#140RVW
Watered-down, kid-friendly sequel proves that with enough talented people phoning it in, you can still sometimes come up with something ok.
What’s more:
Ghostbusters II is not a bad movie. It has the unenviable job of following up a nearly perfect movie. It can’t hope to equal the quality or success of the first film, and doesn’t.
Like so many sequels, the biggest problem is that it’s completely unnecessary and a blatant cash cow. There was nothing more to say, nothing original to add, and it doesn’t. The creative team behind the first film, (writers Dan Aykroyd & Harold Ramis and director Ivan Reitman) had absolutely no interest in revisiting the story to make a sequel, but were talked into it. That lack of enthusiasm shows. It’s just kind of half-baked.
It’s really a testament to how likeable the actors and the main characters are that the movie works at all. The story is terrible, but it’s not as though the story for the first film was the reason for its success. There, as here, the movie lives and dies because of Messrs. Aykroyd, Murray & Ramis. But this time around, they are suffocated by the indifferent story.
The story picks up with the group disbanded after being sued for all of the damage they caused in the first film. That’s not a bad setup, and leads to some great stuff. I would strongly argue that most of the good moments in the picture occur before they ever get back into the suits. You’ve got Ray & Winston singing to “Ungrateful little yuppie larva”, Venkman hosting the world’s best bad psychic show and Egon taking away a child’s puppy. Dana and Peter have some good dialogue and the courtroom scene is great. Everything after that is just slime…
Ahh, yes, the slime. The slime has feelings, it has emotions. The slime likes music and responds negatively to those grumpy New Yorkers. Are you serious with this? It’s a deal-killer. If you haven’t seen this in a while and are saying “C’mon, it was a good movie and really funny”, cue up the picture again. Watch the toaster dance to Fats Domino. Watch the Statue of Liberty inspire the citizens by blaring elevator music. See the bad guy defeated by the hardened city folk singing. Bobby Brown is in the movie, for God’s sake. The only way you remember the movie fondly is in fact by not truly remembering it. Not all of it…
Rick Moranis is brought back for no real reason at all, except due to my previously noted rule of minor characters being overused in sequels. Let’s go ahead and call it the Louis Tully rule, because this film is the best example of it. Both this character and the character of Slimer (who wasn’t really a character at all in the first movie) are here in large part because they were made into more “meaningful” roles in the Real Ghostbusters cartoon. Yes, Ghostbusters II was made primarily because of the success of a Saturday morning cartoon. Still confused about the goofy tone of the film?
Poor Ernie Hudson. He barely gets any more screen time than he did in the first picture, and in that one he wasn’t even introduced until the second half.
The Vigo the Carpathian bit works fairly well from a humor perspective; not quite as well as the big bad. Peter MacNicol is absolutely perfect with his Dr. Janosz Poha character. It’s over the top in all the right ways.
I retain mostly positive memories of Ghostbusters II. It’s got more than enough funny material to compensate for the lousy effects and weak story. It works best if you completely forget all of the lousy feel-good moments. The ending is as sickly sweet as Murray’s previous film, Scrooged. Must have been something in the water with these late 1980’s movies.
Ghostbusters II was a box-office hit upon release, but the reviews were negative, and after Batman came out a week later, it looked sickly by comparison. No one was clamoring for another sequel. So it’s unfortunate in my opinion that our nostalgia for the original has rekindled plans for a Ghostbusters III. The project has even gained momentum after the death of Harold Ramis. Such an ill-advised idea. I hope to be proven wrong, but I’m not waiting up nights. I’d be far happier if it rotted on the vine and left this flawed but fun sequel as the last chapter for our boys…
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Pass
The Representation Test Score: C (4 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Bill Murray Dr. Peter Venkman, Dan Aykroyd Dr. Raymond Stantz, Sigourney Weaver Dana Barrett, Harold Ramis Dr. Egon Spengler |
| Rating | TV-PG |
| Release Date | Fri 16 Jun 1989 UTC |
| Director | Ivan Reitman |
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Sci-Fi |
| Plot | The discovery of a massive river of ectoplasm and a resurgence of spectral activity allows the staff of Ghostbusters to revive the business. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 108 |
| Tagline | Be ready to believe us. |
| Writers | Dan Aykroyd (characters) and, Harold Ramis (characters) … |
| Year | 1989 |