The follow up to 2021’s ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ sees the Spengler Family fully embracing their new lives as Ghostbusters, roaming all over New York City investigating paranormal activities and trapping ghosts. All of that ghost catching comes with a price when they find out the spirit containment unit is at full capacity. On top of it all, an ancient entity has been unleashed, ready to turn the world into his icy playground.
Did you miss this paranormal adventure on the big screen? Don’t worry, the movie is now available on VOD for rent or purchase, so you can watch it from the comfort of your couch or your personal Ecto-1.
‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ has a runtime of 1 hour and 55 minutes. As of April 30, 2024, the movie was made available to rent for $19.99 or purchase for $24.99 on VOD platforms such as Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube, and Vudu.
With ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ raking in over $198.9 million at the global box office, it has become the fourth biggest movie of 2024 so far. Despite the low critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, the fans enjoyed the movie, garnering it an 83% audience score. It’s easy to see why the moviegoers enjoyed this chapter in the Ghostbusters franchise. The nostalgia hits hard when the film reunites the original Ghostbusters cast members as they take up their uniforms and proton packs for another round of ghostbusting.
While there has not been any confirmed plans for the next Ghostbusters movie, it is clear its original cast members loves being a part of the story and legacy.
“Well, it’s been over half my life, 40 years of ‘Ghostbusters’. I’ve been Winston Zeddemore to people I meet on the street and everywhere. So, it’s hard to separate me from the role, and the fact that it’s still current, that people still love it, wherever I go in the world ‘Ghostbusters’ fans will show up, and express to me how much the movie has meant to them, and their families. So yes. It’s just very exciting, and I’m just so thankful that it has relevance in these 40 years after the fact. No way could I have imagined that this would be happening. But it is happening, and it’s wonderful. As an actor, I’ve done a lot of movies over the years, and it’s great to have one that people really connect to and hold onto.”
‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ will be released on DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K UHD on June 25th. Collectors can also look forward to a 2-film collection set, which will include both ‘Afterlife’ and ‘Frozen Empire.’ The home release will feature bonus content such as:
Return to the Firehouse: Making of ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’
Watch the official trailers for ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire below:
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The official synopsis for ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ is below:
The Spengler family returns to where it all started — the iconic New York City firehouse — to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.
With all the throat-clearing and reintroductions of ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ behind us, it might be natural to think that ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ could forge ahead into a new story and era with the next generation of paranormal investigators. But no, ‘Frozen Empire’ rounds up a large ensemble of both old and new cast members and gives almost all of them nothing to do, except stand around and spout either tired jokes or even more tiring exposition.
Five films in, this remains a property that is firmly mired in past glories – or, to be exact, the memory of one glorious film that came out 40 years ago. But it’s resoundingly clear that this should never have been a franchise in the first place, and ‘Frozen Empire’ is a hollow example of corporate mandates at their worst. Director/co-writer Gil Kenan (who also co-wrote ‘Afterlife’) and co-writer Jason Reitman (who directed ‘Afterlife’) have no new ideas and nothing to say, and it’s only the work of a handful of the actors that holds – barely – one’s attention.
It’s two years since the events of ‘Afterlife’ and the descendants of Egon Spengler – his daughter Callie (Carrie Coon), her kids Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), along with surrogate dad/scientist Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) – have relocated to New York City and now have taken over the Ghostbusters business, working and living in the old firehouse where the original Ghostbusters did the same.
As for the originals, they continue to do paranormal research at a fully equipped lab financed by Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), with Ray Stentz (Dan Aykroyd) offering advice to the new team and Winston’s staff of engineers working on new and improved equipment.
After an initially promising opening in which we see Phoebe, Callie, Finn, and Gary head out in the Ecto-1 for an energetic pursuit of a Sewer Dragon, ‘Frozen Empire’ settles into an hour and a half of tedium marked by occasional events that may or may not be of interest. Unfortunately, we’re also back to the same old, same old, as some of the damage caused by the Ghostbusters’ efforts in the city puts them in the crosshairs of the OG team’s enemy from back in the day, now-Mayor Walter Peck (William Atherton in a thankless return), who is still determined after all these years to shut the Ghostbusters down.
Meanwhile, a fellow named Nadeem Razmaadi (Kumail Nanjiani) wanders into Ray’s bookshop with a bunch of his late grandmother’s relics to sell, including a strange sphere that – as we saw in a prologue set 100 years earlier – has the power to turn both objects and human beings into ice. The sphere certainly generates enough psychic energy to send Ray’s lab equipment into a tizzy, warranting further investigation.
