I really want to see a Ghostbusters movie that explores more of the horror aspects of the franchise. Anyone else agree?

As a big fan of the Ghostbusters property, I walked into this movie hoping to have a good time. I saw it with my dad last night and I enjoyed the film. It’s an uneven but enjoyable movie. Frozen Empire has all of the elements I like about Ghostbusters. It expands the lore, it has humor, horror, and sci-fi infused together, and I thoroughly enjoy the characters of this franchise. However, there’s too much in this movie because there are too many characters. As nice as it is to have all of these characters in one movie, it’s too much. It’s a problem that a lot of movie franchises run into if there are a lot of entries and/or the franchise has been around for a while. This problem means that every character has to have something to do, which makes everything spread thin. With that sizable negative aside, I was still satisfied with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. It wasn't fantastic by any means, but the positives certainly outweighed the negatives for me.

Theres definetley cons, the movie should've been longer is probably where most of the issues stem from. But I think people need to kind of realize that this is Ghostbusters, and it's really just for a fun time.

Bill Murray's character didn't feel like he was really "in" the movie. I feel like his scenes were recorded by himself and he was spliced in.

And yet no Extreme Ghostbusters adaptation to this day. Such an underrated/overlooked show, hell to me is the best thing to come out of the franchise.

We gotta start giving Cody his flowers for being one of the consistent KZfaqrs out today. Been rocking with him since 2020 his in my top 5 KZfaqrs keep doing your thing Cody💯

It was good Ghostbustery fun. Enjoyable and worth the watch. Nothing will ever hold up to the Original, and I think that is what everyone is expecting. That will never happen.

I would love if the next Ghostbusters movie features a live-action version of The Boogeyman from the cartoon. Scared the SHIT out of me as a kid.

Thought it was too long to get the main plot but overall I enjoyed the lore of the villain and the climax.

I just saw it, I didn't think it was that bad. I give it a solid B.

If the production team behind FROZEN EMPIRE really wanted to pay homage to The Real Ghostbusters while connecting elements of AFTERLIFE to it...... FLIP SIDE. Imagine the genial spirit of Egon being corrupted by evil doppelgangers from Hell and turned into a member of The Peoplebusters! The living Spenglers could have used RGB lore to try and save Egon's soul. The horror aspects with modern CGI, and family entertainment, be damned! This had the potential of being the greatest R-rated Ghostbusters film ever!❤

By the time the third act started, I was more excited to hear what you had to say about the movie than I was excited to finish the movie itself

I want to see the samhain (sawwin) character like in the cartoon A.K.A. pumpkin guy. 🎃

Although I enjoyed the film and I'm a big fan of the franchise, I totally understand your view points and how disappointed you were. Thanks for being honest.

I loved seeing Janine in a Ghostbuster uniform. Finally.

To me, the biggest draw backs were the fact that they made Phobe's character so dumb in her moment of making her soul leave her body. And why it had to be her, was not realized. It literally could've been any character. There was nothing certain about her that stood out to be the one who was needed to set him free. The fire bending elements felt sooooooo out of place. I hated that entire bit of the film to be honest. It derailed the whole thing for me

i enjoyed it. didnt think it was amazing but a fun night out with the family

Personally I could do without Patton Oswald! For some reason he just pisses me off! 😂 This was a really well balanced enjoyable review! Thanks its much appreciated! 🎉

I would've loved the what was it, the 2009 video game? In a live action... especially the alternate dimension parts. I know that was technically part 3, but live action of that would've been awesome

I was able to go see this yesterday (opening Friday) as well - the atmosphere was great for the opening weekend and I ultimately really enjoyed the movie so when I saw the thumbnail I thought I was going to be upset with your take. However, this is why I watch you, I can always expect a balanced take and even though I'm still a little high on the experience I understand your sharper analysis take and actually mostly agree with your points. Definitely a lot of storylines and in particular I thought that the inclusion of Melody was really forced, to the extent that it was a little hard to believe she was tasked with pushing Pheobe to the point to separate her soul from her body so Garraka could somehow control her soul to channel something through her actual living body... I am a sucker for backstory lore explanations where they animate ancient glyphs or a tapestry or something else to explain how the villain came to be so manipulating the stone carvings was really cool for me and I thought Garraka was badass. Anyway, love your take and your content!

