Ghostbusters 6: Frozen Empire (2024)

[Menu]

Shot of a dusty old ghost trap

Slow sad piano version of the original Ray Parker Junior song

Made me laugh.

[Menu]

Afterlife is a technically better film than Answer the Call, just in terms of filmmaking, photography etc. Paul Feig being from the Judd Apatow "plonk the camera in one position in mid-shot and catch some people improvising" school of filmmaking. Reitman is just objectively a better technician than Feig.

Buuuuuut, I was really put off by Afterlife not - in any way - being a comedy. The odd Paul Rudd one liner a comedy doesn't make. It was a serviceable YA adventure, but so at odds with Ghostbusters. Answer the Call at least had funny people occasionally being funny.

It was a kids film. Not even a family film. A kids film. I genuinely felt embarrassed watching it.

The third one was fine. At least it was a comedy. But it definitely lacked something, and the last 30 minutes were awful.

The original worked because of Bill Murray's comic acting, and Dan Ackroyd's insane imagination.  And Ivan Reitman knew when to get involved and when to stay out of it. And it does become genuinely chilling after the ghosts get released. It blows my mind how anyone can watch that first film and come away thinking a fitting tribute to it would be to make a kids film in which at the end a blue Harold Ramis fucks about not talking like Kylie at the end of Neighbours. 

[samadriel]

If they had any balls at all they would have ended that trailer with a suited-up Leslie Jones kicking open the doors of the firehouse, shouting "WHO YOU GONNA CALL? ME!"

I was thinking while watching the trailer how the inclusion of the 2016 sheilas would make me at least pirate this, then that shitty little curly-headed infant with the specs appeared, and I remembered Afterlife.  Urgh.

Remembered as in, remembered is existence.  I'm not going to fucking watch Afterlife, come on!

[Goldentony]

Leslie Jones should kill Venkman in this, in the first two minutes

[BritishHobo]

I would prefer it if it was revealed at the end that the original Ghostbusters were Jones, McKinnon, McCarthy and Wiig, and we only saw them as the male actors because of an evil ghost spell. It's all revealed with a flashback where we see them in iconic scenes from the original, and that's what they actually looked like underneath the spell, forever. Leslie Jones IS Venkman, Kate McKinnon is Dan Aykroyd, Melissa McCarthy is Spengler and Kristen Wiig is Ernie Hudson. Answer The Call is a prequel.

[curiousoranges]

Harold Ramis fucks about not talking like Kylie at the end of Neighbours. 

She becomes a CGI ghost?

[lauraxsynthesis]

Gonna summon Ken Korda by saying this should have been a sequel to 2016 instead of Afterlife. Paul Rudd and kids? I want Leslie Jones.

Not going to judge the tone of the whole film based on this trailer. Could be it's actually chock full of comedy apart from these bits. Unlikely mind but possible.

Anyway, it's bound to be an enjoyable watch over so

[sevendaughters]

it's not even a ghost film, it's a fuckin weather event flick done in the Stranger Things style.

honestly might be the least enticing trailer ever made.

[madhair60]

they should change it to "geist busters"

[lauraxsynthesis]

The new issue of Empire has it on the cover and a couple of articles.
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/ghostbusters-frozen-empire-covers-revealed/

Quite happy with Annie Potts getting prominence.

It'll be in UK cinemas March 22. I'm not expecting great things, but we'll see.

[madhair60]

glow in the dark? more like go in the fuck. yourself.

not you them.

[Blinder Data]

looks shit

the first Ghostbusters is overrated anyway. v good concept, OK film. the milking of the franchise is embarrassing

[Rev+]

I think I got a right slagging on here for claiming that the original film is a bit of a mess.  It's a great, happy mess, but it does feel like a bunch of sketches with some linking material.

This one, like the last one, is for the TRUE FANS.  You know, the people who didn't think the original was about a bunch of comedy actors at the top of their game fannying about, no, it was always all about the tech.  Semi when a proton pack appears, rager at a PKE meter.

[jamiefairlie]

I think I got a right slagging on here for claiming that the original film is a bit of a mess.  It's a great, happy mess, but it does feel like a bunch of sketches with some linking material.

This one, like the last one, is for the TRUE FANS.  You know, the people who didn't think the original was about a bunch of comedy actors at the top of their game fannying about, no, it was always all about the tech.  Semi when a proton pack appears, rager at a PKE meter.

" This one, like the last one, is for the TRUE FANS. "

What they're all nude and doing sexing and that?

[Butchers Blind]

Like trying to squeeze fresh juice out of a three week old orange.

[frajer]

When I see a Ghostbusters Frozen Afterlife, my dick stays puft.

[Glebe]

Nice to see Acaster doing movies but this can't be good.

[Blinder Data]

I think I got a right slagging on here for claiming that the original film is a bit of a mess.  It's a great, happy mess, but it does feel like a bunch of sketches with some linking material.

it's a sacred cow to people who grew up with it. I'm a bit too young - had all the toys though

it's got a stonking theme tune and the idea itself is awesome. good chemistry among the cast. funny moments. but in the cold light of day, it's a 7 or 8 out of 10 film

[idunnosomename]

Like trying to squeeze fresh juice out of a three week old orange.

like trying to buy Ecto Cooler in Waitrose

[SteveDave]

"Good luck with your project"

[Bernice]

Can't believe they're wasting time on this when they could be building up a Paper Moon cinematic universe.

