Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

pixelburp

I thought Kermode had lost some of his vibe since he left the BBC, but his review here is entertaining in the fashion of those movies that rubbed him up the wrong way.

"Boring boring boring BILL MURRAY!"

And not to ignore the warning about off-topic comments, I did chuckle at a note about the cast's make-up

"... because it's equal opportunities in its attitudes towards gender and sexuality and everything; great! What it means is now ... a diverse range of people now have rubbish movies to enjoy just like everybody else."

https://youtu.be/v92-ivBI_HA?si=pb5rqBVn6gMzBclg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121923825#Comment_121923825

There is no reason for Ghostbusters 2 to exist

Money money money money. Or to quote Kermode form the above:

They're shaking the can and they think there's more money to fall out of it.

JustAPoorDreamer

Well I went and seen this today. All I can say is its like a film of two half's. The first half is just terrible but then it gets half decent but still not great. There is far to much forced bad dry humour in it that just does not work at all but saying that there is the odd funny moment.

I would only rate it a 4 out of 10.

It's not as good or as funny as the last film but it's better than the film before that the 2016 one I think.

Big Gerry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121928007#Comment_121928007

How much screen time does Bill Murray have in it ?

JustAPoorDreamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121928432#Comment_121928432

He has a good bit actually. Is in it a lot.

Big Gerry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929219#Comment_121929219

It can't be that bad if Murray has a lot of screen time.

JustAPoorDreamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929353#Comment_121929353

It's terrible for the first half. Honestly I really wanted to like it but there is all these dull annoying characters that just add nothing tge story is a mess as well. But tge second half and tge last 30 mins I think are good. Still uts aimed at children I think. I am not sure which Generation they were aiming it at but the main bad guy is most definitely aimed at a group. It reminded me of some cartoon just can not place it. Could have been so much better.

Still st least

Spoiler Warning

The cute mini marshmallow men are still in it :)

santana75

Its hard to articulate just how truly awful this movie is. Afterwards I was trying to pin down why its so bad and the answer, I believe, is: Kids. The ghostbusters are kids, well two of them, and one of them, the teenage girl is promoted as the "Hero" of the story. Its just doesnt work, the Ghostbusters should be grown men. Not trans, not non-binary, not women, not children, but actual men. The film is woke, they even managed to slip a strongly hinted at teenage lesbian subplot in there. I didnt think anything could be as bad as Ghostbusters afterlife but this makes that movie look like The Godfather.

rovers_runner

Was light hearted enough aside from the ploy to push this young actress to the forefront with a daft *snip* subplot.

Was a disappointing direction to take things which probably lead to other bits being left out to keep on point for the narrative.

Good to see Ackroyd and Murray on screen together again as there won't be many more rodeos for either you'd assume.

Scripts and plots were never the point of this franchise so not sure why they felt this needed to take over from basic slapstick.

johnny_ultimate

Mod note: Goes without saying: homophobic slurs are not acceptable in this forum.

Sudden Valley

I enjoyed it more than the first rebooted movie but perhaps only because they were back in new York. I suppose they had to give the young girl a plot of her own to make her do something other than whine, but they did tie that plot back to the main plot so I don't see the problem. I think possibly on a par or above ghostbusters 2

KkomradeWarrior

I can't take these new films. How many of them have there already been? They are all kind of soulless.

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121922583#Comment_121922583

Sorry but that's the problem the bar is being set very low if the original is being regarded as a comedy classic.

It's the only have decent movie from the entire franchise selection but that does not mean it's a classic.

LambshankRedemption

Realized I'd not yet seen afterlife so put it on on Friday night. Switched it off after about an hour. My bar had not been set high to begin with. I didn't find it terrible, just dull really and a bit dumb. Of basically anywhere on the planet, why did Gozer the Sumarian pick Summerville, Oregon to be re-incarnated. It seemed forced.

Paul Rudd's character who was a big Ghostbusters fan, wonders what would happen if you open a ghost trap. Gee, I wonder...

