', even if it's 'unoffical'. I just hope sooner or later there will be some downloadable option for people who can't use torrents, but if not I can wait until I'm somewhere off the uni network so I can download the high res version.

Congratulations to everybody involved!

 

Just finished watching it. Freaking awesome.

Aside from slightly imperfect CGI, I only had two real complaints...Possible spoilers...

There were two things that felt kinda forced or contrived: The barfight, and the fact that April suddenly likes Neil after the movie theater incident. Apparently, finding out that Constantin was a lying jerk suddenly made her realize how much she appreciated what an honest jerk Neil was.

Other than that, I was enjoying the entire flick. Liked how there were a few FvGB nods, but not too many. I would imagine you don't have to see FvGB before this, which is great, since this will likely get a much wider audience.

One thing I should mention is Jon Vandergriff's score. Loved the creepy music, and I loved how Bernstein's main theme was incorporated.

Opening credits were pretty cool, although I'm not sure if both the opening credits and the end montage credits were needed. But that's just a nitpick.

EDIT: One other nitpick...given the professional-looking quality of the video, the fact that the majority of the shots were static and plainly framed seemed out of place. Some more camera motion would've been nice.

Also, I didn't notice so much watching FvGB, but watching this, I realized that Tim Johnson bears a striking resemblance to Stephen Merchant.

 

I'm another lurker but felt compelled to add a comment to this thread. This is obviously the best fanfilm to appear in quite a while. I thought FVGB was funnier, but this is obviously a much better film.

You know the only thing I wish you guys had done? Bring "slimer" into it somehow! I want to see that little guy again!

 

Thanks for the comments, everyone.


Yes, we were thinking of bringing Slimer back, but I just wanted to avoid being another standardized Ghostbusters flick--that was one of the main problems I had with Ghostbusters 2 (it felt like a cheaper version of the first film). Instead, we made a much cheaper version of neither film! Hazaa!


Anyway, the publicity is slow right now. We're hoping to build this up a bit more in the coming months. Thanks for watching!

 

I'm currently watching it write now, great movie! Acting and camerawork is high caliber.

Wilhelm scream alert at 27:20!

I'll write a review when I finish watching it!

 

If it counts for anything, in my opinion at least, that was a damn good call to make. Your film did an amazing job of being a new Ghostbusters film instead of being a retread of the old ones, and throwing Slimer in would have diminished that a little. In fact, you dodged a lot of Ghostbusters cliches which really helped the film as a whole feel new and fresh, rather than just remaking the older films.

I think this in general is what makes it feel so much like a worthy Ghostbusters 3.

I hope you get the publicity you're looking for, because you guys really, really deserve it after making a film that good!

 

Well, thank ya!


But no, this isn't a Ghostbusters 3--merely a small snack to hopefully hold over a few fellow ghostheads. I hold out hope that one day GB3 will get off the ground. I just hope it's a worthy entry to the franchise (also, no CGI films, PLEASE!).

 

I don't think anyone here is under the impression that you were trying to make this to be a fan-made GB3 (your post sounds to me like you might have been interpreting some of the comments in that way, so I'm not sure if that's actually what you meant).

I think they're just saying that it's high enough quality that it feels like it could easily be a GB3, or in other words that they consider it in a sense to be GB3 because a) GB3 is not likely (unless ROTGB somehow causes a shift), and b) it's good enough to fill the space left by a want for GB3.

 

Yeah, thanks. That's pretty much what I meant. I know that you'd never set out to make a 'Ghostbusters 3', (I mean, Ghostbusters is such a character based franchise how could you, without the original actors?), but what you ended up with offers a viable and satisfying alternative, given the seeming lack of us ever getting a real Ghostbusters 3 lately. Although, I suppose we can always hold out hope with all the franchise revivals lately we might get an offical one yet.

But I certainly wouldn't call ROTGB a 'small snack to hold over fans'. It seems much bigger than that to me! Being a fully enjoyable, entertaining Ghostbusters movie, it may not have the original cast, but it's still excellent, and that makes it much more than a 'small snack' in my opinion.

One of the reasons I really hope you get the publicity you deserve, because this film deserves to be big, especially with fans, since it's such an enjoyable experience for people who loved the original films.

(I'm also a little suprised by the lack of attention in this thread, but hopefully as more people find the time to watch it the word will spread).

I also saw a link to the film on Stage6 on your forum (which I haven't signed up to, I have to admit, I just took a look at replies, I don't tend to post often). Would it be okay to copy that link here, as it offers an alternative to torrents to download the full hi-res movie? I figure people who find the film via this thread would appreciate it.

 

Yes, the link is here (this is THE way to watch this film!):

http://stage6.divx.com/user/jj5206/video/1812971/Return-of-the-Ghostbusters

 

Yeah, hopefully more people around here will pick up on it & comment. Although, the response hasn't necessarily been bad here, either. I mean, look on the bright side - at least it hasn't fallen down to page 2 o3 3 or whatever & into oblivion with no response (which happens sometimes when something goes unnoticed). It's been on page 1 for a few days (without needing any bumps), so there's some glimmer of hope there.

 

That's true. I am probably submitting the film to TF.N for hosting, anyway. They could be interested in hosting a "PG" version of it!

 

Hah! That was great! Totally awesome story, great lines. Some HIGHLY funny stuff.

So many awesome little things in it! "Will someone please give me some change?" "What's the code for a comatose guy?"

All the leading actors were spot on.

Great job! Definitely gonna watch this one again. Thanks!

 

I wrote a post about the film in my boring stupid LiveJournal. Now the film is publicized to all the...nobody...who will read the post. Woohoo!

 

That was a very, very impressive film.

It was actually like a 'proper' film rather than a 'fanfilm', full of really high quality stuff. Right from the opening title sequence when it is revealed to be the stitching of the Ghostbusters logo (hopefully not too much of a spoiler ) the production value was very high. You've pulled off a totally watchable hour-plus fanfilm - which in itself requires more than a round of applause.

I think the day when a fanfilm production crew actually produce a cinema feature is getting nearer and nearer. I've definitely seen less watchable features than this. Of course there where bits that weren't perfect, but overall the standard was kept very, very high. I thought 'casting' the Raiders Headpiece was a little weird, but I guess there where reasons for doing so. But I'm struggling to think of another film that held my attention for this long without screaming 'fanfilm'.

Very entertaining - with a few moments where I genuinely laughed thanks to a piece of well written dialogue delivered well - along with other moments where I just doffed my cap to what you had achieved - the entire sequence at the end was just cool. It was like watching Ghostbusters - what more can I say.

I hope good things come out of this for you, because the work that must have gone into making it is just scary.

Kudos.