I always wanted a live-action version of my favorite episode from the cartoon “Knock, Knock” where a bunch of construction workers accidentally open a door to a Hell dimension that’s not supposed to be opened until Doomsday.
As a big fan of the Ghostbusters property, I walked into this movie hoping to have a good time. I saw it with my dad last night and I enjoyed the film. It’s an uneven but enjoyable movie. Frozen Empire has all of the elements I like about Ghostbusters. It expands the lore, it has humor, horror, and sci-fi infused together, and I thoroughly enjoy the characters of this franchise. However, there’s too much in this movie because there are too many characters. As nice as it is to have all of these characters in one movie, it’s too much. It’s a problem that a lot of movie franchises run into if there are a lot of entries and/or the franchise has been around for a while. This problem means that every character has to have something to do, which makes everything spread thin. With that sizable negative aside, I was still satisfied with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. It wasn't fantastic by any means, but the positives certainly outweighed the negatives for me.
I liked it too. It's still has a LOT of general "movie making" issues (pacing, plot holes, wasted actors, etc.) but it was a Ghostbusters movie. It seems to me that many true old-school fans have no problem with it. Everyone out there expecting to capture the magic of the first movie are sorely mistaken. It feels like a LOT of scenes were cut, and for some weird reason I think they wanted to make it more adult, but the studio kept "taming" it back for kids.
Since they packed so many characters into the movie then they should've made it 3hours+ longruntime. It seemed to short because of so many characters in so little time
Theres definetley cons, the movie should've been longer is probably where most of the issues stem from. But I think people need to kind of realize that this is Ghostbusters, and it's really just for a fun time.
longer!? dude, they failed the first 2/3 of the movie so making it longer wouldn't have helped. a few laughs now and then didn't do it for me. if it's your jam, cool.
I wish I could agree, but it’s a lot harder to have a fun time with stories that have so many flaws. I don’t see the point of continuing a story if you can’t do it well, and the ghostbusters fandom deserves so much better.
What made the very first Ghostbusters so good was besides the comedy it had a much stronger buildup on character development and foundation for both the heroes and villains. The soundtrack to the original movie is insane to boot.
We gotta start giving Cody his flowers for being one of the consistent RU-vidrs out today. Been rocking with him since 2020 his in my top 5 RU-vidrs keep doing your thing Cody💯
Been saying this same thing for 3 years also. I appreciate the honesty and how he can naturally see things and pick up on them that I can’t. Just about everything he says has been on point. His following is going to blow up in the near future. Bet
You think Extreme Ghostbusters is better than the first Ghostbusters movie? I'm 38 and loved everything Ghostbusters related, watched every episode of the show, and nothing compares to the OG, with that saying Ghostbusters Extreme is great and recently watched the first season and it's amazing. Man I miss those days.
I would have Aubrey Plaza come in as an older Kylie Griffin, at least. She knew Egon and was kind of his apprentice. You could have a great "older sister" dynamic with Phoebe.
Interestingly, Dan Akyroyd and Harold Ramis never intended to write a sequel at all. Executives pressured them to do it after the success of the cartoon series.
If the production team behind FROZEN EMPIRE really wanted to pay homage to The Real Ghostbusters while connecting elements of AFTERLIFE to it...... FLIP SIDE. Imagine the genial spirit of Egon being corrupted by evil doppelgangers from Hell and turned into a member of The Peoplebusters! The living Spenglers could have used RGB lore to try and save Egon's soul. The horror aspects with modern CGI, and family entertainment, be damned! This had the potential of being the greatest R-rated Ghostbusters film ever!❤
I would've loved the what was it, the 2009 video game? In a live action... especially the alternate dimension parts. I know that was technically part 3, but live action of that would've been awesome
im sorry but "im glad its family friendly" and "there arent jokes that fly over my kids heads" is cop out and you know it! the first ghostbusters film could be enjoyed as a kid (i know cuz i did) AND still have jokes that only the adults get (bj scene for example). the great thing about having adult jokes in a film that kids can watch is this, you watch it as a kid and ejoy it BUT THEN watch it as an adult as get a completely new enjoptment out of it...just maing it "family friendly" means its ALWAYS going to be safe and will ALWAYS just be family friendly no matter how many time you watch it. COP OUT!
