The 567th film I have seen in theaters…
The Spengler family has been hired by Winston to live at the Firehouse in NYC, working as a resurrected Ghostbusters team. The mayor is not pleased by this turn of events and wants them shut down. When a mysterious “cold” orb is sold to Ray at the occult shop, an ancient frozen god begins a quest to create a ghost army and conquer the Earth. Who you gonna call to stop him?
The movie suffers from a large bloated cast. Everyone gets small moments to shine, but few, aside from McKenna Grace, get anything substantial. Phoebe’s story was actually very well done. A bit stupid, but what do ya want from Ghostbusters lol. Paul Rudd was very Rudd-like. Carrie Coon’s Callie was mostly lost in the shuffle.
Finn Wolfhard is a decent actor, but holy shit did he just wander through this movie. He exists to have a couple scenes trying to hunt Slimer. Now, I would be overjoyed to be in the movie hunting Slimer, but this is a case where they should have trimmed the cast. A few other young actors from the previous movie were contrived into the story. They were not necessary. Have Trevor be the intern working at the Ghostbusters lab. Problem solved.
The legacy characters were actually used very well here. They came in, did their small roles and left. If the main cast wasn’t spread so thin this would have been fine, but the end result was a bit off. That said, I was glad to see Ernie Hudson as the big boss of Ghostbusters. Dan Aykroyd had the best role, with him being an integral part of the story. That was very well done. Annie Potts is always welcome. Bill Murray is pure personality. He dominates any scene he appears in. Good to use him sparingly if you want to build a new cast.
Kumail Nanjiani plays Nadeem, the “Fire-Master”. This was actually a good character. If the series continues onwards, I’d like to see him join the crew. More on that later.
Patton Oswalt belongs in a Ghostbusters movie. hehe. He plays an occult expert that the crew visit for some lore. Like Nanjiani, he should carry over.
Emily Alyn Lind plays Melody. This is an interesting character as it is the first time, aside from Egon in Afterlife, that we meet a “good” ghost. She even interacts and speaks with humans. Her relationship with Phoebe was pretty good. I’d like to see them follow this pattern going forward, adding more nuance to the spirits.
Dick-less returns! The great William Atherton is back as Walter Peck, now mayor of NYC. Perfect. When I saw Peck had returned, I prayed that it was as mayor and the movie delivered. I love this guy.
I am going back and forth on this one. It had problems, serious story problems. The characters were largely underserved by cast bloat. As much as we love the classic characters, if this series is to continue it is time to retire them. Winston has a place as the CEO of the Ghostbusters, and perhaps we can see the others for small cameos to provide some guidance or silliness, but they need to step away from the main action. The younger actors also need to be trimmed. Keep it confined to the Spenglers. Even then, Coon’s character could easily step away or take a smaller support role. The core team here would be Rudd, Wolfhard, Grace, Nanjiani, and Oswalt for lore/comic relief. Even within this, Wolfhard might be written out. His character doesn’t have very much going on. The movie was fun though, and that is what’s important. The villain was freaky and cool. I just wish we had more of him. Getting back to New York, adding the Ghostbusters Inc angle, changing the types of ghosts were all good moves. Now drop the fucking Marshmallow men.
5/10
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