There are other moments of nostalgia: the shot of Ray Parker singing with the cast on the streets of New York (from the music video, which now seems to be canon in the GB universe), the ghosts escaping from the firehouse, and the crowd being jubilant upon seeing the GB after they defeated a supernatural evil. For these last two, for myself at least, the energy felt reduced and was not nearly as energetic as the first time these things happen. As for other things, Slimer did have more a role than you described - he ate the "poltergeist" being when it possessed a pizza. I am liking the second GB film more as it is becoming more clear that the other films can't seem to escape from things first seen or mentioned in the first GB film. It was not great, but they did expanded on the worldbuilding.

Imho, they should've stopped after the original.

I know this happened in Ghostbusters. After life laugh, but does anybody believe that ray would not believe Egon?

Yeah it was an ok film, i felt the same way where there was too much going on, too many kids that really didn’t need to be there except for phoebe. Even the ghost girl really didn’t need to be there. And the nostalgic characters didn’t need to really be there either. Even the main bad guy seemed underwhelming and took way too long to get to him. And when it’s the final showdown, you’ve got like a dozen people squished into this little room in the fire hall and then you got this bad guy who’s like a couple feet taller than them, and instantly gets killed. Even if gozer wasn’t there for very long in the original, at least it was in an open area with 4 people and there was other things going on where it actually felt threatening.

I saw Ghostbusters Frozen Empire last night WE (4 of us) liked it. I plan on buying it on Blu Ray or DVD.

I’m completely with you on walking out a bit disappointed. You could really feel the absence of Ivan Reitman. I will always cheer seeing the OG cast on the big screen though 👏🏼. Great review dude

Hey Cody I was wondering have you seen the trailer for the crow remake coming out and if so are you going to review the movie when it comes out?

Lucky referring to a room as an intimacy dungeon is “family friendly”? Melody was the “friendly” ghost who looked like Jenna Ortega. Actually a different actress (Emily Alyn Lind - who?). I was laughing during the initial scene. Not much of that subplot made sense. The family had been living in Oklahoma during “Afterlife.” With them moving to NYC, it seems like Callie and/or Gary should have told Phoebe about not sneaking out after dark to play chess (a two-player game) by herself at a random empty park table/bench. That just seemed to happen so Phoebe’s character could be living a secret double life of talking to ghosts without her other family members finding out. Then, when the ghost shows up again, she doesn’t even pretend not to have ulterior motives about wanting to be given a guided tour of the firehouse where other spirits are imprisoned in the basement. But Phoebe doesn’t even appear to pick up on that. I felt the same way about ideas and characters. Too many underdeveloped ideas. Characters who aren’t doing anything to advance the plot.

This was the most fair and honest review I’ve seen yet. I don’t agree with everything you said, but prob 85-90% of it. I appreciate you having the balls to speak honestly and I really think you did a great job with this. That said, and I mentioned this on a different video, I want to see Ray, Peter and Winston get killed in the next one. I want a ghost so evil and terrifying that they can’t beat it and it gets them and the new GBs have to spend the next 2+ hrs figuring it out. 1. We don’t need to see them anymore. They severed their purpose, time to go. 2. It would FINALLY create some actual TERROR and DREAD that this franchise desperately needs, and deserves. I really thought they had a chance with this one, but it was over as soon as it started. The crazy thing is all the trailers, promotions, the marketing everything that came into this movie was based off the last 10 minutes of it and it just makes no sense. Having the crew go around in frozen New York for over an hour trying to figure out how to deal with this and also to catch all the ghost that got released would’ve been incredibly interesting but instead the ghost release was a completely wasted time other than maybe setting up for another movie down the road. More than that the final bad guy was just a joke like all the rest of them prior to him. for whatever reason Ghostbusters just loves to build up these bad guys into these horrible earth shattering world ending creatures and then they beat them within 10 minutes

Saw it and it was okay to good. I hated all the nostalgia/ cameo overloaded moments and felt there were way too many characters to focus on. Mr. Pecker btw didn't even need to be in this movie! The actors were each pretty good but that results in the movie struggling to find who to focus on and things get very messy structure wise. Finn for example has nothing to do here. He was introduced nicely in Afterlife then midway was ignored. Same thing here yet again!

Second! Great review, Cody!

I already watched that movie...Is really good...I might review that movie very soon

I was a little tiny bit disappointed by it too I did overall think it was good though it just had a little too many characters in it and I didn’t like what they did with phoebe’s character and I do agree as well that they took to long to get into the final act but I did like the lore with the bad guy and I did laugh a couple of times too it was overall decent but not anywhere near my favorite of the franchise by any means

I thoroughly enjoyed The Frozen Empire. There was almost as many characters in this Ghostbusters movie as Stephen King's IT. But that's a 3 hour movie from 1990. There wasn't too much "Ghostbusting" in this film. I still consider the young Ghostbusters as "KidBusters." It's always cool to see the Original Ghostbusters together. I would grade this movie as a "B" and 7.5 out of 10. I say it was better than Afterlife. But, nowhere near as good as the 2 Ghostbusters from the 1980's.