Lucky referring to a room as an intimacy dungeon is “family friendly”? Melody was the “friendly” ghost who looked like Jenna Ortega. Actually a different actress (Emily Alyn Lind - who?). I was laughing during the initial scene. Not much of that subplot made sense. The family had been living in Oklahoma during “Afterlife.” With them moving to NYC, it seems like Callie and/or Gary should have told Phoebe about not sneaking out after dark to play chess (a two-player game) by herself at a random empty park table/bench. That just seemed to happen so Phoebe’s character could be living a secret double life of talking to ghosts without her other family members finding out. Then, when the ghost shows up again, she doesn’t even pretend not to have ulterior motives about wanting to be given a guided tour of the firehouse where other spirits are imprisoned in the basement. But Phoebe doesn’t even appear to pick up on that. I felt the same way about ideas and characters. Too many underdeveloped ideas. Characters who aren’t doing anything to advance the plot.
It was good Ghostbustery fun. Enjoyable and worth the watch. Nothing will ever hold up to the Original, and I think that is what everyone is expecting. That will never happen.
1# was Amazing 2# was better in my opinion I think this was a remake with 4 woman that should be buried deeper than the Titanic 😅 Afterlife was decent I can’t lie This film was lacking 10-15 minutes of the ice demon 😑 A film about ghosts but 80% of the time was taken up on humans This is why they shouldn’t remake Classics Just as bad as Jurassic World It’s all about money & ripping the public off Yet again a modern film has left us wondering
One of the most forgettable films I have ever wasted 2 hours of my life on. No funny jokes here whatsoever! The best part of the film was the ending. It captured for a brief moment, the spirit of the franchise. But that may have just been because the theme song was playing. Bill Murray looked so uninterested & bored to be there it was distracting. Not the worst film I have ever seen, but easily one of the most boring.
I’ve been one of those that hasn’t liked the direction of afterlife or this one. I don’t like the ultra family, kids direction. I don’t think kids should be ghostbusters…if they HAD to pass on the reins, you have Paul Rudd, nanjiani, and Patton oswalt…there’s your 3 new ghostbusters right there. What’s this families motivation? Just to continue a legacy? Is money ever mentioned? A spiritualist, a weird tech genius, and essentially a conman started the ghostbusters to make money. Why have they abandoned the adult centered comedy? I fell in love with the originals when i was a kid. I didnt need kids in the movie to help me as a kid. This is just an ok movie that follows the forumla of the cartoon with a monster of the week episode. oh well.
Kiddie movie .. don’t understand how any hardcore ghostbuster fan of the original and or second ghostbusters likes this trash. Harry Potter ghostbusters movie .. lame.
Although I enjoyed the film and I'm a big fan of the franchise, I totally understand your view points and how disappointed you were. Thanks for being honest.
Saw it and it was okay to good. I hated all the nostalgia/ cameo overloaded moments and felt there were way too many characters to focus on. Mr. Pecker btw didn't even need to be in this movie! The actors were each pretty good but that results in the movie struggling to find who to focus on and things get very messy structure wise. Finn for example has nothing to do here. He was introduced nicely in Afterlife then midway was ignored. Same thing here yet again!
This was not kid friendly you had a girl in it that was 15 killing herself so she could be with her gay love interest the movie was dog s*** Ghostbusters is dead for me now I'll always enjoy my old ones This new Hollywood is total s***
I saw it at a Dine in on Carnival cruise ship. I really enjoyed it. Yeah the classic characters weren’t utilized all that great but i still had a good time
Sorry, I saw it at a Cinemark with fancy seats and sound and it still sucked. It was cool to see the original Ghostbusters together. I hated everything else about the movie.
Honestly I prefer the nostalgia factor over the “new generation.” If they reduced the nods to the original films I don’t believe half as many people would watch, and I know that I certainly wouldn’t. The sad truth is that we simply aren’t as invested in the new characters as we are to the original cast members. It’s the same with every series or trilogy. It’s why everyone is mad about the Wizards of Waverly Place reboot. People who were fans of the original will never turn out when they realize everything and everyone they loved about the original has either been replaced or completely done away with.
