Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

44% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 241 reviews)

Runtime: 115 minutes

Directed by: Gil Kenan

Starring: The OG cast, the ones from Afterlife, plus people like Emily Alyn Lind & Kumail Nanjiani

From: Columbia

I probably shouldn't give this movie a passing grade, but... I'll explain why in a moment. The entire Ghostbusters franchise wasn't one I loved as a kid despite seeing the second theatrically. That said, II is fine, along with Afterlife. The 2016 reboot... between the cast full of women known for playing characters that repel me and what I've heard about “the humor”, it was designed to be my Kryptonite so I'll never even bother. We'll likely not get something very good like the OG Ghostbusters but in a world full of awful reboots/remakes/sequels, I'll be happy w/ something that is fine. Then again, I do wish the plot of Frozen Empire didn't have at least one giant plot hole...

The humor was also hit and miss with me; it may have been different had anyone else been at my screening. Yes, there was a location in downtown Orlando with a cineplex where tickets are discounted each Tuesday yet this big new movie had no other takers. Given the rather lackluster quality of their food and service, no wonder. Nevertheless, this is another one of those films where the threat is something supernatural and world-threatening. Albeit as someone who avoids most comic book movies, I'm aware enough to realize the trend is played out. The plot also was rather overstuffed in general.

Be that as it may, Afterlife leaned WAY hard into nostalgia for the first film and that was an issue. At least the threat in Frozen Empire was different and the movie wasn't full of “'member berries.” One asset in Afterlife was my finding the lead family to be both realistic and pleasant to be around; the same holds true here w/ Paul Rudd as the surrogate dad. Yeah, it's still dumb that there's a kid only known as PODCAST; yes, he returned for this along with the girl known as Lucky. There are a lot of characters here, including someone new who the viewers barely gets to know besides his accent. Then again, one minor character was only revealed to be the mayor of New York City at the end, and I'm baffled why that was never made clear until this point!

Moments like that made me wary of giving this a passing grade. Yet, I was glad this tried to have heart and wasn't stuffed w/ overplayed soundtrack tunes... although the bonkers variety of Afterlife (Willie Nelson, Buzzcocks, The Shirells, AND Funkadelic) was inspired even by my standards. Many modern special effects extravaganzas are simply avoided by me; this movie doesn't soften my stance on them by any means yet as long as you don't scrutinize the plot-like, at all-then this works as popcorn entertainment.