Anyone else wish they brought back The Ecto-1A & have the originals drive that car, side by side with The Ecto-1 being driven by the new Ghostbusters to take on the villain?

Saw the movie last night. For me it was on par with Afterlife, not better but not worse. Thought it was slightly more funny, but the story wasn’t quite as good. I did really like going back to the New York setting. Overall I enjoyed it.

well said - your review sums up the problems of the movie so well... (and - seeing the teaser and trailers, i'm pretty sure this movie was ruined in the editingroom, bc the scenes were there, they just didn't make it into the movie - for whatever reason)

This movie was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it, McKenna Grace stole the show

Am I the only one who didn’t see any marketing for this movie.

I feel as long as it is better than the 2016 movie, I'm willing to check it out. And though originally there was adult humour, it was always done in a way not to be too vulgar. Like some of the jokes, I just didn't get when I was a little girl that I got later on. So really, that's not a big deal with me on making it more family friendly. Anyways, I'm sure I'll check it out at some point. Thank you, Cody.

100% agree, ghostbusters 1 and 2 are my fave films, this one just felt like they were throwing stuff into it just to please us.... the gb fans, afterlife done it brilliantly. Im actually so angry with the director and jason reitman for letting this be the outcome after afterlife. They had the ball... they dropped it.

My theater had multiple sold out show! Cheers from the crowd! Loved it!!!!

The only thing that bummed me out. Was the ending wasn't long enough. That's it. I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Its the 4th film the 2016 abomination doesn’t count

I loved it. I found it very fun. I thought is had a well mix of new and old. A good middle movie for the hopefully the 3quel of the new movies.

Does anyone else feel like ghostbusters the videogame is still the true ghostbusters 3.

I loved it. :(

I’ll say this and I’m 100% going to get hate for this but I don’t think it’s as good as afterlife and afterlife was an almost perfect movie for me. The story the nostalgia, the characters and especially the ending scenes. This new movie however was amazing no criticisms from me. Feel free to waste your time commenting a nasty reply to my comment because nothing will change my opinion.

Someone help me here in case I missed something ... So, the Spengler family has been in New York fighting ghost and working and living at the firehouse and yet they had no idea that Winston had a ghost lab? That didn't make any sense to me

I enjoyed it for what it was. I enjoyed Afterlife more but I had a good time overall. I just saw a list that had Ghostbusters 2016 over this and I just don't see that. My ranking would be 1,4,5,2,3.

I like Afterlife, but to me, the constant references to the first film did drag it down a bit. The entire soundtrack was recycled from the original film, the movie had the same villain, and the constant repeats of original lines was egregious. I did like the post-credits scene where Bill Murray is being mind-read by Sigourney Weaver, and he cheats like he did with the original film, and finally gets payback by being electrocuted. But the rest didn't work too much for me. So to hear that this film has more references does not give me hope.

Slimer's purpose in the film was to contribute/ start to join the team which he had never done in the movies. When he stepped up and ate one of the main baddies you were supposed to be able to put that together. One of the themes of the movie was ghosts can be good.

My daughter and i enjoyed it but i felt there were too many characters and yes too many things going on.

Excellent review cody. Very precise and thought provoking. Ill definitely take my time to see it. Thank you.

Absolutely spot on review.

I enjoyed the movie one thing I noticed though was the streets of New York felt kinda empty compared to the first two. It was almost like Jason takes manhattan lol not filmed truly in new York felt for a few quick scenes to keep the budget down

Honestly I prefer the nostalgia factor over the “new generation.” If they reduced the nods to the original films I don’t believe half as many people would watch, and I know that I certainly wouldn’t. The sad truth is that we simply aren’t as invested in the new characters as we are to the original cast members. It’s the same with every series or trilogy. It’s why everyone is mad about the Wizards of Waverly Place reboot. People who were fans of the original will never turn out when they realize everything and everyone they loved about the original has either been replaced or completely done away with.

I enjoyed this one it's overstuffed but the acting is great and I laughed consistently

I thought about seeing it today before going to a concert in my local area. I decided to just wait and this was I was waiting on. Was you're review. Yeah, I will just stream this one when it comes available.

