Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

When "Ghostbusters" hit the screen back in 1984, I thought it would be a nice little summer film and that would be the end of it. Wow, I was way off considering "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" was just released today a mere 40 years later. This has been quite the franchise with even this film leaving us with the possibility of yet another installment of the franchise. 

The Spengler family returns to where it all started--the iconic New York City firehouse--to team up with the original ghostbusters, Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) and Winston Zettemore (Ernie Hudson) 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, Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), Trevor Spengler (Finn Wolfhard), Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon), Phoebe Spengler (Mckenna Grace) and old, must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age. 

Others to round out the cast are Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz, Kumail Nanjiani as Nadeem Razmaadi, William Atherton as Mayor Walter Peck, James Acaster as Lars Pinfield, Patton Oswalt as Albert Wartzki, Emily Alyn Lind as Melody, Celeste O'Connor as Lucky and Logan Kim as Podcast. 

This was directed in a similar if not the same vein as the other 'Ghostbuster' films by Gil Kenan ("Monster House" '06, "City of Ember" '08, "Poltergeist" '15, "A Boy Called Christmas" '21) plus TV. It's really sad that Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman, couldn't have directed this installment since he directed the last film, "Ghostbusters: Afterlife". The feel of this film was similar or the same as 'Afterlife" however it had a bit of a time in 'finding' their film. Once they found it, it worked well. It was effectively written by Gil Kenan ("Ghostbusters: Afterlife" '21) and Jason Reitman ("Thank You for Smoking" '05, "Up in the Air" '09, "Labor Day" '13, "Men, Women & Children" '14, "The Front Runner" '18, "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" '21) plus shorts. Overall, this was cleverly written, again in the same vein as the other 'Ghostbusters' films, however it was a bit slow during the first half of the film. But, after the second half started revving up, it, all of a sudden started becoming interesting, and became the film it was attempting to be. It was certainly reminiscent of "Jurassic World: Dominion" in that the franchise combined both new and old cast, but this definitively can't be the only aspect keeping the interest going, although it was fun to see Aykroyd, Murray, Hudson and Potts reprising their iconic roles. Both writers are fine at their craft and it surprises me, especially Reitman, who is usually better at the laptop., wasn't totally on top of his game. Not sure why this wasn't the caliber it could've been. It certainly had an interesting premise, but it wasn't a wash--it simply needed a bit more polish. If these writers are typically ones you like, their "SNL--1975" is in production. 

If you liked the other 'Ghostbusters' films, you'll definitely like this. It had all the ingredients that they all have: action, explosives, humor, great visuals, but it was a bit slow and jumped a little in the first half. The best thing about this was seeing the reprised return of the original cast--what a memorable walk down memory lane. 

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                  Rated: PG-13                                    115mins.