Simply put, Ivan Reitman’s sequel, Ghostbusters II, attempts to live up to and maintain the pace and tone of its predecessor. However, even though its core values remain intact, the work seems forced at times as the director pounds his central metaphor into his audience.
Five years after saving the New York from Gozer the Destroyer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the Ghostbusters have went bankrupt after being sued by every local, county, and state agency in New York. However, even in the face of financial disaster and a court order, the paranormal psychologists still pursue their activities as they discover a river of ectoplasmic slime coursing beneath the city. As another paranormal plague erupts, threatening the Big Apple, the Ghostbusters return in full force as they attempt to thwart the evil Vigo (Wilhelm von Homburg), a 17th-Century Carpathian tyrant, from being reincarnated via Dana Barrett’s (Sigourney Weaver) infant son named Oscar (William and Henry II Deutschendorf) and casting the city into the “tenth level of Hell.”
Screenwriters Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis attempted to retain the humble nature of the original script as the film opens with the Ghostbusters, now out of work after having to declare bankruptcy, as they try to make ends meet. Egon Spengler (Ramis) has returned to academia as a researcher, Raymond Stantz (Aykroyd)–between haggard hours at his bookstore, Occult Books–goes out with Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) and entertains at children’s parties, and Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) hosts a talk show, World of the Psychic, which he even admits is an audience scam. The mocking nature in which the group approaches their newfound trades, especially the party hosts as they sadly play their own theme song while doing choreographed dance routines, poignantly signals the lack of appreciation the city has for their underdog heroes. However, each respective members’ career subtly indicates that the boys have yet to lose their interest in the paranormal. Yet, not only have things seemingly hit rock bottom for the group, but it is quickly revealed Barrett, last seen being held securely by Venkman after the evil Gozer had been defeated, has since married and had a child by another man.
And this is where the velocity and power of the original is abandoned as we are bombarded, not once, but four times with an explication of the film’s central metaphor: negative energy effects the physical environment around it, symbolized by the Lynchian undercurrent of slime running beneath the city as people yell, quibble, and bicker amongst one another in, where else, the City of Hate as the Mayor (David Margulies) declares, “Being miserable and treating other people like dirt is every New Yorker’s God-given right!” It is obvious from the first didactic instance the direction in which the film is going as the remainder of the movie trudges forward while we anticipate the good ol’ boys’ return and arousal of citywide happiness. In this regard, instead of allowing the story to tell itself, the writers drive this no-brainer feel good flick to its insulting end.
The special effects and comedy, unlike in the original, fail to aptly congeal as the two seem to superficially take turns onscreen. Put simply, the film just isn’t as polished as the first. Perhaps this is due to one of the few merits of the film: its positing of vast amounts of character development for most every member of the central cast. However, amid the rhetoric and characterization, a multitude of annoyances atop obvious non sequiturs plague the entire production. For instance, Doctor Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), Barrett’s boss, is excessively irritating as his broken “Ra-shin” accent comes off as trite instead of naively goofy (to say nothing of the typecasting of a foreigner as an antagonist, not just in Poha’s character, but in his counterpart, Vigo, as well). When the Ghostbusters are put on trial, Zeddemore is nowhere to be seen (perhaps because he wasn’t a shareholder or charter member of the Ghostbusters, yet his absence goes unexplained), only to return in the following scene (yet he is none the less arrested with the rest of the troop once they violate their cease and desist order against practicing paranormal extermination). As Barrett prepares a bath for Oscar, the running water turns to slime. Even a preoccupied single mother would notice the difference in resonance as the screen goes silent between the change in coursing fluids. Later, when Spengler and Stantz are in a photo lab developing pictures of Vigo’s portrait, the chemicals spontaneously ignite as the door locks on its own accord. Coincidentally, Zeddemore breaks down the door with an ever convenient fire extinguisher.
Even though the characters are developed, most are overwritten as the screenwriters go overboard (apparently Moranis was the key scribbler in the original considering he had no hand in writing the sequel), poorly skirting an air of authenticity amid an absurd premise (which the original does masterfully well) as a lesser effigy of a W. C. Fields film comes to bear upon the viewer. Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) overdoes it as the nerdy account-cum-attorney for the Ghostbusters, which is only trumped by the wailing judge, Stephen “The Hammer” Wexler (Harris Yulin). Conversely, the Groucho Marx aesthetic of Venkman’s quips are delivered flaccidly by Murray, only a handful of which hold a flame to his lesser one-liners in the original. (However, the major faux pas here was attempting to have the character of Venkman, a sardonic asshole, share a moment with baby Oscar as Barrett peers loving on.) And why has Janine Melnitz’s (Annie Potts) affections for Spengler suddenly turned to Tully? We are granted a back story between Venkman and Barrett but the filmmaker’s aren’t too concerned with this obvious shift since the last time we saw these secondary characters even though the duo are given considerable screen time. With all of this in mind, I can’t even legitimately claim that the wry sexual innuendoes in the first were being intentionally carried over as we watch the Ghostbusters hose down the Statue of Liberty with white “happy slime.”
In short, during the film we are issued a commercial for the Ghostbusters, which ends with a promotional offer of a free logo mug and a balloon for the kiddies (speaking of which, this family film suspiciously removes the tobacco use by the main players while substituting the parental no-no with fiercer, more hardcore, horror images). I felt as if this sums up the production as a symbol of its serving as a mere gratuitous commodity. Ghostbusters II had big, big shoes to fill and fails to get even remotely close. However, attempting to hold a light to such an ingenious work permits this sequel to stand slightly above average yet only as entertaining, escapist eye candy. In a nutshell, Ivan Reitman’s successor to his masterpiece is, at best, watchable but unfortunately slightly detracts from the power of the original.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