Batman 5: Ghostbusters vs. Mr. Freeze

I honestly liked it. I would've done the Phoebe subplot differently, and I'm kind of baffled why they cut some stuff that was in the trailers. You can tell the last act was planned to be longer, and should've been. And my criticisms kind of end there. But I can't help but to feel you're making some of your negatives so much more of a big deal than they are. As much as you groan about the "nostalgia" stuff, I groan at the whole argument against it. It has some people so anal about it, the tiniest bit will set them off into a rant. It was so minimal in Frozen Empire. And personally I thought Peck was even better in this film, and I grew up with the original 2 in the 80's. I didn't see him as a funny character in the original, only Venkman's insults towards him. In this, his exchanges with the new Ghostbusters, especially being put on the spot like he was at the end, was great. How hard he had to force that smile and swallow his pride because he knew he'd lose voters. He was definitely even better here. Idk man. Some people have rose tinted glasses on, but some people on the other side just lose their minds over it. Especially when it's so minimal it does nothing to hurt the overall film. I mean we all have opinions and I know you said you didn't hate the film but it feels like some bias allowed a nerve to be struck so so many other things were that much worse because of it. Overall I think there was more great here than not. I love the development of the OGs, the Afterlife crew, and a couple of the new characters. Expanding the lore, upgrading the gear, old and new ghosts, great effects, great jokes, etc. Not telling anyone they have to like it, but don't take my opinion to heart, don't take Cody's to heart, see it with an open mind and form your own opinion.

I just want Rick moranis to comeback 😢

I nearly fell asleep for portions of this movie

Ghostbusters should've been one and done, the original is great and not everything needs to become a franchise with 27 movies.

I was disappointed as well. By far, the darkest of the franchise, I agree with Cody on uneccessary scenes. I was so excited to see Peck and Venkman get into it, but it seemed awkward and empty. Murry was cameoed in my opinion really. The laughs for me were few and far between. The the firehouse/Nyc, return and Winston being more spotlighted was cool I dug. I would lik to see the lab along with the lead scientist replace the firehouse though. I liked the upgraded busting gear. Like Rocky/Creed maybe its time to pass the torch altogether.

Is there any chance that Hollywood finally stops relying on remakes/reboots/sequels? I thought this really wore thin with Afterlife, and I’m just praying that we get back to original content… but I won’t hold my breath. And I was a kid who grew up on Ghostbusters and absolutely LOVED it. But if I wanna watch it… I’m more than happy to just go back and watch those movies. I’d rather see new ideas in 2024.

Afterlife was so boring but I actually enjoyed this one even with its issues, not a great film but its new elements made me more interested and the jokes were better as well

What are you talking about? Kumail’s character was essential to the plot. If you get rid of his character you have no movie. However Patton Oswalt I felt like was a throw in. Great to see him but I felt like all of his stuff could have been figured out by Ray. He didn’t even end up coming back in anyway. All of the side characters like Podcast and Finn’s love interest did have certain scenes that justified them coming back. Sure there were a lot of characters in this but I thought it helped move the flick quicker.

I was really hoping to see a Rick Moranis comeback in this but from what I'm hearing it doesn't sound like that's happening

I listen to Cody when I take ambien every night before bed.

I was really hoping they would make a movie that focused on a villain from the tv shows, such as Samhain, the boogeyman, or the sandman. The boogeyman gave me fucking nightmares back then and Samhain is a fan favorite from the tv show ghosts

Saw it. Great movie all around. Put this second right after the original.

Better than AFTERLIFE, but . . . eh.

I took my mom to see it with me last night, and it was pretty middle of the road. I don't love it or hate it, but it definitely needed more fine tuning and about half an hour cut out entirely. It's not as good as Afterlife, but it's not the worst Ghostbusters film out there. The new villain is very cool, but should've been in the movie more.

It's A Fun🤩GhostBusters Movie!

It sounds like it needed a prt2 and prt 3 to the Frozen 🥶 empire

It's a long episode of The Real Ghostbusters... for better or worse. You know, a great comparison for this one would be TMNT: Out of the Shadows, arguably the better of the new Turtles movies, but lambasted because it leaned into the Saturday Morning cartoon vibe.

This is a great review and I think really articulates what I was feeling. WAY too much going on. Yes, ditch the ghost girl and that whole deal. All that alone was the worst part of movie to me. At one point I'm just like what is even happening here? Maybe it's because I'm such a fan of the original franchise, but I want more Bill Murray...and for him to do like these 10 min stints in the whole deal feels like a letdown. I like how they incorporated Ray and Winston, especially Ray. But I found myself thinking that no one can touch the talent and chemistry of those original 4 actors. Those story lines weren't amazing. We just had these kings of comedy and the script was WAY better..."listen, you smell something? Ok who brought the dog?" The current movies don't come close to this type of writing. Leave Lucky and Podcast out (even tho I was a fan of Podcast, not Lucky). Thankfully they utiilized Paul Rudd more in this one. I liked how they explored a new story line. I liked the new ghosts and the lab Winston had....but yes the other guy there....I was just getting lost. Great potential...not the best execution.