Just what that sphere contains, and what role Nadeem has to play, is unveiled in one stultifying exposition dump after another, although some of it is at least amusingly delivered by Patton Oswalt in a cameo as the Fox Mulder of the New York Public Library (he also works in the basement). At the same time, Phoebe – feeling down and dejected because she’s been benched due to her age – strikes up a relationship with a young teenage ghost (Emily Alyn Lind) that is clearly gay despite the filmmakers straining hard to avoid confirming that fact.
Loads of exposition, endless nods to the past (poor Paul Rudd, who’s actually one of the film’s few bright spots, speaks-sings the famous theme song at one point), and the paper-thin plot at the center of the movie all conspire to make ‘Frozen Empire’ a slog, until we get to the CG-heavy third act battle – complete with column of psychic power emanating upward into the clouds (we thought we’d put that tired visual device behind us).
But none of this is very funny, very entertaining, or compelling to watch, and the mechanics of the plot and overstuffed cast means that most of the actors get little or nothing of importance to do, and often disappear for long stretches. By the end, they all have to come together – including a barely registering Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) – to defeat yet another digitally-created entity from the other side with a murky plan to destroy the world. For most of the running time, however, ‘Frozen Empire’ plods along, with Kenan seemingly unable to draw any life or energy out of this well-worn narrative.
One of the things people appreciated most about ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ was the introduction of its new cast, which also included the Spenglers’ new friends/helpmates Lucky (Celeste O’Connor) and Podcast (Logan Kim). All of them are back, but most of them are sidelined with the exception of Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe. Carrie Coon and Finn Wolfhard are given shockingly little in terms of story or character arc, with Coon looking bored throughout (she’s even sitting and scrolling through her phone in one scene) and Wolfhard literally vanishing from the film for much of its second act.
Grace and Paul Rudd fare better and carry a lot of the film, with Rudd providing his usual effortless charm. Grace is also very good, although she’s given a plot turn late in the movie that makes no sense at all, especially in light of events that follow it. As for the new additions, Nanjiani makes the most out of a thin character but does get most of the funnier lines (and delivers them well), while Oswalt relishes his brief time onscreen and provides his usual caustic presence.
Which brings us to the OG Ghostbusters. Aykroyd plays a more integral part in this story – although he’s more or less Basil Exposition – and manages to come off the best, while Ernie Hudson is just glad to be there and makes sure you know it as he smiles constantly for the camera. He and Aykroyd share a brief moment in which they ponder getting old, but it’s a theme with little potency as it’s never brought up again. As for Murray, he neither has a lot of screen time nor anything meaningful to provide to the story – sadly, Peter Venkman is a shadow of his former self (thankfully, there are no further cameos from the “ghost” of the late Harold Ramis’ Egon). And what happened to Sigourney Weaver’s Dana, glimpsed at the end of the last film?
A headline recently appeared online that asked if ‘Ghostbusters’ could just go back to being one of the great comedies of the 1980s, without the constant corporate mandate to make it into a franchise. We sadly could not agree more at this point. This is a property that’s truly running on fumes, and we’re really not sure if even a blast from a proton pack could reignite it.
‘Ghostbusters’ is like ‘Star Wars’ in a way too – as much as the franchise seems to want to move forward, it always ends up being stuck in the past. While both ‘Afterlife’ and ‘Frozen Empire’ contain little sparks of inspiration – mostly in the casting – the property’s reliance on nostalgia, combined with a lack of fresh narrative ideas or jokes, make ‘Frozen Empire’ a tedious, enervating sit. Let’s not answer the call anymore.
‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ receives 4 out of 10 stars.
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What is the Plot of ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’?
As the descendants of Egon Spengler continue the ghostbustin’ business in New York City with the support of the rest of the original Ghostbusters, a new paranormal menace threatens to put the Big Apple into a deep freeze and unleash a second Ice Age upon the rest of humanity.
Who is in the Cast of ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’?
Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, and Logan Kim in ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’
Opening in theaters on November 19th is ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ which is the fourth film in the franchise and a direct sequel to ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Ghostbusters II.’ Written and directed by Jason Reitman (‘Up in the Air’), son of the original film’s director Ivan Reitman, the new movie is set over 30-years after the original and follows a group of kids in Oklahoma who discover their town is plagued with ghosts and that they have a mysterious direct connection to one of the famed Ghostbusters. The new film stars Mckenna Grace (‘Captain Marvel’), Finn Wolfhard (‘It’), Carrie Coon (‘Avengers: Infinity War’), and Paul Rudd (‘Ant-Man’), as well as Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver reprising their roles. The result is a really fun movie that has fantastic new characters but relies heavily on nostalgia and basically copies the first film’s plot.
