Quick Movie Review – ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’

SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

So, this may come as a shock to some people but… I never saw the original 1984 ‘Ghostbusters’ film before seeing this movie.

(Audiences gasp shocked)

I know, I know, it’s just I was never into ‘Ghostbusters’ as a kid nor as teenager when I grew up. I’ve seen a few odd episodes of the cartoon shows ‘The Real Ghostbusters’ and ‘Extreme Ghostbusters’, but it never caught on for me. Maybe I wasn’t keen about the supernatural aspects of the franchise.

Hopefully, I can make up for this now that I’ve seen the latest film entry ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ at the cinema. I did begin checking out the original 1984 ‘Ghostbusters’ film on BBC iPlayer recently and it’s also on Netflix. Hopefully, I will be checking out the film in full on Easter Monday. 😀

For now, let me share some quick thoughts on the latest film ‘Frozen Empire’. This is a sequel to the 2021 film ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’. I’m sure I’ll be seeing that film one day soon. I enjoyed ‘Frozen Empire’. I found it quite easy to get into and the film’s story and characters were decently enjoyable.

‘Frozen Empire’ is set two years after ‘Afterlife’. The new ‘Ghostbusters’ recruits led by Paul Rudd as Gary Grooberson are joined by the original ‘Ghostbusters’ cast to save New York City from a death-chilling god who seeks to build a spectral army. And by ‘death-chilling’, I mean it can freeze things. 😮

I enjoyed the cast featured in this film, including Paul Rudd, who for me is Scott Lang/Ant-Man in the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’. I know many people don’t like ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, but I enjoyed that film. Paul Rudd is good in that as well as this ‘Ghostbusters’ film. 🙂

There’s also Carrie Coon as Callie Spengler and her children Finn Wolfhard as Trevor and Mckenna Grace as Pheobe. For those uninitiated, the Spenglers are estranged from Egon Spengler, one of the original Ghostbusters played by co-creator Harold Ramis, who sadly passed away in February 2014. 😦

‘Frozen Empire’ focuses on Pheobe a lot, as she wants to prove her worth as a Ghostbuster despite being teenager. It’s interesting how this film develops Phoebe’s character when he meets a ghost in Emily Alyn Lind as Melody. There’s also a point where Phoebe becomes a ghost for a brief period. 😐

There’s original ‘Ghostbusters’ cast members in this film, including Bill Murray as Dr. Peter Venkman, ‘Ghostbusters’ co-creator Dan Aykroyd as Dr. Ray Stanz, Ernie Hudson as Dr. Winston Zeddemore and Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz. A shame Sigourney Weaver didn’t appear in this film.

The cast also includes Kumail Nanjiani (who I’ve seen in ‘Eternals’) as Nadeem Razmaadi, Patton Oswalt as Dr. Hubert Wartzki, Celeste O’Connor as Lucky Domingo and Logan Kim as Podcast. There’s also James Acaster as Dr. Lars Pinfield and William Atherton as Mayor Walter Peck. 🙂

Many of these ‘Ghostbusters’ cast members have been in the original 1984 film as well as ‘Afterlife’. I’m sure when I check out the ‘Ghostbusters’ franchise properly, but I’ll be able to recognise certain characters in certain films from seeing ‘Frozen Empire’. I’m pleased the ‘Ghostbusters’ theme song was performed by the film’s end.

I went into seeing ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ at the cinema on a whim without checking out the previous films. It was an enjoyable experience and I’m sure I’ll be checking out more ‘Ghostbusters’ films in future. Whether there’ll be more ‘Ghostbusters’ films coming after ‘Frozen Empire’, well, who can say? 😀

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