Spoilers Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire grade and discussion thread

I'm just repeating what I recall Ramis saying. Feel free to take the point up with him!

ETA: Found the reference! It was in the old 'Making Ghostbusters: The Screenplay' book: -

 

Yeah I think that we tend to downplay the intelligence of everyone else due to Egon being "the smart guy". Cut to GB2, both Ray and Egon are examining Oscar in the beginning. It's not Egon doing it while Ray is standing, they both are. And of course Ray is more mechanic type.

I do still feel that most of the actual tech was Egon. Ray may have been the one to fabricate it, but he was just going off Egon's plans. ALTHOUGH, Ray certainly does understand the tech... in Frozen Empire, it's Ray who comes up with the technobabble solution with the containment unit.

Peter is smart, incredibly smart, but he's a different kind of smart. I think he's more on the psychology side, he's not inventing tech or building things, he just knows people really well. I think we get a glimpse when he's talking to NODANAONLYZUUL in GB1, he gets a bit more clinical in trying to diagnose what's going on. Exactly why he was carrying a sedative with him... we... just don't talk about that.

 

Yeah I don't think Ramis was talking objectively about their specific intelligence/aptitudes, only what they are relative to each other. The whole point of that after all was one of group dynamics.

 

Agreed. A lot of what we see him do over the course of the movies is psychology and parapsychology.

 

Something got me thinking about just how long the Engineering Division has existed.

It's been three years since Afterlife, Phoebe was 12 in that, she's 15 in Frozen Empire.

I'm curious if Winston got all of that setup post-Afterlife, or if he had at least some people working on projects even before that. It seems to be implied in both of these movies that the Ghostbusters, as a business entity, still existed given that they still owned the firehouse despite it essentially being abandoned and in disrepair with Janine knowing the general status of it through the decades. I'm also curious about some of the extra old gear we see, if it was all Madman Egon toiling on Oaklahoma, or if some of it was built by the failing Ghostbusters. I would think the Drone Trap is a more recent Egon invention, while Ray's motorcycle is vintage like, 1990.

While they haven't made any great strides in actual busting tech, given that it's all apparently just modified '84-style, they HAVE apparently made some significant jumps in trapping technology with the ability to de-haunt objects.

Seems like a pretty significant jump, and i'm curious if Winston had at least a small team working on things for a long time, just in case.

On an odd note, if we get another one... which I don't think is a guarantee... this had a MASSIVE drop off this weekend, and it JUST made the production budget back... this movie will likely barely squeak by into profitable (merchandise may help it), but I kind of want to see a different kind of old/new in the way of their technology and gear. I think in another few years, they should have shiny new tech. HOWEVER, I want the old stuff to still have a place for whatever reason. They just did the trope of having the gear impounded so i'm not sure I want that again, but I would want some reason for the new tech to not be available or unsuitable, needing to go back to the old gear. Although for straight (in-universe and out) branding and marketing reasons, the new tech should still at least resemble the old stuff.

Since i'm on a GB riff, what we got was cool and somewhat similar to what I had envisioned in my head as an old GB reunion, but not quite. In my head-GB3, the Ghostbusters didn't fail and are a corporation now. The old guys are out of the action but still involved with the running of the business. They still have the firehouse, but it's not really in-use. It's more of a storage facility and kept mostly for the guys nostalgia, the New GB's have new tech and all that. The Big Bad Thing happens in NYC, the new team responds and is eventually incapacitated. With nowhere else to turn, the old guys realize they need to suit up one more time... they head back to the firehouse and we get the nostalgia-dump scene, they head to their lockers and wipe the dust off their old jumpsuits, they pulled the old proton packs and such out of storage, Ray slowly pulls a cover off of Ecto-1, and they old guys head out to save the day one more time. Oddly enough, my version would have actually had less overall nostalgia bait than Afterlife, with new stuff through most of the movie and the buildup to the nostalgia paying off towards the end. In some ways, it's almost a fusion of 2016 and Afterlife.

 

I watched it tonight at the theater. It's kinda meh. I don't regret watching it. It was fine. But if anyone is wondering whether to pay the price of a theater ticket to see this I would say no. Hang onto your money and wait until it's on streaming. As a lifelong fan it pains me to say that. Not so funny, not so interesting, didn't feel it was going anywhere. More of a series of things to keep your brain active.
I was a big critic of Afterlife, but at least it had more of a through line (although that's probably because it just redoes the first film's plot).

Same. Definitely has pacing issues. I thought the ending was building up to something more and then it finished.

 

While I generally liked it, this is the standout for me. Ghostbusters is a comedy franchise. 2016 at least... tried. The new crop really haven't been comedies as much as... action movies that kind of sort of add some humor in.

At the end of the day, the franchise has changed. It's for kids now. It kind of makes sense... kids have always been into it, but 1 and 2, and even 2016 didn't really make too many concessions to being made for kids. The past two... have mostly been for the kids, with the nostalgia stuff to try to get the old fans coming back.

That's not a bad thing, I guess, but I really want a "back to the roots" Ghostbusters movie. Get me 3 or 4 up and coming comedians. Hell in 2016, it wasn't really the girls that were the problem. Two of them were good anyway. I didn't care for Melissa McCarthy or Leslie Jones, but McKinnon and Wiig were good. The movie just... wasn't good.

 

McCarthy's and Wiig's characters' friendship was my favorite thing in that movie.

 

Mine was Holtzman; hands down. I would very much welcome any move to bring her into the new movies!

 

McKinnon is always great!

 

Am I the only one who liked Leslie Jones in the movie? McCarthy and McKinnon were grating, just throwing anything at the wall to see what stuck. Wig kept it toned down at least.

 

No, Patty was awesome too. I'd also welcome her on board as Winston's niece again!

 

The power of Patty compels you!

 

I didn't like, despise Leslie Jones, but I think the humor was all kind of one note. I found her character to be more obnoxious than anything else.

Hotlzman pressed RIGHT up to the line of being "too much", but I think mostly stayed on the good side of it.

I have to say, I really wouldn't mind a reboot of the reboot but it won't happen. It would just confuse the ever loving hell out of most fans, but I would be completely and totally ok with them coming back and being part of the "real" GB universe. Hell, do the standard 20's thing of multiverse everything and have the next Big Bad rely on that. Bring in the 2016 crew as the "Prime Universe" versions of themselves, and have them get a glimpse of their alternate reality selves.

Patty is totally still Winston's niece, Hotlzman is a scientist whose been working in the Engineering Division for awhile, Abby and Erin are Parapsychologists who had studied the Ghostbusters in-depth and have been paranormal investigators in the time since.

 

I'd be interested in a crossover movie. Sony might be too scared to do that though. Where would a 3rd movie go? We saw the mini Stay Puffs in a mid credits scene. Was that a gag or a hint for the sequel?

 

Definitely a gag. I read that scene as a return to the original idea of a post-credits scene: Just have some fun.

As much I love many of Marvel's post-credits scenes, it was refreshing to have a scene that wasn't trying to set anything up. Just pure silliness.

 

Wasn't he also a professor at Columbia University? I don't know how easy it is to become one, but he must have had some merit for doing it, right?

 

I’m surprised that the movie isn’t doing so well. Godzilla destroying it I didn’t expect

 

Two more Tested videos!





The first one actually came out two weeks ago and I somehow missed it the last time I posted vidoes.

Yet again, I love the emphasis on practical props and lived-in sets. Adam's love for all of the little details always makes me smile.