[dissolute ocelot]

Never knew Annie Potts was in a remake of The Man Who Fell To Earth with Wil Wheaton. Make a sequel to that, motherfuckers.

[Huxleys Babkins]

it's a sacred cow to people who grew up with it. I'm a bit too young - had all the toys though

it's got a stonking theme tune and the idea itself is awesome. good chemistry among the cast. funny moments. but in the cold light of day, it's a 7 or 8 out of 10 film

I sometimes wonder if a lot of affection for the movie is actually nostalgia for the cartoon, directed at the wrong thing. For all of its faults, The Real Ghostbusters fleshed out the characters and gave them proper adventures to get stuck into and I wonder if that creates an illusion of the film being more than it really is and for the franchise to have more potential than it really has.

It would help explain why so many people can't see Venkman as the nasty, manipulative creep he is, because cartoon Peter was far less sleazy, more the loveable rogue archetype, and effectively laundered his personality before most kids ever got to see Bill Murray in the role.

[Famous Mortimer]

I sometimes wonder if a lot of affection for the movie is actually nostalgia for the cartoon, directed at the wrong thing. For all of its faults, The Real Ghostbusters fleshed out the characters and gave them proper adventures to get stuck into and I wonder if that creates an illusion of the film being more than it really is and for the franchise to have more potential than it really has.

It would help explain why so many people can't see Venkman as the nasty, manipulative creep he is, because cartoon Peter was far less sleazy, more the loveable rogue archetype, and effectively laundered his personality before most kids ever got to see Bill Murray in the role.

I've never heard that argument made before. The cartoon was on when I was 10 years old and although my friends and I watched it, it wasn't close to as popular or as beloved as the film. But it's possible that other groups of people thought differently.

[madhair60]

i think the original 'Busters is an easy five stars, fucking walks it. Joyous start to finish and leaves you wanting more. some utterly incredible visuals in that movie, great jokes, enormously fun effects. won't accept people calling it mid, it's not. yeah, it's am eighties blockbuster with all that excess, but it's one of the best examples of one. great fun.

and just to prove i'm not a fanboy i don't even like Ghostbusters 2, at all. not at all

edit: i am a fanboy i lied. i own this big book with all pictures of the car and stuff, i deserve to get bullied to fuck.

[The Bumlord]

Never gave much of a shit about the cartoon.

I saw the film when it was released so I would have been six or seven and I was not scared by the skellington cab driver and anyone who says I was can have a punch up the bracket

[Blumf]

I've never heard that argument made before. The cartoon was on when I was 10 years old and although my friends and I watched it, it wasn't close to as popular or as beloved as the film. But it's possible that other groups of people thought differently.

Same here, the cartoon version barely registered, certainly didn't like it as much as the film.

There was no confusion about Venkman being a sleezebag either. That was a clear part of his character from the beginning and folds into the whole story with him being able to ooze his way around the business side of things comfortably (like talking Ray into getting several mortgages on his family home to finance the start up)

[popcorn]

This one, like the last one, is for the TRUE FANS.  You know, the people who didn't think the original was about a bunch of comedy actors at the top of their game fannying about, no, it was always all about the tech.  Semi when a proton pack appears, rager at a PKE meter.

Yes this is very much my feeling about the newer films and the Ghostbusters fandom at large. It's fascinating to compare the original proton pack scene (a comedy scene about a dangerous object in a lift) to the lingering, reverential, psuedo-pornographic shots of the recent film.

The music is a big one for me too. Music used in the original film is there to communicate mood and tone, when the same music is used in the recent film it's there to communicate "Ghostbusters. chills. omg. just chills."

[Jack Shaftoe]

I can see why people thought there'd be sequel potential in Ghostbusters: brilliant characters, an incredibly rich-feeling world and a very cinematic setting. But the second you spin it out beyond that first film it starts to feel laboured and tired. I still think they should have gone with the franchise idea, got a load of different performers to do a Ghostbusters branch set in LA or London or Tokyo or whatever, each with a completely different vibe that could sink or swim on their own merits.

[dissolute ocelot]

I can see why people thought there'd be sequel potential in Ghostbusters: brilliant characters, an incredibly rich-feeling world and a very cinematic setting. But the second you spin it out beyond that first film it starts to feel laboured and tired. I still think they should have gone with the franchise idea, got a load of different performers to do a Ghostbusters branch set in LA or London or Tokyo or whatever, each with a completely different vibe that could sink or swim on their own merits.

Yeah, it worked as a cartoon (as mentioned), different supernatural entity every week. At the same time, the movies didn't really have the level of worldbuilding needed for a successful series of films (kids cartoons need less). What really are ghosts? What existential perils do they pose? Do they just lock them up in the containment thing for ever, and what are they doing in there? What happens when we die? Is there a god, a heaven or hell? Of course Scooby-Doo got around all that.