Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire review – The original was a classic, but this reboot is as shapeless as a ghost… at least Bill Murray’s still a hoot, writes BRIAN VINER

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Judgement:

Verdict: Somewhat lukewarm

Almost 40 years have passed since the original Ghostbusters arrived in Britain, which is somewhat disturbing for those of us who vividly remember seeing the film in December 1984.

To make matters worse, I recently rewatched it and it may just have aged better than we have.

It was also a very influential film. It got Hollywood excited about the comedic potential of special effects, while society as a whole, albeit especially in America, began adding the suffix “busters” to everything.

‘Price breakers’ and ‘budget breakers’ became everyday expressions. And of course, Ivan Reitman’s film went gangbusters at the box office.

Reitman died two years ago, but had a producer credit on the 2021 revival, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which was directed by his son Jason and was a ton of fun.

Now Gil Kenan, who co-wrote Afterlife, is directing a sequel, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.

It’s less engaging than the 2021 film, with a meandering plot that only really comes together in the last half hour. Like many of the best minds, it is somewhat formless.

But the lovable principals are the same as last time, led by the beautiful young Mckenna Grace, whose feisty character, 15-year-old Phoebe Spengler, looks and acts as if she’s been advised to envision a female Harry Potter.

Phoebe now lives in the Manhattan firehouse made famous by the original film, with her older brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), mother Callie (Carrie Coon) and her mother’s partner, formerly her own science teacher, Mr Grooberson (Paul Rudd ).

They spend their days patrolling the streets in a venerable Mercedes Sprinter, equipped to help them zap the city’s more dangerous ghosts.

But of course they are not alone in this noble mission. Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson reprise their characters from the 1984 film, while British stand-up comedian James Acaster joins the cast as a paranormal investigator.

He works out of a laboratory in an old aquarium, where technicians extract ghosts from everyday objects, but don’t quite manage to coax much discernible acting talent out of Acaster.

He is what you might call endearingly wooden, although I expect American audiences will be more than satisfied with his vague resemblance to the young Michael Caine.

Meanwhile, Phoebe is randomly playing solo chess in Washington Square Park one night and encounters a ghost about her age, Melody (Emily Alyn Lind), who died “in a terrifying tenement fire.”

The pair bond over obvious hints, as in the last film, that Phoebe may be homosexual. We can definitely expect an LGBTQ Ghostbusters next time. But in the meantime, is Melody the supportive spirit she seems to be?

Let’s just say she has conflicting motivations, ending in what you might call a wraith aligned with the real villain of the piece, an evil 4,000-year-old warrior who, of course, wants to destroy humanity.

He wants to do this with his all-too-literally chilling ability to freeze everything he touches.

And as all this silliness unfolds, there are some fun set pieces and crackerjack one-liners, especially when Murray enters the fray, but at no point was I as enchanted as when I watched the last film, or even to the first.

The Persian version

Judgement:

Verdict: Worth immersion

The Persian version is also about conflict, but only within a family.

In Maryam Keshavarz’s partly autobiographical film, Leila (Layla Mohammadi) is a bisexual screenwriter who grew up in New Jersey after her parents and eight brothers left post-revolutionary Iran.

Leila spent her school years feeling that she was too Iranian to assimilate into America, and too American to go on visits to Iran.

But as an adult, her identity crisis has more to do with her sexuality, and the confrontations it brings with her strict mother, Shireen (Niousha Noor).

If that makes it sound a bit too solemn and intense, I can reassure you.

Overall, The Persian Version is a comedy, and especially a lively one, full of self-aware quirks in which Leila breaks the so-called “fourth wall” and speaks directly into the camera, or in which characters become immobile as the action unfolds around the film. them.

Keshavarz also ambitiously tries to tell Shireen’s story and takes us back to her traumatic life as a very young mother during the time of the Shah.

This requires a change in tone that feels more like a stab; the director doesn’t quite execute it. But throughout, there’s enough that’s both funny and thought-provoking to make the film worthwhile.