Personally I could do without Patton Oswald! For some reason he just pisses me off! 😂 This was a really well balanced enjoyable review! Thanks its much appreciated! 🎉
So you didn't pick up on the lesbian vibes going on between Phoebe and the ghost girl? Seemed pretty clear thats where they were heading with that and cut it
100% abd well saud, it's definitely what they were implying and it's pedo stuff too as Phoebe is only 15 and dead ghost chic was 22...My mate and I (both Christian's) got a very creepy vibe from it.
There are other moments of nostalgia: the shot of Ray Parker singing with the cast on the streets of New York (from the music video, which now seems to be canon in the GB universe), the ghosts escaping from the firehouse, and the crowd being jubilant upon seeing the GB after they defeated a supernatural evil. For these last two, for myself at least, the energy felt reduced and was not nearly as energetic as the first time these things happen. As for other things, Slimer did have more a role than you described - he ate the "poltergeist" being when it possessed a pizza. I am liking the second GB film more as it is becoming more clear that the other films can't seem to escape from things first seen or mentioned in the first GB film. It was not great, but they did expanded on the worldbuilding.
This is a great review and I think really articulates what I was feeling. WAY too much going on. Yes, ditch the ghost girl and that whole deal. All that alone was the worst part of movie to me. At one point I'm just like what is even happening here? Maybe it's because I'm such a fan of the original franchise, but I want more Bill Murray...and for him to do like these 10 min stints in the whole deal feels like a letdown. I like how they incorporated Ray and Winston, especially Ray. But I found myself thinking that no one can touch the talent and chemistry of those original 4 actors. Those story lines weren't amazing. We just had these kings of comedy and the script was WAY better..."listen, you smell something? Ok who brought the dog?" The current movies don't come close to this type of writing. Leave Lucky and Podcast out (even tho I was a fan of Podcast, not Lucky). Thankfully they utiilized Paul Rudd more in this one. I liked how they explored a new story line. I liked the new ghosts and the lab Winston had....but yes the other guy there....I was just getting lost. Great potential...not the best execution.
To me, the biggest draw backs were the fact that they made Phobe's character so dumb in her moment of making her soul leave her body. And why it had to be her, was not realized. It literally could've been any character. There was nothing certain about her that stood out to be the one who was needed to set him free. The fire bending elements felt sooooooo out of place. I hated that entire bit of the film to be honest. It derailed the whole thing for me
One of the best and most honest reviews. Look... too many characters, plot was all over the place... at best it felt like a very long "The Real Ghostbusters" cartoon episode. 'Afterlife' was much better. There was so much potential here but poorly written and executed. As a life-long GB fan, that's the truth... a very mediocre, forgettable film.
I was able to go see this yesterday (opening Friday) as well - the atmosphere was great for the opening weekend and I ultimately really enjoyed the movie so when I saw the thumbnail I thought I was going to be upset with your take. However, this is why I watch you, I can always expect a balanced take and even though I'm still a little high on the experience I understand your sharper analysis take and actually mostly agree with your points. Definitely a lot of storylines and in particular I thought that the inclusion of Melody was really forced, to the extent that it was a little hard to believe she was tasked with pushing Pheobe to the point to separate her soul from her body so Garraka could somehow control her soul to channel something through her actual living body... I am a sucker for backstory lore explanations where they animate ancient glyphs or a tapestry or something else to explain how the villain came to be so manipulating the stone carvings was really cool for me and I thought Garraka was badass. Anyway, love your take and your content!
I’ll say this and I’m 100% going to get hate for this but I don’t think it’s as good as afterlife and afterlife was an almost perfect movie for me. The story the nostalgia, the characters and especially the ending scenes. This new movie however was amazing no criticisms from me. Feel free to waste your time commenting a nasty reply to my comment because nothing will change my opinion.
I was a little tiny bit disappointed by it too I did overall think it was good though it just had a little too many characters in it and I didn’t like what they did with phoebe’s character and I do agree as well that they took to long to get into the final act but I did like the lore with the bad guy and I did laugh a couple of times too it was overall decent but not anywhere near my favorite of the franchise by any means
I loved afterlife, but I saw the trailer for this one and didn’t care, it seemed pointless to continue this franchise after the passing of Ivan Reitman because he was the heart and soul of Ghostbusters
This guy just came on RU-vid saying that ghostbusters frozen empire had cameos just to add screen time and added Finn wolfhard and slimer just too add more screen time! He said that he doesn’t add anything to the plot so the should just leave him out, he’s in the movie because it wouldn’t make sense NOT to have him in the movie.