The 2016 movie I turned off after about 20 minutes because I really do not enjoy that kind of humour.

My bar is set fairly low for Frozen Empire.

I really hate when movies try to pass the torch, James Bond has been doing that for years, almost suggesting that this will be the last one. (oh no!)

I really dont care about the gender of the next generation, but Phoebe was 12 in Afterlife, so will be 14 in Frozen Empire. It reminds me of the terrible Thunderbirds movie from about 2004(?) where the main characters were not the original characters, but their kids. It seems to be a common trope nowadays, to attract a younger audience, add in a couple of kids. Completely ignoring the fact that the much loved blockbusters we watched as kids mostly had adults as the main characters.

loyatemu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121936272#Comment_121936272

yeah the original is somewhat overrated and relies heavily on the charm of it's actors (not just Murray and Ackroyd but also Weaver and Moranis). Compared to other 80s supernatural comedies, it's not as good as Gremlins or Beetlejuice.

pixelburp

Also, it's worth noting that a big part of Ghostbusters' lingering appeal was the fact it had distinct iconography appealing to children, and a whole bunch of kids' cartoons. It is both simultaneously a film about schluby guys running a business while ALSO being a kid-friendly cartoon about busting ghosts with cool gizmos. I daresay a lot of "fans" came to the franchise through the 1980s cartoon as much as they did through the film.

I still think the 2016 had the potential to recapture the comedy styling but they picked the entirely wrong comedians, helmed by a director-writer who couldn't tease decent ad-lib out of any them - yet insisted on filming the thing with a tonne of ad-lib. It needed to be a dry script with some actors who knew how to be thus as well - someone like Julia Louis-Dreyfus would have killed it.

None of the cast was on the same wavelength as each other, it was bizarre to watch, especially Chris Hemsworth's completely oddball & "too stupid to live" performance.

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121936740#Comment_121936740

I think the imdb ratings for the three movies reflect my views of each with Gremlins, 7.3, Beetlejuice 7.5, and ghostbusters 7.8. None are classics but I still think Ghostbusters are the best of the bunch. Saw Beetlejuice last year and found although it looked great and inventive the story was quite slight and a lot of the jokes didnt land.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121937045#Comment_121937045

I never got the love for Beetlejuice, despite loving the cartoon. The story is very dull, despite having great material to work with.

As Pixelburp said above, I became a GB fan mostly via the cartoons. The first time I saw the movie, naïve 8 year old me didn't realise it was primarily a comedy movie. As an adult I enjoy it for what it is. GB2 less so. The less said about 2016 the better.

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121937139#Comment_121937139

I think gb2 is half a good movie the set up is realy good a bit like this latest movie but the payoff in both is very disappointing.

Its sad that bill Murray elevated the first two movies but has been pretty terrible in the three rebooted movies. Dan Aykroyd really tries his best as does Hudson in the latest movie compared to Murray.

winstonia

Opens number 1 at the weekend. Ernie is looking great here too considering he is pushing 80!

https://twitter.com/Edmontonsun/status/1772052095862002004?t=9HEBhoynUejCLfggDdXbOQ&s=19

johnny_ultimate

Ghostbusters is a silly studio comedy film featuring a bunch of SNL alumni. It just happens to have iconography that’s also extremely appealing to children. But the film itself is just a big budget, enjoyably disposable studio comedy - a good one, mind you, but nothing that really ever needed nor justified any follow ups or spin offs.

