Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Though it does sort of get going in the last twenty minutes or so, the rest of this is a really slow family discord drama that features hardly any ghosts but is more of a finding herself exercise for "Phoebe" (McKenna Grace) that involves her coming to terms with psuedo-father "Gary" (Paul Rudd) and relating to her very own chess-playing version of "Moaning Myrtle" - only this one's called "Melody" (Emily Alyn Lind). When we do actually focus on things mystic, the story revolves around a brass sphere that is covered with ancient hieroglyphics. This comes into the possession of 'Stantz" (Dan Aykroyd) who takes it to the team for further investigation. Needless to say, that causes quite a bit of mayhem whilst, meantime, the mayor (William Atherton) is after the "Ghostbusters" for causing expensive havoc every time they trap a ghost. That contretemps will question the very existence of their firehouse operation and of their ongoing mission to boldy go... Anyway, as the plot lurches along we get the odd opportunity to see some proton packs in action; the old car gets put through it's paces and the original "Bibendum" ghosts get an outing or two, too, as a sort of bellwether for impending doom. That impending doom is all delivered, frostily, too little and too late to rescue this entirely derivative two hours from the cinema doldrums. The original cast - Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts and Aykroyd really need to stop appearing to legitimise these sequels - they are not patch on the original and really do smell, strongly, of flogging the dead horse. I would recommend a cinema viewing, though - at least that makes the most of the visuals. This will look distinctly mediocre on the television.