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每日英語跟讀 Ep.K286: 魔鬼剋星再臨 吸引影迷懷舊買周邊 ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ Review: A Play for Nostalgia and Merch

· 每日跟讀單元 Daily English,國際時事跟讀Daily Shadowing

每日英語跟讀 Ep.K286: ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ Review: A Play for Nostalgia and Merch

If it seems that the only movie Big Hollywood knows how to make is the one they made last year — and the year before that — there’s a reason. The industry’s franchise fever is real, though much depends on timing.

如果好萊塢似乎唯一懂得拍攝的電影是去年拍的那部,還有前年的那部,這是有原因的。系列電影的熱度如假包換,但多數仍取決於時機。

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” was directed by Jason Reitman, whose father, Ivan Reitman, directed the first two movies in the 1980s, and was in line to take on the third. Over many years and after many more studio notes, a new director, Paul Feig, was brought in, and the third movie became a female-driven reboot.

電影「魔鬼剋星:未來世」導演是傑森瑞特曼,他的父親伊凡瑞特曼在1980年代執導頭兩部「魔鬼剋星」,當時已排定要導第三部。經過許多年以及更多的片廠意見後,新導演保羅費格獲引薦,第三部電影變成一部女性為主的重開機之作。

Before it even opened, the reboot became the target of viciously sexist and racist trolling and rage, a casualty of the culture wars. But much like the troublesome apparitions that haunt this series, profitable franchises (and even barely profitable ones) rarely truly die in Hollywood. And “Ghostbusters” is simply too goofy, too smart about dumb fun and too potentially lucrative to stay buried for long.

電影甚至未上映之前,這部重開機作品成為惡意的性別歧視者和種族歧視者圍剿及洩恨的目標,變成一場文化戰的傷亡者。但是就像在此系列中揮之不去的惱人幽靈,有利可圖(和沒啥賺頭)的系列片在好萊塢很少真正陣亡。而且「魔鬼剋星」實在太好笑,對不用大腦的趣味發揮太精準,而且獲利潛力實在太高,很難被埋沒太久。

And so: “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” which is as cuddly and toothless as you would expect from a relaunched studio property in which the main characters are children and Paul Rudd plays a love interest. They’re all predictably adorable and have big, easy-to-read eyes, the better to widen in feigned surprise or mock fear when various ghosts come a-calling.

於是,重出江湖的片商資產「魔鬼剋星:未來世」主要角色都是兒童,一如你的期待,既可愛又無害,保羅路德飾演的角色有愛情戲。他們一如預期的令人喜愛,有著能輕易被看穿心思的大眼睛,在各種鬼出現時,更懂得誇張表現假裝的驚訝或看起來害怕的樣子。

For their part, the cartoonish apparitions range from the cutesy to the PG-13 snarly and include a roly-poly metal muncher, a pair of slathering hellhounds and some puffy, gurgling creatures whose wide-open arms and demonically cheerful smiles have been engineered for toy shelves and maximum nostalgia.

就鬼魂而言,卡通風格的幽靈從裝可愛型到13歲以下兒童不宜的易怒鬼,也包含一個圓滾滾、啃食金屬的鬼,一對大塊頭惡魔犬,以及一些咯咯笑的膨膨物體,它們張開的手臂和不懷好意的開心笑容,一直都是為了玩具貨架和最濃烈的懷舊感精心設計。

Franchise sequels bank on dependability and giving the audience exactly what it expects. “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” certainly makes good on that contractual promise: There are ghosts, and they are busted.

系列電影的續集仰賴的是信賴感以及精準滿足觀眾的期待。「魔鬼剋星:未來世」確實說到做到:片中有鬼,也碰上了剋星。

The movie leans heavily into the previous installments in an effort to create the kind of self-generating franchise mythology that can support further sequels (and so on). It trots out the familiar gadgets, ghosts and goo as well as beloved faces and Ray Parker Jr.’s indestructible earworm of a theme song. Like the younger Reitman, Phoebe and her Scooby Gang battle ghosts on every front.

這部電影很依賴前幾部的架構,以嘗試創造自我生成的系列神話,能支持未來的續集(以及其他)。電影誇示熟悉的機關設計、鬼魂和黏答答的物體,還有可愛的臉孔,以及小雷派克不絕於耳的洗腦主題曲。如同小瑞特曼,菲比和她的抓鬼大隊和鬼魂全面作戰。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5986861