The Sci-Fi Comedy Sequel Much Better Than You Remember
With Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire winning new fans left and right on Netflix, it’s fair to say that these supernatural exterminators are more popular now than they have been for decades. That makes this the perfect time to watch the earlier films in the franchise, and after I did so, I noticed something very surprising. Ghostbusters II (which you can stream for free on Tubi, always helpful if the last of your petty cash was spent on a succulent Chinese meal) is a movie that fans have always argued is a bad sequel, but it has aged infinitely better than you might realize.
Ghostbusters II
Ghostbusters II is the 1989 sequel to the 1984 original film, and it begins with our titular team mostly broken up after getting sued by the city for their previous shenanigans. But a mystery involving Dana Barrett’s baby gets the team back together, and they soon discover a river of slime under the city that reacts to human emotion.
The team tries to get to the bottom of each mystery, and their success or failure will ultimately determine whether a centuries-old tyrant can return to life from an old painting and usher the world into a new age of darkness.
The Cast
Most of the original cast returns for Ghostbusters II, including the core team of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and the late, great Harold Ramis. Also back are Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, and Annie Potts (looking more like her cartoon counterpart than ever).
Our main newcomers in this sequel are Peter MacNicol (playing an art restoration specialist getting seduced into evil by a painting) and Wilhelm von Homburg (playing Vigo the Carpathian, still the most frightening villain this franchise has ever had).
The Reception
When Ghostbusters II came out, it was unsurprisingly a box office hit, earning $215.4 million against a budget of $30-$40 million. However, it earned noticeably less than the first movie, which brought in $296.6 million against a smaller budget of $25-$30 million.
Even back in the 80s, this kicked off speculation that an early comedy scene where Ray and Winston realize that kids don’t care about Ghostbusters anymore might have been completely accurate.
Critics were similarly unimpressed with Ghostbusters II—on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie currently has a critical rating of 55 percent. In general, critics noted that the movie is “reasonably amusing.” However, they felt “it lacks the charm, wit, and energy of its predecessor.”
The Happy Accident Of The First
So, before I dive into why Ghostbusters II has aged much better than you think, let’s rip the band-aid off: no, it’s not as good as the first film. But it’s well past time for fans to be honest about the fact that nothing will ever be as good as the first Ghostbusters movie because its quality and success were mostly a happy accident.
Akyroyd wanted to make a serious movie about ghosts, Bill Murray kept ad-libbing to keep things funny, and director Ivan Reitman brought it all together, all while adding special effects that made everything from the paranormal to the proton packs seem believable.
Manage Your Expectations
Therefore, if you go into Ghostbusters II expecting something as good as the first film, you will be inevitably disappointed. However, we now live in a world with a whopping five films in this franchise, and the blunt truth is that the second film is still the second-best one ever made.
The 2016 reboot was a disaster in desperate need of an edit, and both Afterlife and Frozen Empire traded out the franchise’s trademark comedy in an attempt to become Spielberg-flavored nostalgia fests.
A Fun Sequel
Grading on a scale, then, Ghostbusters II looks better than ever: it still has plenty of great comedic moments (the dancing toaster alone always makes me smile) and quotable characters (Murray’s “we came, we saw, we kicked its *ss!” basically lives in my head rent-free), and the whole thing is held together by a genuinely scary villain.
The chemistry of the original cast is great, and the effects have aged quite gracefully. Plus, if we’re being brutally honest, the climax involving walking the Statue of Liberty through town with a Nintendo joystick is actually much more entertaining than just crossing the streams and calling it a day.
Stream It Now
GFR SCORE
Will you agree that Ghostbusters II is much better than you remember, or is this a film you’d rather feed to a slime-powered toaster? You won’t know until you get your old junior Ghostbusters friends back together and watch this one on Tubi. Don’t try to blame me, though, when you fall back in love with this franchise and start binge-shopping for all of your favorite old toys on eBay.
