{"id":28258,"date":"2024-03-20T23:51:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T06:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=28258"},"modified":"2024-03-20T23:51:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T06:51:57","slug":"ghostbusters-frozen-empire-is-overstuffed-with-characters-but-delivers-some-laughs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=28258","title":{"rendered":"GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE is Overstuffed with Characters, But Delivers Some Laughs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time:  115 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This film from Sony Pictures opens exclusively at\ntheaters on March 22nd.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 1984, the comedy Ghostbusters<\/em> was released\ninto theaters and became a cultural phenomenon. Looking back on the feature, it\nwas truly a rarity that benefitted from contrasting elements. The perfect comic\ntiming of every cast member in the movie maximized every laugh from material\nmore familiar to supernatural (and often scary) films. Even the 1989 sequel\nwith the original cast couldn\u2019t quite capture the same magic. Ghostbusters:\nFrozen Empire<\/em> is the latest follow-up (after 2019\u2019s Ghostbusters:\nAfterlife<\/em>), mixing new cast members and original stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After the events of the 2019 tale, Callie Spengler (Carrie\nCoon) and her teenaged children Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard)\nhave moved from Oklahoma to Manhattan with science teacher Gary Grooberson\n(Paul Rudd) and taken over operations at Ghostbusters Headquarters. Curiously\nenough, friends Podcast (Logan Kim) and Lucky (Celeste O\u2019Connor) have also\nfound a new home in the Big Apple working with ex-ghostbusters Dr. Winston\nZeddemore (Ernie Hudson) and Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd). Much of it involves new\nparanormal research which involves the spiritual possession of inanimate\nobjects. While dealing with this and spectral storage-related issues, the\nmembers come into possession of a mystical orb that contains an ancient evil.\nIt wants to free itself and take revenge on humanity by freezing the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is only a brief summation of all that is going on in\nthe picture and the personal relationships. Callie and Gary still haven\u2019t put a\nlabel on their romantic relationship, the teenagers are frustrated at not being\ngiven more adult responsibilities, and both also have subplots involving\nghosts. There\u2019s also trouble from city mayor Walter Peck (William Atherton),\nwho wants to shut their practice down for good. Additionally, there are plenty\nof references and bits with the original characters, detailing how their lives\nare progressing, and a couple of new arrivals. Most memorable is Nadeem\nRazmaadi (Kumail Nanjiani). He\u2019s the figure who finds the orb and is a, well,\nlazy man who doesn\u2019t realize his own latent powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, you can already imagine the major problem that this\nsequel might possess. There are around a dozen characters featured and a great\ndeal of jumping around between a number of subplots. A couple of tangents\ninvolve an amusing gag or two, but peter out and don\u2019t pay off\neffectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truth be told, one wishes the screenplay had removed a\ncouple of extraneous characters and spent more time focusing on a smaller\nnumber of individuals. All the cast do the best they can with what they\u2019re\ngiven, but the result of jamming so much into the running time is that the\nfinal product does, at times, feel jumbled. And since the rush prevents\nfleshing out some of the stronger ideas, not every thread feels necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At least it\u2019s a blast to see many original veterans sharing\nthe screen again. While they are all credited as being \u201cguest appearances,\u201d\nmost are full supporting players. There is a natural and relaxed sense of fun\nto all of their scenes. And some new material also works. Nanjiani is extremely\nfunny, delivering great reactions to revelations about his family history and\nentertaining moments in which he develops his unique skills. There are some\nchuckles involving family conflict within the ghostbuster family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visually, the movie looks impressive, with plenty of\nfamiliar and iconic New York locales on display. It also contains a few\nstriking visual effects during the final act with the sinister and its frozen\nblasts of energy. This all adds a bigger sense of scope to the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yes, the end result is a hit-and-miss affair. But one can\nappreciate that the film is trying everything it can to entertain audiences.\nSome subplots and jokes hit the mark, yet just as many don\u2019t reach their full\npotential (due to the constant shuffling of so many characters and subplots).\nLike every other sequel in this franchise, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire<\/em>\ncan\u2019t possibly match the original, but the nostalgia factor and a few new\nelements that do work ultimately earn this movie a modest recommendation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE: For those curious about post-credit scenes, there is\none extra gag that is presented after the first round of credits. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time:  115 minutes This film from Sony Pictures opens exclusively at theaters on March 22nd. Back in 1984, the comedy Ghostbusters was released into theaters and became a cultural phenomenon. Looking back on the feature, it was truly a rarity that benefitted from contrasting elements. The perfect comic timing of every cast member in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":28263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[215,1539,2741,3936,4049,4660,5089,7053,7314,7585,7810,8273,8274,8275,8276,11930,13592,15811,15833,18035,18709],"class_list":["post-28258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-215","tag-annie-potts","tag-bill-murray","tag-carrie-coon","tag-celeste-oconnor","tag-comedy","tag-dan-aykroyd","tag-ernie-hudson","tag-fantasy","tag-finn-wolfhard","tag-franchise","tag-ghostbusters-frozen-empire","tag-ghostbusters-frozen-empire-film-review","tag-ghostbusters-frozen-empire-movie-review","tag-ghostbusters-frozen-empire-review","tag-kumail-nanjiani","tag-mckenna-grace","tag-patton-oswalt","tag-paul-rudd","tag-sequel","tag-sony-pictures"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}