DJariya

Running Time: 115 minutes

Rated: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 45% as of 3/21/24

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gho..._frozen_empire


Jason Reitman is credited as a co-writer of this with Gil Kenan.


Seeing a 2pm matinee today.

dex14

I thought it was pretty boring. If you didn't like the last one I doubt you'd like this one... but who knows...

Nesbit

Yeah I fell asleep for 5-10 minutes and doubt I’ll ever rewatch. 2 1/2 stars. It didn’t have anything as eye roll inducing as the Egon ghost in the last one but that’s the biggest compliment I have for it.

Josh-da-man

I'm tired of the Marshmallow Man being thrown into everything.

It was a one-off gag in the original movie and shouldn't be made into the mascot for the franchise. There's no reason these things should keep popping up other than as memberberries.

Nesbit

Yeah also they shouldn’t be using ecto1 at this point. When they started up they were strapped for cash. That is no longer an issue.

DJariya

I gave it a generous 3 stars. But, this really didn’t need to be made. It brought absolutely nothing new and it wasn’t very funny. Some scenes dragged, including the climax.

William Atherton was brought back simply just to be a dick again.

I only moderately recommend this if you’re a hardcore Ghostbusters fan. Otherwise if you didn’t like Afterlife, this is likely not for you.

There is a mid credits scene.

Crocker Jarmen

I thought it started very strong. The first half has a lot of terrific scenes and interesting ideas, but my interest deflated as the movie went on. There's just too damn many characters, which results in them being spread so thin none of them come off strong. This feels like a movie with no lead characters, but not in a Short Cuts kind of way.

Random specific thoughts:


Overall, I think this is the only Ghostbusters sequel I could see myself watching a second time. The only part that made me cringe was the ham-handed ending where Peck is embarrassed in front of the crowd. Bad set-up, contrived execution, I doubt I'll see a worse scene in a movie all year.

DJariya

I watched Dan Murrell’s review and I pretty much agree with all his thoughts. He didn’t think the movie was terrible, but he wasn’t really a fan. He seemed to think it was soulless and there were too many characters.

He also pointed out that 3 scenes from the trailers aren’t in the movie.

and I didn’t realize that Gary and Callie were married.

I liked Afterlife a lot more than this one.

devilshalo

I think the problem is that it focused too much on Phoebe. I feel like her story got cribbed from somewhere (kinda similar to Lydia Deetz in a way) And that focus didn't give a lot to everyone else in an already bloated ensemble. But I think visually it looked great.

story

The kids and I watched Ghostbusters earlier this week and we saw Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire tonight at the local AMC Dolby theater, so we each got a quality enamel pin. The kids haven't opened theirs yet, but I lucked out with the logo, though I would've been happy with Ecto-1, too.

This was okay. Some jokes, some scares, some really fun lore and concepts, some good relationships, some good nostalgia, some good progression on the story of these peoples' lives.

It was also clunky. Lots of setup to try to payoff a joke or scare and sometimes they landed flat. Lots of characters. In the firehouse finale, I counted 12 hero characters were all in the building and I thought, that is a lot of people. That also led to quite a bit of what I call "Saved By the Bell" blocking, when characters all stand in a straight line and turn their heads back and forth to whoever is talking.

The Dolby presentation was awesome and I enjoyed the expanded lore and ideas a lot. I think that was cool. Though some of the lore in the trailer didn't appear in the movie. Always good to see Ray really into that kind of stuff (which Dan in real life certainly is, too), and Winston thinking practically, and Peter being weird for his own reasons. I liked Janine in the movie, though Annie Potts did a lot of getting startled and screaming. All of her portrayals of Janine have been so different from one another. I remember watching Ghostbusters II as a kid and thinking, I know that's the same actor but the character is way different. Same here, too.

These new movies are Phoebe's story and I like that. She's a compelling, complex character and McKenna Grace is excellent in these. I was a HUGE fan of Podcast in Ghostbusters Afterlife and I liked him here again, too. Lucky was just kind of... there. The trailer sure made it look like she and Sassy Science Guy would die but they didn't. I'm not saying I wanted them to, but nobody really seems particularly impacted by nearly freezing to death, short of wearing an extra blanket and/or arm sling. Finn Wolfhard gets to be in TWO Ghostbusters movies, only to not really do much of anything. I still don't know if Paul Rudd and the mom are married or not.

My favorite and least favorite moment involved Ray. While the child in me will always love the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and the young adult in me will always love the confrontations between Peter and Walter Peck, my favorite scene as an adult is Ray and Winston in Ecto-1 driving at night talking about spirituality, faith, philosophy, and folklore. That scene really elevates Ghostbusters and gives you something to really chew on. This new movie touched on some of that a bit, like the notion of what happens after we cross over. But in an echo of their original scene, I really liked Ray and Winston just talking in the stairwell in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Those two just have a good friendship, and we see it in all four Ghostbusters movies, including when the kids were disappointed that they weren't He-Man at the birthday party in Ghostbusters II. I was glad they had that moment, and I enjoyed it.

