We're nearing the end of 2024, with all the emotions of Christmas coming to an end or deep down not getting a snowy white Christmas was a bit of a letdown, and to be honest I don't know how in a sense to express those emotions. Thankfully I decided to watch an underappreciative sequel to a movie that's 40 years old but is also memorable for its great list of actors and the belief of Ghosts, in fact a more belief of Ghosts than all these other bulls**t reality shows like Ghosthunters. I would re-review the original Ghostbusters or watch the original cartoon though really where's the fun in watching the one Ghostbuster's film that I was allowed to watch growing up. That's right Ghostbusters II was the only film I could watch when I was young, and the story will be a little in the sense of funny but in the end live and let learn, I guess.
Years after saving New York City from Gozer, The Ghostbusters suffered major claims of damage and were eventually disbanded. But when Egon Spangler (Harold Ramis) is told about a strange event by Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) and her son, the men including Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) launch a rogue ghost chasing mission. The quest goes awry, landing them in court. But when ghosts appear in court, the judge dismisses the case and orders the Ghostbuster to get back to work.
I've probably said this story many of times hopefully this will be my last time, long before I was born in December of 86, the original Ghostbusters was that go to movie in my brother's life and my brother said the infamous words from Bill Murray after they captured Slimer, my mom just slapped him across the face. Now, I'm not sure if this was the main reasons as to why I wasn't able to watch the original Ghostbuster film either way it didn't bother me all that much in all fairness, sure I can rip by brother for not letting me watch the original Ghostbusters growing up but really I had the sequel to keep me company as well as the cartoon series so, all is good and fair deep down. The sequel to the 84 Ghostbuster to me was really underappreciative for many reasons it still has that Ghostbusters magic though it's at times misplaced in terms of the comedic vibe you always loved with the first movie as well as toning the movie down just a smidge though in all fairness they didn't tone the movie down all the way not like David S. Ward did with Major League 2 but will get to that later I want to talk about the development of the sequel. After the success of the Ghostbusters a sequel to the movie was in the process unfortunately it was still going through a series of redlights and greenlights on going with the idea or not, especially with some of the main actors did not want to make a sequel for nearly three years and by the time there were committed Murray was already in works with Scrooged. Then when they were finally ready to do the movie, the story wasn't ready so, really it was a mix of making something work in the best way possible. Furthermore, with the success of the Ghostbusters cartoon Reitman, Ramis and Aykroyd toned down some of the adult humor as well as everyone giving up smoking despite there a few scenes where Dan is smoking a pipe or a cigar. And true the sequel wasn't it's best as the first movie but the film does have some great moments from distracting the cops as well as the real construction guys while digging whole in first avenue or a smidge close to throwing the judge to the ghosts while the judge is begging for them to help him after wanting to burn them at the steak, even the funny scene where Winston is getting run over by a ghost train and Egon is asking him about the number on the locomotive and he give him a straight answer "sorry, I missed it". Like the movie itself isn't as perfect as the original film but some of those scenes and the magic from the first Ghostbusters are still there even when you have some great scenes with Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray in terms of building chemistry from the first film as well as Weaver being a strong mother in protecting her son, as well as the same with Murray with the young child. And even Bill Murray claims he wasn't at all great with the film, but I would say to Bill that Scrooged was not even as great as I remember so shut your egotistical mouth up and accept that these guys are the reasons you’re a great comedic actor. No question there are some scenes I have questions about especially certain scenes but I would still recommend watching this great Ghostbusters sequel for any day when you’re not having a good day or finding something to watch on New Years and if the Statue of Liberty walking through the streets of New York with Jackie Wilson signing in the background not giving you a huge smile on your face then you sir have no soul because when I first saw that scene it literally brought a huge smile to my face and I hope with this film if you’re a Ghostbusters fan or not I hope watching this underappreciative film or any other film will give you some joy deep inside with the sense of hope will be bliss. So, I wish you all a Happy New Year and hopefully 2025 will be a decent year.