Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
The fifth outing in the spectral franchise is a numbingly mechanical thing.
Boo!
Courtesy of Sony Pictures
Robert Frost has a lot to answer for. The American poet’s seminal 1920 work ‘Fire and Ice’ provides a promising note of class at the outset of Ghostbusters V. And so the sequel opens with Frost’s ominous words: “Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice.” But it’s a trap. Here, a powerful spirit is inadvertently released from an ancient Arabic orb and turns everything around it to brittle ice. So, who they gonna call?
After the shot of fresh blood with Jason Reitman’s smart and funny Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), the franchise takes the new characters and squeezes them through the old sausage machine. We are back in New York (away from the back-of-beyond charm of Summerville, Oklahoma), and the new ghostbusting gang – almost a loving family unit – now call the old disused firehouse in Manhattan their home. Here, no expense is spared, which is a part of the film’s problem. A little more expenditure on a decent script and an original storyline might have turned things around.
As it is, there is an enormous amount of padding and mumbo jumbo which adds nothing to the humanity of single mom Callie (Carrie Coon), her 18-year-old son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and 15-year-old daughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), a physics genius who is the real grown-up in this cheerfully dysfunctional household. Paul Rudd returns as Gary Grooberson, who is desperate to be accepted as a father figure to Trevor and Pheobe, but is frightened to cross any line or say something inappropriate. However, the potential for some daring social commentary is thrown out the window with the rest of any relatable material. Which is a shame, as never have four ghostbusters needed a group hug more.
A new character is introduced in the form of Nadeem Razmaadi, a smartass slacker played by Kumail Nanjiani, whose sarcastic asides fall on fallow ground. Nanjiani, who made his name in the HBO series Silicon Valley and in The Big Sick, which he co-wrote with his wife, is no less well-equipped to wring a laugh out of the feeble dialogue as anybody else. The wit is sparse. Paul Rudd quips, “the smartest people I know are morons,” while Bill Murray’s pièce de résistance would seem to be, “we’re gonna need a bigger trap!” Really?
This is tired and tested stuff, with the most eye-catching scene – appropriated from Jaws – shoehorned in from the trailer and virtually left to last. This is the ultimate gasp of CGI before the rallying cry of Ray Parker Jr’s hit theme song is wheeled out in the hope of leaving viewers with a nostalgic high. As if.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Celeste O'Connor, Logan Kim, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Emily Alyn Lind, James Acaster, William Atherton, Shelley Williams, Adam Murray.
Dir Gil Kenan, Pro Ivan Reitman, Jason Reitman and Jason Blumenfeld, Screenplay Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman, Ph Eric Steelberg, Pro Des Eve Stewart, Ed Nathan Orloff and Shane Reid, Music Dario Marianelli, Costumes Alexis Forte and Ruth Myers.
Columbia Pictures/Ghost Corps/Bron Creative/Right of Way Films-Sony Pictures.
114 mins. 2024. USA/Canada. UK and US Rel: 22 March 2024. Cert. 12A.