I haven’t seen Frozen Empire so can’t comment on that, but where Afterlife failed was trying to retroactively change that silly studio comedy into some grand piece of Spielbergian wonder machine with deathly serious lore and callbacks. Ghostbusters isn’t about lore - it’s about a bunch of likeable idiots and funny arseholes busting ghosts! Yes, kids like the proton packs, but you can’t just change it into some grand familial epic about destiny and bloodlines and think it’s going to work. It tries to elevate the likes of the Stay Puft marshmallow man and Slimer to iconic, epic legends worthy of constant callbacks instead of just the wacky visual gags they were. I’m not saying a different type of Ghostbusters films aimed at kids or families couldn’t work in the right hands (Jason Reitman is no Ivan Reitman), but the problem is trying to do it within the framework and story of the original film. Ghostbusters 2016 has plenty of problems unworthy of re-litigation, but it at least has the basic understanding that Ghostbusters is a silly, irreverent comedy. Afterlife falls flat at the very first hurdle.

But, let’s be honest, if the series was a one-and-done film back in the 1980s, the world would be none the worse for it (well, maybe kids can still enjoy the Saturday morning cartoons and toys). Let good things rest.

Sudden Valley

I think given the okay box office there is obviously a demand for new ghostbusters movies. I don't think any new film will be as good as the first movie, but I have no problem with them trying.

Also did they make out the ghostbusters are slightly the bad guys in this movie? Like it seemed that they were trapping ghosts in a limbo preventing them moving on to heaven or some sort of afterlife.

brianregan09

I just watched it , very enjoyable popcorn film with really decent humor , not going to set the world alight but doesn't need to just a bit of fun really, obviously films like this can be torn apart if you get super analytical about them.

Bottom line I enjoyed it and would watch another with this cast

eightieschewbaccy

Went with my niece at the end of last week. Both of us were pretty unimpressed, it's also clear that they intend to create a much bigger franchise but there's just a complete lack of magic. Also Bill Murray felt like he had about 4 lines and did it for a paycheck. To give credit to Dan Akroyd, he was an enjoyable element.

Spon Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121928432#Comment_121928432

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929219#Comment_121929219

no he isn’t.

Ackroyd is the original actor who has a decent amount of screentime. followed by Hudson, and Potts. Murray has less than any of them.

I saw Kermode’s review and I don’t thing he knows who Bill Murray is.

I enjoyed the film but Murray is not in it enough and that Patton Oswalt takes up way too much screentime as a completely unnecessary character (why does he keep getting work?). Ray would have no need to consult with anyone about the weird history of New York.

Spon Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121932093#Comment_121932093

there was no “pushing” - Phoebe IS the central character in Afterlife and is the same in Frozen Empire (regardless of the credits - which she she should have had top billing in both though).

Nothing at all wrong with the “direction” you speak of. Very believable and sweet - and thsi from an fogey who usually rolls eyes at this stuff.

Spon Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121938464#Comment_121938464

Melody is the first non-malicious “human ghost” in the series. The others are all bad or highly destructive. So we don’t know if others like her are in containment.

The possible moral dilemma was sufficiently addressed for the type of movies these are.

You said another post they had to give Phoebe “something to do other than whine”. She doesn’t whine in Afterlife or in this. She is just pissed off.

The main focus of these movies is Phoebe - if people didn’t know this going in, they didn’t pay attention in Afterlife.

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121984024#Comment_121984024

I don't mind phoebe but she was more active in the the first movie. Here she complained alot but it is perfectly fair for her to be sidelined as she is legally a kid.

Egon was also a good ghost in afterlife.

Spon Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121984029#Comment_121984029

she was just as active here.

You think a 15 year old getting stopped from ghost busting would just “fair enough”? Would you as an adult be okay with such a ban?

Good point on Egon. That may be evidence that they only put bad or destructive ghosts in containment.

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121984374#Comment_121984374

No I get why she was annoyed but its weird that the adults thought it was OK to have a kid with a weapon. It's a fantasy world so I don't think the point is that important but I believe the proton pack could kill a human. The authorities would be against her wielding it and probably so should the mother.

I thinkvthe ghostbusters just bust the ghosts that are annoying humans and the ghosts always fight back against them. In the original ghostbusters all ghosts seemed to be bad.

Spon Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121984396#Comment_121984396

There is no movie if the kids aren’t Ghostbusters. It isn’t the real world as you said yourself.