He could have been away for college or have an apprentice job doing something not ghostbusters. Still, him being in the movie is less of an issue than them really forcing podcast and lucky into the film.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Frozen Empire. There was almost as many characters in this Ghostbusters movie as Stephen King's IT. But that's a 3 hour movie from 1990. There wasn't too much "Ghostbusting" in this film. I still consider the young Ghostbusters as "KidBusters." It's always cool to see the Original Ghostbusters together. I would grade this movie as a "B" and 7.5 out of 10. I say it was better than Afterlife. But, nowhere near as good as the 2 Ghostbusters from the 1980's.
It's not often I have to disagree with Cody or Jeremy Jahns, but I do have to in this case. The 2016 entry is hot garbage. Frozen Empire is fun, Ghostbusters movies are for fun. Just turn your brain off and enjoy I say. I really liked this one
It was fun, but ended far too soon imo. The callbacks were great, although the one callback I really wanted didn't happen, which was Venkman getting slimed by Slimer. The script definitely needed more time in the oven. I did like that it openly acknowledged Ghostbusters 2. But this movie definitely needed another 20-30 minutes so the threat of Garraka actually became a threat and not something that's defeated immediately after the entire movie builds him up. I also don't understand the purpose of the Stay Puft leftovers as they only exist because of Gozer and Gozer supposedly can't return for another century, which means they shouldn't exist.
Is there any chance that Hollywood finally stops relying on remakes/reboots/sequels? I thought this really wore thin with Afterlife, and I’m just praying that we get back to original content… but I won’t hold my breath. And I was a kid who grew up on Ghostbusters and absolutely LOVED it. But if I wanna watch it… I’m more than happy to just go back and watch those movies. I’d rather see new ideas in 2024.
You ignored the elephant in the room. At least, they got rid of female ghost busters. But had to tick off the gender category, where guys are useless in a romance. Kids will be confused.
100% agree, ghostbusters 1 and 2 are my fave films, this one just felt like they were throwing stuff into it just to please us.... the gb fans, afterlife done it brilliantly. Im actually so angry with the director and jason reitman for letting this be the outcome after afterlife. They had the ball... they dropped it.
Anyone else wish they brought back The Ecto-1A & have the originals drive that car, side by side with The Ecto-1 being driven by the new Ghostbusters to take on the villain?
I’m completely with you on walking out a bit disappointed. You could really feel the absence of Ivan Reitman. I will always cheer seeing the OG cast on the big screen though 👏🏼. Great review dude
Totally agree with wising the film had introduced the actual "frozen empire" element way sooner. Felt like it took FOREVER to set up the orb and get the plot moving. First half of the movie was a slogfest
Yeah it was an ok film, i felt the same way where there was too much going on, too many kids that really didn’t need to be there except for phoebe. Even the ghost girl really didn’t need to be there. And the nostalgic characters didn’t need to really be there either. Even the main bad guy seemed underwhelming and took way too long to get to him. And when it’s the final showdown, you’ve got like a dozen people squished into this little room in the fire hall and then you got this bad guy who’s like a couple feet taller than them, and instantly gets killed. Even if gozer wasn’t there for very long in the original, at least it was in an open area with 4 people and there was other things going on where it actually felt threatening.
@@TheKrazyKajeevieShow Either you're 12 or your mind stopped developing early. Even Cody said it wasn't bad just not what he wanted. And as much as I disagree with him I'm not going to be childish enough to say someone's opinion is right or wrong. Keep whining over people having fun though, edge lord.
the joy is sucked out of everyone these days. can't you just enjoy a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously for crying out loud of course it wasn't perfect but empty? come on now. sort it out. are you another woke shill?