I have just come from the movie, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I did not find it slow, or with too many characters. And to prove it, I have seen the post credit scene with that trucker. For people who say that there is too much fan service, that is a big pile of BS. I'd say that percentage wise, 2-5%. Everything is an original concept for the movie. Watch it people, and make your own opinion, don't listen to critics. If I was to rank them, 1, the original, 2, Afterlife, 3, Frozen Empire, 4, GB2... that's it. I have not had a chance to play the PS2 game, so I cannot comment on that. But from what I've seen, and yes, I've seen the 2016 mockery, and I do not count that as anything that should be worthy of the name. And for those who think that other comedians take up too much screen time, Patton Oswalt was there for only about 5-10 mins, tops. Watch it, and have your own opinion.

Thought it was mid to good. A solid IGN 7 (who gave it a 4!) Really don’t understand those that hate it - it was fun! Lots of ghostbusters world building. Over stuffed and unfocused but I was never bored and laughed more than the previous ones so I can’t complain.

Another nice and thoughtful review.

I came out of the Sidney Sweeney movie Immaculate tonight to see families lining up for Ghostbusters, children staring up at ticket takers in full Ghostbusters costume with jumpsuits and proton packs. I've seen Frozen Empire and its flawed, but seeing the younger generation love it makes me happy. I saw the original in the theatre in 1984. I hope they experience that kind of wonder.

I kinda wanna see it just to see if rick moranis is back too. none of the trailers show him.

This guy just came on KZfaq saying that ghostbusters frozen empire had cameos just to add screen time and added Finn wolfhard and slimer just too add more screen time! He said that he doesn’t add anything to the plot so the should just leave him out, he’s in the movie because it wouldn’t make sense NOT to have him in the movie.

As a kid (10.000 years ago), I just assumed that the ghost chick, was unzipping Ray to spook him 🤷🏿‍♂️. I didn't know it was going anywhere else. I was like " you need to sleep with your proton pack on dude". (Awaiting comments saying"she was spooking him").

Really love your review style Cody! Concise, thorough, and funny!

I agree. The movie is okay but I felt underwhelmed. My biggest issue with some critics is as much as I was disappointed with Frozen Empire, this wasn't the unmitigated disaster that the 2016 movie was but a lot of the critics had favorable opinions of it. Frozen Empire is a much better movie in all aspects than the abomination that was the 2016 movie

Ghostbusters as a brand doesn't have the appeal today that it did in the 80s. The reason why that first movie was so good was because of the chemistry of the comedian cast. You can't really replicate that which is why the sequels have had a harder time. Frozen Empire will do well enough most likely to justify another film I think. They should slow down take a break and give the next one some time to flesh it out before rushing into it.

Anyon else want a Pitch video from Cody telling us where the franchise should go?

I’ve been one of those that hasn’t liked the direction of afterlife or this one. I don’t like the ultra family, kids direction. I don’t think kids should be ghostbusters…if they HAD to pass on the reins, you have Paul Rudd, nanjiani, and Patton oswalt…there’s your 3 new ghostbusters right there. What’s this families motivation? Just to continue a legacy? Is money ever mentioned? A spiritualist, a weird tech genius, and essentially a conman started the ghostbusters to make money. Why have they abandoned the adult centered comedy? I fell in love with the originals when i was a kid. I didnt need kids in the movie to help me as a kid. This is just an ok movie that follows the forumla of the cartoon with a monster of the week episode. oh well.

Family friendly... did you forget the sex dungeon jokes? Haha

Ghostbusters, the new Paul Rudd franchise.

I found it entertaining even though it’s not necessarily a good movie. My kids enjoyed it as well.

One of the best and most honest reviews. Look... too many characters, plot was all over the place... at best it felt like a very long "The Real Ghostbusters" cartoon episode. 'Afterlife' was much better. There was so much potential here but poorly written and executed. As a life-long GB fan, that's the truth... a very mediocre, forgettable film.

It was a good movie

I loved afterlife, but I saw the trailer for this one and didn’t care, it seemed pointless to continue this franchise after the passing of Ivan Reitman because he was the heart and soul of Ghostbusters

Went today almost fell asleep

Damn. I was really hoping this was gonna be awesome

Here is my comment in apology for not watching this review sooner and the video bombing

Sad day to be a Ghost Busters fan