In 1984, as a 13 year old I was so excited by a movie called Ghostbusters.
My schoolbooks were covered with the stickers that came in my cereal box (Shreddies from memory).
I owned the storybook, so I could relive their adventures over and over, and hoped that I would see the crew again.
And then Ghostbusters 2 came in 1989, the wait had been helped by a hugely enjoyable Real Ghostbusters cartoon, to give us more adventures.
Ghostbusters 2 remains an enjoyable, if not as good as the original sequel.
We find the first half is as good, but then it loses its way in the second half.
Whilst profitable, it wasn’t as big and that seemed the last we would see of the Ghostbusters.
That was until 2016 and I am going to lose a lot of you here…..
Paul Feig had been announced as the director of a new Ghostbusters film.
It was unsurprising, given at the time Bridesmaids which he directed was one of the highest grossing comedies of all time.
He also had directed some of my favourite episodes of The Office and I loved his film, Heat so I was excited for it.
But history will show the internet wasn’t, the main reason being it seemed was the original Ghostbusters had been replaced by female Ghostbusters.
The internet exploded with so much bile towards this film, it was expected to be the biggest flop in history.
The fact that it wasn’t was a credit to movie goes everywhere who were willing to make up their own minds.
For me, I am sure this outpouring about a film THAT HAD NOT EVEN BEEN RELEASED had happened before, but this was the first time I really remember it happening.
Sadly it is the norm now, Venom, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, Morbius and this year Madame Web and most recently, The Crow, all come to mind.
For the record, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call is my second favourite Ghostbusters film.
I think it is fun, has some great set pieces and effects and I am saddened that it seems we will never see Kate McKinnon as Holtzmann in the franchise again.
The studio listened and the original team of Ghostbusters, minus the late, great Harold Ramis returned for Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
Taking away my love for Answer the Call, this seemed like it would be great, but what we got was for a two hour slog of a film.
With Egon Spengler’s estranged daughter’s family inheriting his property, they would again face ghosts.
It has a sentimental ending which serves as a tribute to Spengler, but it didn’t feel special as the other 3.
Yet, once again everyone is entitled to their opinion and the fans loved it, whilst also using it as a platform to aim more bile at the previous entry.
And so here we are, as we fall for the love of Ghostbusters again, we headed out to see the latest, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
We like so many rewatched the previous movies again in anticipation, although unlike so many others, our rewatch did include the 2016 film of course.
And we liked the latest movie, not love however.
The film not only had the team from the last film, So Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Finn WolfHard and McKenna Grace, but Celeste O’Connor as Lucky and Logan Kim as Podcast also returned.
We also had original Ghostbusters Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts returning.
Then we had new characters in Emily Alyn Lind as Melody as a ghostly friend for Grace’s character and as part of the research team, UK comedian James Acaster.
With so many characters, it felt over populated and really the only one to get a storyline is McKenna Grace, who does extremely well with what she has.
It has its moments, it has more than enough nostalgia for fans with likes of Slimer and William Atherton returning as Walter Peck, but again it feels far too blocked with family drama, and not enough Ghostbusting.
It is sad to say that whilst we preferred it to Afterlife, and it does have great moments and James Acaster and Kumail Nanjiani where the best of the new additions, if we do get another film, we feel it does need to concentate on Spengler’s family and it is time for the original team to have no more than a short cameo, if they are to be used again.
But as always, that is just our opinion, how about you, would you like to see more Ghostbusters films, and how would you improve them if you felt that was needed?
Finally, for the record, our order of Ghostbusters films
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