Overview
There's nothing strange in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, even with the spirits of sewer dragons, Slimer and pre-Sumerian demons all lurking about. There's nothing unusual about the movie's neighbourhood, either, with the supernatural comedy franchise revisiting New York after Ghostbusters: Afterlife's detour to Oklahoma. No surprises are found among the characters, mixing OG faces from 1984's Ghostbusters and its 1989 sequel Ghostbusters II with cast members from the saga's last flick (and still sadly pretending that 2016's excellent female-led Ghostbusters didn't happen). But something unexpected does occur in this fifth film to ask "who ya gonna call?": its love of nostalgia is as strong as in Afterlife; however, Frozen Empire is welcomely absent its immediate predecessor's needy force.
Afterlife didn't bode well for reviving a concept that initially sprang from Dan Aykroyd's (Zombie Town) fondness for the paranormal. Everywhere that it could blast in a wink, nudge and nod backwards, it did, with the subtlety of a proton-pack blast that's tearing up NYC, angering the mayor and sparking a campaign to stop the spectre-hunting gang. It also desperately wanted to be an 80s-era Steven Spielberg picture. Frozen Empire still brings back plenty that's familiar, including Aykroyd's Ray Stantz, Bill Murray's (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) Peter Venkman, Ernie Hudson's (Quantum Leap) Winston Zeddemore and Annie Potts' (Young Sheldon) Janine Melnitz, but with noticeably less "did you see that, did you, did you?!?" kid-trying-to-get-someone's-attention energy. The last flick sported exactly that vibe for a reason: director Jason Reitman (The Front Runner), the son of the first two films' Ivan Reitman (Draft Day), was both following in his dad's footsteps and reliving his childhood. Handing over the helming reins to Gil Kenan (A Boy Called Christmas), with the younger Reitman co-writing, makes a difference.
That said, simply being better than Afterlife is a low hurdle to clear. It's also what Frozen Empire achieves and little more. With his and Jason Reitman's roles behind the camera now reversed since their debut Ghostbusters collaboration, which he co-penned, Kenan ain't afraid of a by-the-numbers script that stitches together references to the franchise's past and as many characters as can be jam-packed in. From Afterlife, Paul Rudd (Only Murders in the Building), Carrie Coon (The Gilded Age), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things) and McKenna Grace (Crater) all return as the Spengler-Grooberson crew. Celeste O'Connor (Madame Web) and Lucky Kim (The Walking Dead: Dead City) are back as well. New in Frozen Empire: Patton Oswalt (Manhunt), Kumail Nanjiani (Migration), James Acaster (Springleaf) and Emily Alyn Lind (Gossip Girl).
Getting such a hefty list of players in the same flick isn't the same thing as giving them all something substantial to do. Frozen Empire begins with Callie (Coon), her teen kids Trevor (Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Grace), and their former science teacher Gary (Rudd) all in Ecto-1, in hot pursuit of an otherworldly wraith in Manhattan — and the fact that Callie parents, Gary yearns to be seen as a parent and Trevor reminds everyone that he's 18 now sets the scene for their parts moving forward. So does Phoebe taking charge, but Kenan and Reitman only make half an effort to push her to the fore. When Phoebe links up with Ray, who now runs a store that buys possessed possessions, the Ghostbusters saga gets its best path forward so far with this cast. And yet, possibly scared of the ridiculous backlash to Kate McKinnon (Barbie), Kristen Wiig (Palm Royale), Melissa McCarthy (The Little Mermaid) and Leslie Jones (Our Flag Means Death) in jumpsuits almost a decade back, Frozen Empire largely pads itself out with filler to stop Phoebe always being the main point of focus.
The Phoebe-Ray dynamic was destined to shimmer. She's the new version of her grandfather Egon (Harold Ramis, who thankfully isn't resurrected with CGI as he ghoulishly was in Afterlife), while Ray remains as ever-passionate as ever. "This is how I want to spend my golden years. This is what I love," the latter notes partway in — and no one is as visibly pleased to be in Frozen Empire as Aykroyd. Ray and Phoebe are mostly stuck on side quests, though, after the aforementioned mayor (Bad Company's William Atherton, another returnee from 1984) gets the youngest Spengler taken off active bustin' duty due to child labour laws. Although the 15-year-old earns a romantic subplot, too, courtesy of a teen ghost named Melody (Lind) that she meets while alone and lonely when the rest of her family are chasing spirits, that thread also lacks wholehearted commitment by Frozen Empire's guiding powers.
Name-wise, the film takes its cues from a being that can freeze people to death in NYC in summer, and has in the past. That's the big bad in need of vanquishing — a mission that brings in Nanjiani as a hawker peddling his recently deceased grandmother's relics, Oswalt as an expert in ancient languages (who conveniently works out of the New York Public Library) and Acaster as an engineer in Winston's new paranormal research lab. As it hits easily predictable beats, the overall plot jumps between routine and amiable; this is a movie of sporadic small pleasures rather than proving a big joy. Rudd uttering the Ghostbusters theme tune's lyrics as dialogue, a discman with a haunted Spin Doctors CD, a gramophone turned by a severed hand, a Mary Todd Lincoln gag, Nanjiani endeavouring to channel Rick Moranis (The Goldbergs): they're the feature's equivalents of mini marshmallow men, which also pop up again in an attempt to shoehorn in some cuteness.
As Frozen Empire succeeds in topping Afterlife, and also in feeling far more like a Ghostbusters entry, there's an aptness about the picture becoming a case of taking the good with the average and worse. The messy editing, thin plot, unwillingness to enthusiastically champion Phoebe as the key protagonist, stretching its antics out to 115 minutes and bloated number of actors — if Aykroyd is the most excited of the bunch, Murray is the most weary — all get Frozen Empire mirroring one of the storyline's themes: that living, especially when surrounded by death, is about clinging onto what highlights you can. Perhaps that train of thought also explains splicing in clips from films gone by as well (not from 2016, of course), plus Ray Parker Jr's music video and even old ads for Ghostbusters merchandise. If the franchise gets another life from here, however, it's time to embrace being bold again, instead of comfortably doing just enough.
