Director: Gil Kenan
Starring: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard
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.
1984’s ‘Ghostbusters’ is an excellent example of proper film making. Made 40 years ago, the original ‘Ghostbusters’ still looks amazing today. Considering how far CGI developed, and made on a budget of $100 million (!!!!), I’m sorry to say ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ looks awful!! I guess most of the budget went towards paying the actors. What happened to Hollywood?
Speaking of actors, there are way too many characters in this movie! I mean hell, there were so many that I found it hard keeping track of all of them. There simply was not enough room in one movie for all of these characters. There’s plenty of nostalgia here with the return of Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray, Annie Potts all reprising their original roles. And even Slimer is back! Unfortunately all of them looked out of place in this movie and in my opinion was added simply to pay homage to the original film.
‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ is a prime example of lazy film making. Some movies look amazing with CGI, but this film truly looks horrible. There are also hardly any practical effects here; everything is CGI. It looks as if the film was shot in a studio with everything being added in post-production. The acting didn’t look convincing, the characters were bland and so annoying cracking their silly one-liners, and the premise was…what was it about again…? Enough said!
The film is about an orb containing an ancient evil that lands in the possession of the ghostbusters. The orb belonged to Nadeem Razmaadi, whose family owns various artifacts. This character was so obviously based on the Louis Tully character from the original ‘Ghostbusters’, portrayed by Rick Moranis. Unfortunately, the Nadeem character was not as effective and this shameless copy/paste character was another example of lazy film making/lazy script writing.
And then there’s 15-year old Phoebe who is banished from being a ghostbuster because she is a minor. She befriends a ghost and this was were they attempted emotional depth, but alas, there was no room for emotion in an often slapstick-filled fantasy comedy.
The lion statues coming to life are back, the library ghost is back, oh and look, they’re trying to make minions out of mini marshmallow men! Ugh, enough already! By now you’ve probably already gathered I did not like this movie. In fact, the ONLY film in the ‘Ghostbusters’ franchise I enjoyed was the original. I also found ‘Frozen Empire’ utterly forgettable.
Would I watch it again? Enough said!
Paul's Movie Reviews 