451: Ghostbusters II

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER_00]: 158. Let's get to Ghostbusters II, which came at 1989, once again directed by Ivan Reitman,

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_00]: once again written by Dan Akroden Harrow Remis, Star's Bill Murray, Dan Akroden's going

[00:00:15] [SPEAKER_00]: to Weaver, held Remis, Rick Moranis, Arne Hudson, and any pots, basically everybody from the

[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_00]: first one. And this analysis is that a discovery of a massive river of Ectoplasm and a resurgence

[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_00]: of spectral activity allows the staff of Ghostbusters to revive the business.

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_00]: So, and actually quickly before I get into it, I feel like the first one, I was

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER_00]: almost skeptical to try and talk about the first one because, for one thing, I love it

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_00]: so much, and then there's so, there's not really anything wrong with it. In my opinion,

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_00]: that it's almost hard to talk about. But anyways, let's get to Ghostbusters II.

[00:00:50] [SPEAKER_00]: So I only saw this one, I think probably maybe in my mid 20s after I'd seen the first

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_00]: one many, many times I'd heard fairly, you know, it's a huge step down and, you know,

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_00]: don't bother with it. But some people said no, I actually really like it's not amazing,

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_00]: but I still think it's a solid sequel. And so I wasn't really sure exactly what to think

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_00]: and I've probably seen it three-ish times over the years. And I did watch pretty much

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_00]: all five of these movies in a night, so I got a pretty good side-by-side comparison for quality

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_00]: and what I like about each one and what doesn't work, what does. And long story short,

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that this is spoiler, my least favorite of the five so far, not by a huge margin,

[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_00]: but to me it is by far the weakest. And we'll talk about specifics in a second, but I think

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_00]: that the biggest issue and it seems to be a fairly popular opinion, so I don't think I'm in

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_00]: the minority for saying this, but it does in some ways feel like a, like a be-side of an album

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_00]: or something or a cover song. Like it just feels sort of dry, a little unspired. It's too,

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_00]: a little too messy at times in terms of the plot. Like the characters get separated a lot

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_00]: than they come back together, then they separate again. There's all these locations.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: There's all the politics of it going on within the plot and I feel like, at about the half- I mean,

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I still like it. You know, I'll get that out there. Still would give it a pass. Again, I'll take the

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_00]: worst ghostbusters movie over nothing, but at about the half-weight point, you know, two-thirds point,

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just kind of ready for it to be over. It just really drags at points. It's way too slow

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_00]: for what the story is. It feels way slower than the first one, which I think is almost perfectly

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_00]: pasted. I don't really care that much about this kind of whiny villain who's the mentor or

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_00]: employer of Sigourney Weaver. I like the whole idea of the painting kind of coming alive in that ghost

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: reparing and real form, but everything surrounding that really does not hook me. There are a

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_00]: few moments here and there, like even like the opening with the runaway baby character. I think

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: that's pretty clever. The look of the sewer, the pink slime is iconic. I love that look and how they

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: update some of the uniforms of the ghostbusters. It's little things that work for sure.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: The courtroom scene where they're about to be convicted and sent to jail and then suddenly the

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_00]: pink slime goes nuts and the ghosts get out and they get to bring back ghostbusters.

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_00]: So there are moments where I'm like, oh, I love that scene. I forgot about this one. I'm

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_00]: back in for a little while, but then there's not enough humor. There's really not that much action

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: going on. The ghosts are few and far between the first act. I'm always in. I'm thinking,

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_00]: maybe I was wrong about this one. Like what was I thinking the first time I watched this? And then

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_00]: it starts to get more into the second act and I'm like, oh boy. Which is too bad because

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_00]: it has all the right elements there. I just think that they maybe should have taken a little

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_00]: bit more time with this one. I mean, I'm still glad that this one came out so we could have others

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_00]: later on with the reboots and sequels. I'm glad that still exists. This one walked so the others could

[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_00]: run and exist rather. So I'm happy and thankful for that. And there are some other good scenes like

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_00]: World of the Psychic scene, the television conversation. I think that's really funny. The

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_00]: statue of Liberty sequence at the end. I really like that look and how that is all shot and choreographed.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and also actually talking about one great comedy moment is when the ghost busers are trying to

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_00]: get down into the sewers and figure out what's going on. And their dress up as

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: construction road workers and the police come and they start acting like plastic New York,

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_00]: up noxious guys. And there's that ridiculous accent and then the police leave and then they come

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_00]: back. I think all that is that shows you the humor that they have and that comes mostly once again

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_00]: as in the first three performance. Like the lines aren't that funny that are written but

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00]: they make it funny. And that's saying something. The pink slime coming out of Sigourney Weaver's

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_00]: bathroom when she's about to give her baby a bath. That's really visually pretty cool.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And then lastly probably the other scene that sticks out to me is when slime or gets loose and

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_00]: causes chaos. So like at best this movie is one of those films that I kind of become autopilot on.

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I can have it on in the background. I like just spending time being with those characters.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: There's just a charm there. There's a comfort once again there. So if you haven't seen it,

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_00]: if you like ghost busters but you have never gotten around and seeing this one, could do worse.

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: When it comes to sci-fi action comedies and I know that I'm sure I'm in the minority here.

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_00]: At least when it comes to letterbox a lot of people praise this one higher than the more

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_00]: recent ones but the reboot and then the two narrative sequels but we'll get to that soon.

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_00]: It is though sadly for me this one is the low point of the five so far and I think it'll always

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_00]: probably stay that way. So that one is a light three out of five.