Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (REVIEW) | Projector | Trapped between ghosts of past and future

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Film Brain talks about the latest Ghostbusters entry, which is not an easy task and there's way too many characters and plots competing for space.
Correction:
14:53 James Acaster made his film debut in Cinderella (2021)
#ghostbusters #ghostbustersfrozenempire #paulrudd #mckennagrace #carriecoon #finnwolfhard #danaykroyd #billmurray #erniehudson #anniepotts #pattonoswalt #williamatherton #emilyalynlind #jamesacaster #celesteoconnor #cinema #filmreview #moviereview #kumailnanjiani

[@FilmBrain]

Apologies this took longer than expected to get out. Because of the length of the episode, it took quite a while to edit, as I've been fairly busy the last few days. Small correction: Acaster was in the 2021 Cinderella musical. Probably hopes we'd all forget about that too.

[@BrianD.Stringham1593]

Don’t get discouraged, Matthew, as long as you feel good and ready to put out your movie review, it doesn’t matter the time it takes, it’s the final result that counts most, your presentation, give it your best efforts! 🎼

[@jamesatkinsonja]

No worries, I always enjoy the result!

[@Dim4323]

And guess what in the Climax Acaster disappeared for no reason

[@Alucard-A-La-Carte]

"Many of those fans hold the cartoons in as much, if not more, esteem than the movies." Elsewhere: Phelan's ears perk up.

[@michaelfraser1073]

This Ghostbusters movie and the last one are bizzare. They're like if the Star Wars sequel trilogy was actually a sequel to Spaceballs.

[@BrianD.Stringham1593]

That would be freaking hilarious! 🤣

[@trinaq]

While Peck was made out to be the main antagonist for not letting Phoebe bust ghosts, he actually came across as quite reasonable. Her own parents didn't seem to be fazed at potentially putting their underage teenage daughter at risk.

[@ThePonderer]

Pretty in line with the first film, honestly.

[@Morhek]

If you believe ghosts can't exist, then Walter Peck acts eminently reasonably in Ghostbusters, especially in the face of constant belittlement and antagonism from Venkman, and then assault by Spengler. He's an EPA official used to environmental issues being denigrated, his departnemt's budget being slashed, especially during the Reagan era, and he's faced with four (apparent) conmen with hallucinogenic gas and laser lights, who the law has no other means of supervising because "ghosts" aren't regulated. The fact that they're totally right, and the ghosts are real, is almost incidental. We know he's wrong. But if I was Peck, I'd be pissed off too.

[@julienc1313]

I want to say I used to watch your stuff way back in the thatguywiththeglasses days. Coming back after all this time and seeing you are still active is very nice to see.

[@LakeInTheDarkProductions]

I find it satisfying that rays curiosity endangers the whole wold.

[@jamesatkinsonja]

Great to see another review from you. Given the 'Afterlife' review I was hoping to hear your thoughts on this one. Lots of fun as usual.

[@trevingrayek1671]

I’d definitely prefer if future installments focused on Phoebe and the family as they go through their ghost hunting careers. Having the characters age in real time to watch them grow and encounter ever weirder things would be cool. (SLIGHT SPOILER below) I kinda suspected from the trailers that this new villain wasn’t going to do much but it still stinks that that appears to be the case.

[@Staggo_L]

Great review . . . as always.

[@BalloonSage]

Matthew - I used to watch BMB literally every day for five years. I came back to see what you are up to years later and I am wondering if you have an archive of your original episodes before they were re-recorded or altered. I remember asking you like 8 years ago why you allowed other channels to post your vids and at the time you said it helped with promoting your channel. Those fan uploads are now all gone, of course. Either way, thank you for all the years of entertainment.

[@FilmBrain]

Most are still available on DailyMotion. I prefer the new edits myself, they're tighter and cleaned up audio-wise in many cases.

[@trinaq]

I enjoyed this movie, though I agree that it was overstuffed with characters at times, and many were left with little to nothing to do. They could have easily written some of them out, like having Trevor go away to college. I did enjoy Phoebe bonding with Melody.