My least favorite thing was that Ray (spoilerized, since this isn't a spoiler-filled review thread):





The other thing I did not like at all is that I have an aversion to movies where the audience gets an abundance of additional information that characters don't get. This movie had that with:





I think the weirdest part of the new Ghostbusters movies is just how differently they are shot. They both use modern cinematography with lots of moving cameras and dynamic shots. The originals had so many still shots, mostly because they had the practical special effects set up just so at the right angle, or they needed the shot precisely calculated for the process special effects shot. These have different vibes than that, in terms of their look. And that's fine, but I think for me it adds to a very different feel.

I went with 3 Stars. I probably could have given it 3.5 Stars out of 5, though. We like Ghostbusters as a family and we may see it again.

Boba Fett

1.5/5 for me. A D+

Completely pointless and boring as hell. Stop strongarming Murray into coming back to a series he clearly has left behind him. The best part of the movie was the Regal ghost trap “popcorn bucket” which is a better replica than versions 2-3x it’s cost.

devilshalo

Another thing is, they fight Garraka inside, away from the rest of the city where few, if any, New Yorkers would have witnessed their triumph.

story

"I am Walter Peck, sir, and I'm prepared to make a full report. These men are consummate snowball artists. They use sensitive nerve gases to induce hallucinations. People think they're seeing ghosts, and they call these bozos, who conveniently show up to deal with the problem with a fake electronic light show!"

d2cheer

Well crap we really didn't like Afterlife...ugh

Looks like we will wait a bit longer to see something.

RichC2

I regret not going to see RAD yesterday

story

"This is ass sliding!"

Draven

Better than Afterlife, simply because New York is an infinitely more interesting location than a random town and farm in the middle of nowhere.

It was already evident in the trailers but there was, once again, not a single funny joke in the whole thing. Venkman’s interrogation scene was the only thing to make me smile.

Everything with the legacy characters was at least interesting to watch (and fun they got the library administrator back). The Afterlife team is so forgettable that I couldn’t even remember who all was in that movie.

But just way too much plot. The original did it perfectly - setting up the team while leading to the big finish. This was just a mess of scenes, side plots and unfunny bits to a fight with zero stakes (and I guess people who are frozen solid can then unfreeze and be fine).

I actually liked the idea of a ghost that other ghosts are scared of, but they just did nothing with it.

I’ll give it a C- just for having at least some of it in NYC (even if it was just the Ecto-1 scenes).

Shannon Nutt

I, for one, thought this film was great. Okay, it's not 1984"s Ghostbusters - but nothing is ever going to be that good. But this is the movie I wish we had gotten with AFTERLIFE. And this time, they remembered that Ghostbusters is supposed to be funny. Not all the jokes landed, but they come frequently enough that if you groaned at one joke, another one you might like is coming soon. And there's a sense of joy and fun here that has been missing in other recent reboots/legacy sequels (I'm talking to you, Indiana Jones).

This was one of my most-anticipated films of 2024 and it didn't disappoint. I gave it an A-.

Toddarino

I actually enjoyed Afterlife more than this. Also I’m sure my opinion is frowned upon since I don’t hate part 2.
However this was pretty boring. Are we supposed to assume Rudd and Coon’s characters are married now? There was no semblance of a relationship or affection between those two. Actually I guess that is a marriage.

Draven

Yes, they are supposed to be married. But they are such "nothing" characters that it doesn't even matter.

nickdawgy

I liked it. 3 stars. Cheesy but so were the others. Afterlife is clearly superior but this was fun. Exactly what I expected.

Now all they need is Rick Moranis back for the next one.

B5Erik

I don't think so. They even addressed his relationship to Phoebe.and neither of them could define what their relationship was. If he and Callie were married he'd be Phoebe's stepfather, no questions, no ambiguity.

Draven

You're right - but I saw several reviews online that said they were married (and it would explain why it's a big deal that Phoebe calls him "Dad" at the end - which is SUPER WEIRD if he is just her boyfriend.). It's almost like they should have spelled that out a bit more.

Crocker Jarmen

Y'know, they should have done the sit-com trope, where at the beginning Rudd and Coon's characters leave town to visit a relative or have a vacation. Maybe that would have cleared up some of the character congestion. I can't think of anything their characters added to the movie other than an explanation of how the kids from the previous movie are now living in New York and working as Ghostbusters.

mndtrp

My family and I enjoyed it. I suppose we have pretty low expectations, so anything beyond an outright disaster would be good enough for us. I thought the design of the bad guy was awesome.