Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire:  Ghosting Its Way Out

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MOVIE INFO VIA ROTTEN TOMATOES:

In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the Spengler family returns to where it all started — the iconic New York City firehouse — to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.

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REVIEW:

How much filling can you put into an Oreo before it becomes overstuffed is the question the Ghostbusters franchise must constantly grapple with.

Ghostbusters:  Frozen Empire manages the three to one ratio of gags, scares and care admirably. It keeps the original alive by bringing back as much as the original cast the budget can bare (Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, and Dan Aykroyd all return, Harold Ramis being the only one who went to the dearly departed realm). It also has the six characters from the 2021 Afterlife spinoff plus three new characters.  There also a bunch of new ghosts with both common English and dead language spoken names. Also Slimer , the green goblin candy crunching farter from the original, makes several cameos, along with the stay-puft marshmallow mini incantations.

The Oklahoma clan has now relocated to Manhattan to keep on the tradition. They meet an ancient languages expert (Patton Oswalt), a paranormal engineer (James Acaster, a kooky English comic making his big-screen Hollywood debut) and an in-over-his-head huckster (Kumail Nanjiani) who inherits a nasty little spherical cryptogram with a very bad thing locked inside that’s yearning to unleash a fatal attack of the shivers.

The series works so well because the plots are basically encapsulated dream logic.  Characters will disappear and reappear with ectoplasmic slime on them.  Things will be smelted down one scene, fully reassembled in the next. Character lapses and motivations flow whatever way the emotional winds are blowing.  Continuity checkers are not needed when everything is a dream state.

Mckeena Grace, as Dr. Spengler’s geeky granddaughter, Phoebe bears much of the dramatic mechanics. She can really act, and her Phoebe is quirky and cerebral with an intriguing tickle of goth.

Still, the director Gil Kenan and the screenwriter Jason Reitman realize that the core audience for the franchise is pretty much over 30.  They know how to recapture the rude comic tone of the original without overly recycling the totems.  Kenan particularly  knows how to deftly modulate and amplify the tension between bang and hush, while bathing everything in its own ectoplasmic womb bubble. 

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire gets a 3.0/5 or a B. 

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CREDITS:

Directed by

Gil Kenan

Written by

• Gil Kenan
• Jason Reitman

Based on

• Dan Aykroyd
• Harold Ramis

Produced by

• Ivan Reitman[a]
• Jason Reitman
• Jason Blumenfeld

Starring

• Paul Rudd
• Carrie Coon
• Finn Wolfhard
• Mckenna Grace
• Kumail Nanjiani
• Patton Oswalt
• Celeste O’Connor
• Logan Kim
• Bill Murray
• Dan Aykroyd
• Ernie Hudson
• Annie Potts

Cinematography

Eric Steelberg

Edited by

• Nathan Orloff
• Shane Reid

Music by

Dario Marianelli

Production

companies

• Columbia Pictures
• Ghost Corps
• Right of Way Films

Distributed by

Sony Pictures Releasing

Release dates

• March 14, 2024(New York City)
• March 22, 2024(United States)

Running time

115 minutes[3]

Country

United States

Language

English

Budget

$100 million

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