[@ThePonderer]

Seen this one twice, and I honestly enjoyed it a lot. Probably my second favorite film in the franchise, and the first one where I’ve actively wanted to see more by the end. The huge cast is…a lot, yeah. But they all have chemistry and I liked all of em, so…meh.

[@Headbanger142]

I honestly miss when Ghostbusters was a comedy series. These new movies take everything so serious it's.... ironically speaking, a bit scary.

[@TheKellster94]

My cinema screening was suprising full for this film on a Wednesday lunch time

[@jamesatkinsonja]

Given the new team are teenagers I can certainly see it appealing to a family adience.

[@Staggo_L]

Thanks!

[@FilmBrain]

Thank you!

[@alfje5492]

Having more main characters than Magnolia (while also being 1 hour shorter) does hurt this movie an awful lot.

[@spicymemes7458]

I'd like to see a Projector on Godzilla x Kong. There are some parallels between that movie and this one with regard to critical/audience reception.

[@FilmBrain]

I'm probably not going to, alas. I've largely come to a point of "not for me" with the Monsterverse, and it's probably better that way for everyone.

[@spicymemes7458]

@@FilmBrain Fair enough! 😁

[@shaunmccomish8572]

I suppose in a way the 'Ghostbusters' series has the same problem as the 'Terminator' one. A real successful first film with sequels trying to recapture the glory rather than be truly follow with new ideas. I love 'T2: Judgement Day' but it really showed how a great original premise can ground a series in terms of creativity, with all the later films unable to escape the time traveling assassin plot line. 'Ghostbusters 2' actually just went with the idea of the protagonists being stuck in a slump and becoming irrelevant even after literally saving the world. A new Lovecraftian threat in the same vein as Gozer simply served to ensure the characters didn't have to change or grow in order to deal with their problems.

[@fat1fared]

Interesting that you question whether Sony pushed for the Melody plot to be downplayed as it is not uncommon for Japanese media to include gender diverse relationships, but at the same time refuse to refer to them as such.

[@Dim4323]

James Acaster disappeared in the climax for no reason

[@jamesatkinsonja]

I was initially disappointed that Stallone/Rocky wouldn't be in Creed 3 but in hindsight it helped Adonis/the series stand on there own feet [as it's about the consequences of Adonis' actions unrelated to Rocky or his father] while also streamlining the narrative [as it's about 15 mins shorter than the previous two films]. Sounds like this could have done with a smaller 'legacy' cast [and more pruned in general- If Sigourney Weaver had come back 10:59 would be up to 16 characters!], particularly as given the fairly tepid reaction so far this might be it for the new cast.

[@Dim4323]

Also what about the cartoon series The real ghostbusters and extreme ghostbusters.

[@MrNotThatFamous]

Yea they keep trying to remake the original

[@sasamichan]

I have a ponderance. If they brought back the animated series with the original cast and some new VAs Should they do an alternat time line where Egon is alive and Maurice LaMarche is back as Egon? Or should they keep the canon started with Afterlife?

[@GaiashKetoji]

They could just set it before he died so everyone is not much older than they were after the show and Ghostbusters 2 ended but still include details like Egon becoming a father as a nod to the future.

[@Dim4323]

To quote the joker If im going to have a past, i prefer multiple choice.

[@sasamichan]

If you break down the other movies you STILL don't have a lot of actual Ghostbusting. and if you consider Star Trek or Spider-Man No way Home or End Game you have a huge cast there too.

[@jamesatkinsonja]

Star Trek does usually focus on Kirk+Spock [or Picard+Data] for the movies so the bigger cast is less of an issue. As for the other two, they run nearly 3 hours and this is under 2-many reviews said it needed more time to breath and there was a lot of stuff in the trailer not in the film so they clealry hacked it down. Even then, 'No way Home' only really features Ned+MJ from the school outside cameos and don't bring back everyone [Such as Mary Jane] and Endgame keeps a lot of the characters offscreen until the end [and had Infinity War to spread out there screen time].

