Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) Before we launch into this film's deficiencies, let's take a nostalgic moment to remember what made the very first 'Ghostbusters' a huge hit 40 years ago......
The script, written by comedic icons Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, managed to blend two disparate things that audiences had fallen in love with......
#1 - goofball, anarchic comedy as seen on "Saturday Night Live" and in National Lampoon movies and movie vehicles for SNL cast members. In 80's movies,we couldn't wait to see familiar genres mercilessly mocked, loaded up with oddball outcast characters who triumph as they defy sputtering, outraged authority figures.
#2 - spectacular special effects designed to make an audience's jaws drop at the array of fantastic imagery.
Aykroyd and Ramis slapped them together, even so far as to make some of the bizarre effects as funny as the comedians reacting to them.
Which brings us to Bill Murray, whose wicked, deadpan line readings kept audiences roaring in the midst of sliming ghosts, devil dogs and the giant Stay-Puft Marshmellow Man.
Cue the inevitable sequel and the various 're-inventions' and 're-boots'.......including the much reviled all-female version.
Writer-director Jason Reitman, the son of the original film's director Ivan Reitman, took over the franchise with 2021's "Ghostbusters: Afterlife". With hundreds upon hundreds of CGI digital artists at his disposal, the amount of special effects on display went way way up......
And the amount of laugh-out-loud moments went way, way down.....taking a backseat to the combination of effects and attempts at family drama heartstring pulling.
That same formula, sad to say, holds true for "Frozen Empire" as it continues the further adventures of the Spengler family, the wife, daughter and son of the late Harold Ramis's character.
They're now established as full fledged, New York City Ghostbusters, racing out of that beloved old firehouse in the Ghostbusters ambulance that shows up at every Comic-Con. Fully armed and dangerous, they chase after a spectre through crowded Manhattan streets, wreaking more collateral damage than Thor, Iron Man and The Hulk combined.
This doesn't sit well with the Mayor, who's none other than Walter Peck, the original team's obnoxious EPA nemesis. (And once again brilliantly played with his now patented officious smarm by William Atherton)
The Spenglers (Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard and Mackenna Grace) and their unofficial father figure (Paul Rudd) then next take on a huge horned demon who freezes everything in sight. And as usual, massive platoons of CGI folk from multiple effects companies swing into action......
Major problem - as we weathered the exhausting ghost battles, we realized the actual laughs are sparse, as if the filmmakers were rationing out the humor.
But let's go over the good stuff......a most welcome return from original Ghostbusters cast members Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and of course Atherton. (Aykroyd's warm portrayal reminds us that he was the only Ghostbuster with an empathetic, beating heart.) The omnipresent CGI, to its credit, generates a few giggles by turning the Marshmellow Man into a horde of chattering miniatures.
Two new cast additions turn out as the movie's saving grace MVPs.....Kumail Nanjiani scores a load of understated chuckles as a hapless would-be grifter selling off his late grandmother's ancient artifacts, one of which unleashes the Freeze Demon. And Emily Alyn Lind makes you ache for her, playing a sarcastic, yet poignant teenage ghost haunted by her own family tragedy. Both of them stand out by making us recall Bill Murray's sly, dry way with dialogue.
And speaking of the much needed Murray, he finally does show up toward the end of the film, but by that time, there's little he can do to pump out more laughs amid the CGI overload. When he and his old arch-foil Atherton come face to face at long last, the film badly blows a golden opportunity of a priceless reunion.
If Jason Reitman really intends to continue milking his father's franchise, he might consider hiring actual comedy writers for the next one.....because the Spengler family arc feels as machine-tooled and paint-by-numbers as any Marvel movie.......
And aren't we all Marvel'd out at this point?
2 stars (**)
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