In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, ghosts do bad things and get busted for it. Though hardly revolutionary, the latest action-comedy is an entertaining piece of mindless entertainment that will have franchise fans excitedly donning their proton packs once again.
With the action shifted back to New York and the old firehouse once again operational, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire feels more like a direct sequel to Ghostbusters 2 than Afterlife did a few years back–and while it has plenty of nostalgia trippiness, it thankfully doesn’t feel as annoyingly repetitive of past entries (for the record, I liked Afterlife).
Without having to introduce an all new cast, new time period, and more, director and co-writer Gil Kenan quickly establishes a groove, offering up a mix of humor, ghostbusting action, and plenty of quasi-science gibberish. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is moderately funny, has some decent (if unspectacular) action, and is consistently entertaining.
The plot is fine but forgettable and the villain, while creepy-looking, is very one-dimensional and under-developed, but the movie thrives thanks to its cast. Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace, and Finn Wolfhard make for a dynamic team, and thankfully Dan Akryoyd, Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson are more than cameo-level caricatures. Kenan and co-writer Jason Reitman do a solid job capturing the wit of the original characters.
The movie sags in the middle; there’s a tad too much silly drama involving Phoebe (Grace) that leads to a few tedious scenes. The issue is less the scenes themselves than the fact that several of them come back to back; there was an opportunity to cut 15 minutes and get to the good stuff faster.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is far from perfect, but if you accept the movie for what it is: a harmless, relatively family-friendly action-comedy, it delivers the right mix of humor, excitement, nostalgia, and ecto-slime.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.