[@adamcammack3534]

Hey Matthew do you still intend to review Baghead?

[@FilmBrain]

Yes, it's on the to-do.

[@adamcammack3534]

@@FilmBrain I look forward to that one, that movie kinda just came and went especially with how underwhelmed people were by it.

[@dark-rs4qc]

hi there mat

[@andrewklang809]

Ghostbusters 1984 is not some holy text that is meant to be revered. It's The Life of Brian of exorcism films. It's SNL and SCTV guys doing their version of an old Bob Hope movie. I grew up with the first two films, I even saw the second in theaters (and I still like it) and watched the animated series. But I'm not nostalgic for it. I'm not paying Sony one red cent for these cynical tone-deaf movies. Between this and making nothing but bad EDIT: live-action Spiderman films since 2006 (Marvel makes the good-ish ones, and how the Spiderverse films keep free of the executives' claws is beyond me), Sony is just the absolute worst major Hollywood studio. That name and logo is a symbol of trash every bit as much as The Asylum, only Sony has no excuse for its lack of ambition or quality.

[@leejones8582]

I aint afraid of no cash grab

[@teenygozer]

The core concept of Ghostbusters is "Science trumps religion". Honor that and you have a Ghostbusters movie.

[@mechaman7818]

Is there a ghost in your closet? Is it mad you're given Ghostbusters a not so positive review? Is that why the left side of the screen is shaking like that?

[@FilmBrain]

That's the micro adjustments of the camera's autofocus.

[@mechaman7818]

@@FilmBrain That's exactly the kind of thing a skeptic would say! I'm sticking with ghosts!

[@ghostbusterscollector8593]

As a fan it pains me to say this but I have to be honest - Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a bad movie. The film is total a mess. It's boring, poorly paced, confusing, convoluted and overly complicated. There are far too many characters, some of which have been needlessly shoehorned into the story. It's overstuffed with unnecessary dialogue, dull subplots, pointless characters and scenes which go on for far too long. It's not funny either. I didn't laugh once during the movie, and neither did the audience I was watching it with. Neither is it frightening. Laughs and scares are the two things you expect from a Ghostbusters film but this latest entry in the series is completely devoid of any. Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan may be talented directors, but they're the wrong people to be writing Ghostbusters films. Afterlife was mediocre at best, but Frozen Empire is just plain bad. With a heavy heart, I rate this film 3 out of 10. I feel a lot of fans are in denial about just how bad this film is.

[@FilmBrain]

I will fully admit I was kind to this because the bar is so low at "not resurrecting dead people".

[@ghostbusterscollector8593]

@@FilmBrain I had a lot of problems with Ghostbusters Afterlife, but the ghost of Egon Spenger/Harold Ramis wasn't one of them. I actually thought that was done really well.

[@jamesatkinsonja]

@@ghostbusterscollector8593 I didn't mind it as Egon was a silent cameo [almost like a different spin of having a picture of the actor in the film] and by having his family as main characters if felt like it was building to that moment. I certainly felt better about that than the CGI Peter Cushing in Rouge One-if it had just been slipped into the background and silent it would be fine but giving the character lines and acting as if they were really there crossed a line.

[@ghostbusterscollector8593]

@@jamesatkinsonja Perhaps in the near future the technology will enable these cgi characters to speak in a convincing way, but it doesn't seem to be there yet.

[@mrflipperinvader7922]

Ghostbusters should've never been a franchise

[@jamesatkinsonja]

In fairness the animated series started even before Ghostbusters 2 ['Real ghostbusters in 1986]

[@KingKool2099]

Nice try, Mathew, but I know what day it is. There's no way there's a Ghostbusters sequel with Bill Murray actually in it. I thought you'd know better than trying to make such a ridiculous April Fool's Day joke. In fact, I am so confident of the rightness of this comment that I am going to post this without checking the listings at my local theater.

[@jamesatkinsonja]

Well Murray has done it 3 times in the last 8 years...