RE-EVALUATING GHOSTBUSTERS II

 

            The nostalgia wave that’s led to numerous reboots, relaunches and decades-later continuations seems to have also sparked the revisiting and reevaluation of past shows or movies and such. In particular, entries that may not have quite landed with their audience at the time. For instance, Thor: Love & Thunder seems to have brought new fans to Thor: The Dark World; originally regarded as the worst of the Thor franchise. 

Who ya gonna call? Again?

            Another film that’s been getting renewed attention of late is Ghostbusters II. The 1989 sequel reunited the principal cast of Ghostbusters and pit them against a new threat in semi-dead despotic magician Vigo the Carpathian (portrayed by Wilhelm von Homburg and voiced by Max von Sydow), who had taken up residence in his own portrait. In order to live again, he needed a new host body and had chosen that of the baby of Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), who had married and divorced between the films and taken up art restoration (a natural progression from cellist?). 

I don't know--is it art?

            Where do I fall on this debate? Glad you asked! Frankly, when it comes to Ghostbusters II, I’m kinda…meh. The film is…fine. It could have been good. Maybe even great. All the pieces were there: the same writers, the same director, the same cast, plenty of fanbase good will… But it just wasn’t the same. If I had to categorize it using The Real Ghostbusters as a metric, I’d say Ghostbusters was the 78 episodes done under J. Michael Straczynski and Ghostbusters II was the rest of the show after ABC hired a consulting firm to *cough* “improve” it.  

The sole remaining shot of the original Ecto-2 license plate.

            Right off the bat, you can see the shift in tone between the films. Ghostbusters II was reportedly done with RGB in mind. They knew they had a large kid audience, they knew the show was a hit, so they made the film more “kid friendly” than the first. Minor cursing, very little drinking or smoking, no ghostly Playmates, and a greater emphasis on Slimer (thankfully mostly left on the cutting room floor). Hell, they even changed the car from Ecto-2 to Ecto-1A so as not to conflict with the helicopter’s designation from the show. You’d think with that much focus on the animated series we could’ve gotten more than a beat-for-beat rehash of the first film that it ended up being. You’d also think we could’ve avoided the annoying Janine Melnitz/Louis Tully romance. Yeah, that’s right: I’m a Janine/Egon shipper. Did they ever come up with a combined name for that? Jegon?  

When walking in New York that squish you feel may not be dog poop you're stepping in.

 They followed the 80s trend of trying to infuse it with a pro-social message about negativity and kindness represented by the mood slime, and, the topper, threw in a baby. The family-friendly grab bag. As a result, it just didn’t have the same bite the first one had. Now, I know, someone out there will trot out the severed head scene as proof that it could be just as scary as the first, but what if I told you that was part of the reshoots added after a bad test screening? Yeah, the test screening didn’t go over well. Meanwhile, the first film had missing special effects when it tested and was a hit.

By Al Fredo Fettuccini. 

            There were a lot of things going against this movie. A lot of hemming and hawing from both the studio and the co-creators if they even wanted a part 2, a significantly tight shooting schedule to rival even the first’s, and so many rewrites and reshoots that the film that came out barely resembled the one they started production with. Bill Murray once said in an interview that Ghostbusters II just wasn’t as fun to make as the first (the fun being the sole reason they decided to do the second), and it showed in the performances. Don’t get me wrong: everyone delivered to the best of their abilities, these are not bad actors. But you can tell when the cast is having some genuine fun on set and when they’re just showing up for work.  

C'mon, the Titanic arriving was just plain cool.

            Ghostbusters II does have its moments, however. A little silver lining in the clouds, if you will. The aforementioned head scene and the following train were pretty cool, as was some of the hauntings seen in the “Flip City” montage when Vigo was about to make his move. The mood slime itself was a novel idea, especially how it was utilized. Vigo was a pretty menacing villain, being more actively involved in the plot’s progression than Gozer was in the first. The Statue of Liberty thing was also cool, despite just being a “good” version of Stay Puft. The black suits were also an interesting addition. Music was another excellent element, with the soundtrack featuring songs from the likes of Run-DMC, Elton John (though not featured in the film) and Jackie Wilson (though not featured on the soundtrack); although the score couldn’t quite compare to Elmer Bernstein’s from the original. Ecto-1A—that took me a few decades to warm up to, which I eventually did. I mean, yeah, it makes sense in terms of a business, but as a classic car lover I thought it was garish and extremely over the top compared to the clean sleekness of the original. 

Still the best.

            Now, I’ll be the first to admit I’ve seen Ghostbusters II a few hundred times. And I just recently bought some logo t-shirts because I was feeling a bit nostalgic about it. I mean, c’mon, at the end of the day it’s still Ghostbusters. But if it came down to a choice of both movies being on different channels at the same time, the first would win every time. Ghostbusters II is not a bad movie; it was just very disappointing when compared to the first and with the hype maintained by the animated series. I think the true lesson here is to just stop trying to make a Ghostbusters film in under a year. 

            What are your thoughts on Ghostbusters II? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Is it your favorite? Sound off in the comments below!