After she is evicted from her apartment, Callie Spengler (Coon) movies her kids, Phoebe (McKenna) and Trevor (Wolfhard), to her recently deceased estranged father’s abandoned home in Summerville, Oklahoma. The town is experiencing unusual daily earthquakes, while Phoebe and Trevor adjust to their new life. Trevor gets a job at the local burger joint, so he can be closer to Lucky Domingo (Celeste O’Connor), the girl he likes who is also the Sheriff’s daughter. Meanwhile, Phoebe goes to summer school and makes a new friend, Podcast (Logan Kim), a young boy obsessed with recording everything. Trevor and Phoebe are discouraged by their mother to learn about their grandfather, who they never knew, but eventually Trevor discovers and begins to repair the Ecto-1, while Phoebe finds a hidden ghost trap beneath the floorboards of their house.
Phoebe takes the ghost trap to class and her teacher, Mr. Grooberson (Rudd) explains the history of the Ghostbusters and everything that happened in New York in the 1980s, as they are completely unaware. Phoebe soon realizes that her grandfather was Egon Spengler, a member of the Ghostbusters. When a green ghost appears in Summerville, Phoebe, Trevor and Podcast use the Ecto-1 and a Proton Pack found in Egon’s hidden laboratory to capture the ghost but destroy half the town in the process and are arrested by Lucky’s dad. After a date with Mr. Grooberson, Callie picks her kids up from jail and tells them the truth about her father, that he was crazy and had turned his back on all his friends and family years ago. Believing that her town is about to become ground zero for the apocalypse, Phoebe calls the only people she thinks can help … the Ghostbusters. But with the team disbanded, it’s up to Phoebe and Trevor to follow in their grandfathers’ footsteps, along with Podcast and Lucky, and “suit up” to defeat the ghosts and ghouls plaguing their town.
There are a lot of fun Easter Eggs in ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ that I want to try and not spoil, but surprisingly the best part of the film are the new characters and fresh setting. Mckenna Grace is absolutely captivating and creates a fun and rich character in Phoebe. She carries the emotional thrust of the film and builds a character that you want to follow and see more of in the future. Equally, Finn Wolfhard is super fun as Trevor and has great charisma and onscreen chemistry with Celeste O’Connor’s Lucky. Rounding out the foursome is Logan Kim’s terrific Podcast, who makes a great sidekick to Phoebe. In fact, the kids are so great in this film that you don’t really care when the original Ghostbusters show up, and that is part of the problem. Jason Reitman’s script works so well introducing us to the Spengler kids and the town of Sommerville, that it almost seems anticlimactic when Murray, Aykroyd and Hudson appear, which is not really a spoiler since the three actors have been doing press for the film.
Another issue I have with the movie is that, other than a new cast and a fresh environment, the movie is almost exactly the same as the first, pretty much beat-for-beat. I’d say it is kin to ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ in that sense, which is not a bad thing per se. I’m a longtime fan of the ‘Ghostbusters’ franchise and I definitely think this is the best film since the original, but it would have been nice if the basic plot was slightly different. It’s still great to see the “big three” when they do appear, and their appearance does not overshadow the kids. There is also a wonderful tribute to the late great Harold Ramis in the film, which I won’t spoil, but just say that it was done very tastefully and handled better than, for example, Carrie Fisher’s inclusion in ‘The Rise of Skywalker.’ There are a few other cool cameos in the movie, as well as an all new version of the fan-favorite Slimer, and mini-Stay Puft Marshmallow men, which I thought was a fresh take on an old concept.
Jason Reitman was definitely the right person to lead the franchise in this direction, and with the fun new characters he has definitely created something I would like to see more of, but in future installments hopefully it will be less reliant on the same old formula. Carrie Coon is strong as Phoebe and Trevor’s mom, struggling to get by and holding deep resentment for her own father. She also has great chemistry with Paul Rudd, who as always is adorably fun to see on screen. Rudd plays his character of Mr. Grooberson with hilarious enthusiasm, and you get the idea that the actor is having as much fun being in a Ghostbusters movie as his character is fighting ghosts. There is a clever twist with Callie and Mr. Grooberson’s relationship, that I have to admit I saw coming, but it still works within the context of the film. In the end, while it’s not as original a movie as you may have been led to believe, Jason Reitman still has found a way to breathe fresh life into the franchise his father created, establishing great new characters for a new generation of fans in a fun and entertaining, yet nostalgia-heavy film.
‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ receives 7.5 out of 10 stars.
The new “Ghostbusters” is an extension of the original movie, which was directed by Reitman’s father, Ivan Reitman.
Not much is known about the plot, except that it focuses on a single mom ( Coon) and her son (Wolfhard). Sigourney Weaver is returning as Dana Barrett.
Details of O’Connor and Kim’s roles were not revealed.
“Celeste and Logan are rare talents and we’re all grateful that they’ll be lending their unique voices to ‘GB20,’” Reitman said in a statement.
The movie begins production this summer and is slated to open in theaters July 10, 2020.
