Ghostbusting — the hardest job in cinema
Bustin’ makes people feel good.
Well, it did that one time, at least.
The original “Ghostbusters” from 1984 is obviously a comedy classic. While the presence of comedic legends Harold Ramis and Bill Murray gave the film a hefty advantage from the start, the movie itself was a risky, genre-bending endeavor that attempted to blend humor, horror and spectacle at an untested scale.
Somehow it worked. It hasn’t really worked ever since.
For one, few filmmakers beyond director Ivan Reitman himself have even attempted to match the unique tone of “Ghostbusters.” Reitman, who passed away in 2022, tried to recreate the magic with 1989’s “Ghostbusters II,” then attempted something similar in the so-so “Evolution” in 2001. The best of the best in terms of horror-comedy filmmakers have skewed closer to horror, though Edgar Wright made three hilarious genre mashups in “Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz” and “The World’s End.”
As with anything successful in Hollywood, “Ghostbusters” spawned a long-running franchise anyway, with a successful cartoon series and the 1989 sequel as the high points before the franchise went dormant for a long stretch. A video game reunited the voice cast in 2009, but talks of a full resurrection sputtered on and off for years, often because of Murray’s disinterest and his longtime rift with Ramis after making “Groundhog Day” together in 1993. Ramis died in 2014, though that didn’t stop Ghostbusters patriarch Dan Aykroyd from attempting more relaunches, eventually culminating with the 2016 reboot film.
The Kristen Wiig-Melissa McCarthy-led reboot spawned some insane (and unnecessary) online hate, but it’s fair to say the “Ghostbusters” movie franchise first went off the rails in 1989.
As a child in the late '80s and early '90s, I LOVED “Ghostbusters 2” because I loved “Ghostbusters.” It took quite a few years for many of us to realize just how inferior and inert that film is compared to the original. Aside for some reliable Murray one-liners and impressive-for-its-time special effects, “Ghostbusters 2” was the real reason the franchise almost completely died. Just ask Murray what he thinks about it.
The 2016 film, directed by Paul Feig, never really had a fair shot with many fans of the original films. The online vitriol began months before the film’s release and never relinquished, and it even resulted in jokes IN the movie about fanboy hate. Despite decent reviews and modest box office success (hindered by a too-high budget), the hate around the movie overwhelmed everything.
Interestingly, compared to “Ghostbusters II” and 2021’s re-quel “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” the 2016 film is the one that most resembles the tone of the 1984 original, and it probably contains more laughs than both those other sequels combined. The biggest mistake in 2016’s film: Limiting the original cast to playing different, unmemorable characters with brief screentime.
“Afterlife,” in 2021, was directed by Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman, and leaned heavily into the nostalgia for “Ghostbusters.” Taking place within the same universe as the original and focusing on the next generation of Ramis’ OG character Egon Spengler, “Afterlife” had the tone of an episode of '80s-inspired “Stranger Things” instead of leading with comedy. The movie is structured to make fans go, “Oooh, I remember that gadget!” every 5-10 minutes, then follows the beats of the original without the humor. The original cast return as their original characters … for a few minutes at the end, and the less said about the post-death Ramis cameo, the better.
Now, with the relative box office success of “Afterlife” behind it, the newest film, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” arrives in theaters this weekend. The trailers boast MORE of the original cast, as well as a return to New York City and … maybe more jokes? At the very least, Paul Rudd seems to be having fun this time around, something that couldn’t be said about his appearance in “Afterlife.”
Hopefully, “Frozen Empire” can blend the strengths of the last two attempts while avoiding the been-there-done-that feeling that sank the 1989 sequel. As a fan of the original, I want nothing more in this world than for a new “Ghostbusters” to capture at least some of the original’s magic (OK, I want a “Jurassic Park” sequel to capture the magic of its original more, but you get my point).
Just don’t be surprised if we get slimed this time too.
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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.
