There’s something strange in the neighbourhood – again – in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
Picking up where Ghostbusters: Afterlife left off three years ago, Frozen Empire is also like Afterlife in that it has way too much going on as it attempts to juggle two movies’ worth of actors.
There’s the return of (most of) the original Ghostbusters, in the game form of Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson – and, surprisingly, Murray makes the least impact of the trio, with Aykroyd and Hudson generating tender feelings in a scene that has nothing to do with ghosts.
There’s a blended family (Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd as the parents, Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace as their teenagers) that has picked up their family’s history of not being afraid of no ghosts.
There’s a doomed romance between Grace and a Billie Eilish-like spirit she encounters. There are a couple of additional ghostbusting randos (Celeste O’Connor, James Acaster), whose presence feels excessive. There are lesser original characters (Annie Potts, William Atherton) with little to do. There’s an impressively designed new villain, an ice-spewing monster that looks like something out of a Guillermo del Toro movie. There’s wisecracking Kumail Nanjiani as a huckster with some connection to the spirit world. And there are mini versions of the original’s Stay Puft Marshmallow monster, who function like the Minions of Despicable Me and are destined to be merch.
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Frozen Empire wastes too much time trying to find stuff for all of those people to do. There’s a plot of sorts, involving monsters trying to freeze Manhattan and the family’s efforts to fulfil its legacy while remaining a team, but it’s more a collection of incidents than a movie with a beginning, middle and end.
Still, individual parts of the movie are entertaining. Coon and Rudd are terrific together. Nanjiani’s insecure-person-attempting-to-show-off energy is hilarious, and Aykroyd supplies an undertone of sweet nostalgia.
The script won’t bust any guts but it is consistently amusing. And, although no one is going to a Ghostbusters movie in search of beautiful images, cinematographer Eric Steelberg pulls off some gorgeous compositions. These special effects comedies often appear ugly, but Frozen Empire is a looker.
The movie is dedicated to Ivan Reitman, director of the first two movies and, more than any of the subsequent movies, it feels like it’s in the playful spirit of the original. It’s tough to balance the casual vibe required for comedy to work with the effortfulness of huge special effects, but Frozen Empire pulls it off.
Some fans may miss the actors who didn’t return for this one but the ending certainly leaves open the possibility that busting will continue to make this crew feel good.