This was the most fair and honest review I’ve seen yet. I don’t agree with everything you said, but prob 85-90% of it. I appreciate you having the balls to speak honestly and I really think you did a great job with this. That said, and I mentioned this on a different video, I want to see Ray, Peter and Winston get killed in the next one. I want a ghost so evil and terrifying that they can’t beat it and it gets them and the new GBs have to spend the next 2+ hrs figuring it out. 1. We don’t need to see them anymore. They severed their purpose, time to go. 2. It would FINALLY create some actual TERROR and DREAD that this franchise desperately needs, and deserves. I really thought they had a chance with this one, but it was over as soon as it started. The crazy thing is all the trailers, promotions, the marketing everything that came into this movie was based off the last 10 minutes of it and it just makes no sense. Having the crew go around in frozen New York for over an hour trying to figure out how to deal with this and also to catch all the ghost that got released would’ve been incredibly interesting but instead the ghost release was a completely wasted time other than maybe setting up for another movie down the road. More than that the final bad guy was just a joke like all the rest of them prior to him. for whatever reason Ghostbusters just loves to build up these bad guys into these horrible earth shattering world ending creatures and then they beat them within 10 minutes
Saw the movie last night. For me it was on par with Afterlife, not better but not worse. Thought it was slightly more funny, but the story wasn’t quite as good. I did really like going back to the New York setting. Overall I enjoyed it.
I like Afterlife, but to me, the constant references to the first film did drag it down a bit. The entire soundtrack was recycled from the original film, the movie had the same villain, and the constant repeats of original lines was egregious. I did like the post-credits scene where Bill Murray is being mind-read by Sigourney Weaver, and he cheats like he did with the original film, and finally gets payback by being electrocuted. But the rest didn't work too much for me. So to hear that this film has more references does not give me hope.
Afterlife was so boring but I actually enjoyed this one even with its issues, not a great film but its new elements made me more interested and the jokes were better as well
I feel as long as it is better than the 2016 movie, I'm willing to check it out. And though originally there was adult humour, it was always done in a way not to be too vulgar. Like some of the jokes, I just didn't get when I was a little girl that I got later on. So really, that's not a big deal with me on making it more family friendly. Anyways, I'm sure I'll check it out at some point. Thank you, Cody.
Someone help me here in case I missed something ... So, the Spengler family has been in New York fighting ghost and working and living at the firehouse and yet they had no idea that Winston had a ghost lab? That didn't make any sense to me
A lot didn't make any sense. Didn't the girl saw off part of the pole they slide down to "upgrade" the proton pack, and then the dude in the suit of armor slowly slides down the pole and it's intact? Continuity errors
Agreed with all of this. Even on points I hadn’t even thought about, lol. These new films are fine, but Frozen Empire still feels/looks like a typical half-lazy Sony product. Ghostbusters hasn’t been true Ghostbusters since… Uugh, Ghostbusters 🤷♂️ Thanks for your thoughts, Cody! 🙏
I really enjoyed Afterlife, and I was really looking forward to this because it was supposed to be inspired by The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. The fact we were back in New York and would introducing a new villain added to my anticipation. Sadly, I left the cinema underwhelmed. There are things in there I really liked but it just overall missed the mark for me. I think Mckenna Grace is the heart of this as she was in the Afterlife, and I loved Garraka as a villain in terms of his design and the puppetry work. I thought most of the effects were well done. I really wanted to love this, but I just couldn't.
Simplified it sucked! I went in excited and about twenty minutes in I knew this movie was going to blow. I than ruined my day off further by going and watching Immaculate a couple hours later. BOTH movies were not what I expected my opinion.
What are you talking about? Kumail’s character was essential to the plot. If you get rid of his character you have no movie. However Patton Oswalt I felt like was a throw in. Great to see him but I felt like all of his stuff could have been figured out by Ray. He didn’t even end up coming back in anyway. All of the side characters like Podcast and Finn’s love interest did have certain scenes that justified them coming back. Sure there were a lot of characters in this but I thought it helped move the flick quicker.
Ghostbusters as a brand doesn't have the appeal today that it did in the 80s. The reason why that first movie was so good was because of the chemistry of the comedian cast. You can't really replicate that which is why the sequels have had a harder time. Frozen Empire will do well enough most likely to justify another film I think. They should slow down take a break and give the next one some time to flesh it out before rushing into it.
As a kid (10.000 years ago), I just assumed that the ghost chick, was unzipping Ray to spook him 🤷🏿♂️. I didn't know it was going anywhere else. I was like " you need to sleep with your proton pack on dude". (Awaiting comments saying"she was spooking him").
