Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (12A)

Callie Spengler, her two children Trevor and Phoebe and seismologist Gary Grooberson have moved to New York City, home of the original Ghostbusters firehouse. Dr Winston Zeddemore and his team including parabiologist Lars Pinfield have developed a top-secret research laboratory to propel the art of ghostbusting into the 21st century. This may come in handy when an ancient artefact unleashes dark forces and ushers in a calamitous second ice age with the potential to end mankind.

LondonNet Film Review

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

A frost-bitten new instalment of the supernaturally comedic franchise is dedicated to the memory of Ivan Reitman, director of the original Ghostbusters and its sequel, who died in 2022 following the release of the rollicking series reboot Ghostbusters: Afterlife. His son Jason passes the directorial baton to co-writer Gil Kenan for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire to thaw out a motherlode of nostalgia. The Ecto-1 Cadillac ambulance convertible weaves through city streets, surviving main cast of the 1984 film (minus Sigourney Weaver) reprise their roles, miniature Stay Pufts run amok and Paul Rudd’s goofy science teacher quotes lyrics from Ray Parker Jr’s chart-topping theme song…

Gluttonous ghost Slimer continues to leave his ectoplasmic mark, the New York Public Library witnesses more wanton destruction and one of the original film’s antagonists – Environmental Protection Agency inspector Walter Peck (William Atherton) – is still a thorn in the side of the Ghostbusters. Only now, he wields power as New York’s embittered mayor, who pledges to reduce the iconic firehouse to “a pile of bricks”. Bustin’ ghosts feels good 40 years after that first paranormal investigation, but new additions to the cast including James Acaster’s kooky parabiologist and a horned demon which freezes people in fright, evaporate surprisingly quickly from the memory.

Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon), her children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and seismologist boyfriend Gary Grooberson (Rudd) proudly continue the family tradition of capturing phantoms using proton packs and ghost traps from the Ghostbusters firehouse in New York. A fast-paced pursuit of the Hell’s Kitchen Sewer Dragon results in considerable damage to city property and 15-year-old Phoebe is banned from participating in call outs. The crestfallen teenager seeks comfort in a burgeoning friendship with a spectre in limbo named Melody (Emily Alyn Lind).

Soon after, slacker Nadeem Razmaadi (Kumail Nanjiani) unwittingly ushers in a new ice age when he sells his grandmother’s possessions to Dr Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd). Among the trinkets is a brass orb encrusted with hieroglyphs, which imprisons the demon Garraka. This fearsome adversary wields a devastating power known as “the death chill” and the old gang comprising Raymond, Winston (Ernie Hudson), Peter (Bill Murray) and Janine (Annie Potts) answer the ghostbusting call to arms in mankind’s darkest and coldest hour.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire retains the light-hearted tone of earlier chapters, bolted to a heavy-handed tale of family unity in adversity with an obvious emotional pay-off. When special effects-laden destruction a la Roland Emmerich’s disaster epic The Day After Tomorrow finally arrives, it’s spectacular but improbably tame. Lead characters stave off a deathly chill in boiler suits and none of the giant ice spears, which erupt from the ground as Manhattan freezes over, are shown to impale a scurrying New Yorker. Perhaps it’s global warming, but we’re witnessing a nice age.

– Jo Planter