1984’s Ghostbusters remains one of the most successful and beloved comedies but the subsequent 40 years have not been kind to the franchises sequels and reboots and now we have Ghostbusters Frozen Empire or Ghostbusters 5 as it actually is. Picking up from the last film we now have the Callie (Carrie Coon) and her children Trevor ( Finn Wolfhard) and Phobe (McKenna Grace) and their mothers new partner Gary (Paul Rudd) having moved back to New York from Oklahoma and now fully fledged Ghostbusters in their own right having re-opened the firehouse and fired up the ghost mobile once more.
What kicks the plot off is Nadeem ( Kumail Nanjani) selling off his late grandmothers heirlooms specifically a rusting orb to Ray (Dan Aykroyd) now with his own youtube channel and running a shop of antiques. Unknown to both of them is that the orb contains a tyrannical spectre that had almost destroyed the Earth with his own powers of ice! Yes, ice. And its determined to make a return. Also into this is a subplot about the Ghostbusters vault of ghostly apparitions now full to bursting point and a relationship developing between Phoebe and a ghostly drawling emo girl that has an undercurrent of gay romance and all of this builds to the predictable spectre ridden smackdown.
There are the occasional decent flourishes – an animated hieroglyphic telling the story of the origin of the ice demon , a decent one liner about the Spin Doctors and as now seems to be obligatory the numerous plunderings of the original that even includes clips from the film and the iconic Ray Parker music video and obviously Slimer does his sliming once more. And then of course the original busters return with Aykroyd’s significant role, Ernie Hudson now a property millionaire, and Bill Murray popping in merely to deliver quips. Rudd is reduced to the occasional scene and Carrie Coon is wholly wasted and with a cast that includes the three original busters the four new busters and Nanjami all vying for attention.
The 1984 was something fresh – a premise that we had not seen before, a cast of SNL veterans, Murray dropping droll one liners and a spectacular set of the art climatic set piece but this latest film is really just the same old, same old . Perhaps it’s now time to end the franchise but maybe there is someone who can inject new life into it and of all the talent out there…well who you gonna call?
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Here’s the Ghostbusters Frozen Empire trailer…..
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