Ghostbusters II

 

It took five years for us to get a sequel to Ghostbusters and once it finally arrived, it may not have been what people expected. With some curious plot choices and a somewhat darker tone, this proved to be a far more divisive film than the original. Still, it's one that I've always enjoyed despite it's flaws. 

The film picks up five years after the events of the first film. The Ghostbusters have since disbanded and pursued other jobs. When Dana Barrett (played by Sigourney Weaver) and her newborn infant Oscar are on the way home from the store, she unwittingly rolls the stroller through some pink slime that has oozed up from below the sidewalk. To her shock, the stroller takes off on it's own racing down the sidewalk and then stopping suddenly in the middle of the street. Frightened and not knowing what else to do, she pays a visit to Egon Spengler (played by Harold Ramis), who agrees to reach out to Ray Stanz (played by Dan Aykroyd) and the two will investigate. Although she requested they not include Peter Venkman (played by Bill Murray), he gets the information out of them when he pays a visit to Ray's occult bookstore and discovers what the two of them are up to. The three of them arrive at Dana's apartment and when they discover nothing unusual about Oscar, his room and toys or the stroller itself, they investigate the street where the stroller stopped where they get PKE readings that are off the charts. Posing as utility workers, Peter, Ray and Egon start digging and discover to their shock that way below the street, in an old subway tunnel there is a huge river of psychokinetic slime running under the city. Meanwhile, Dana is working in a New York museum restoring works of art. One of the works being restored by one of her co-workers, Janosz Poha (played by Peter MacNicol) is a huge portrait of Vigo the Carpathian, who was a 16th century tyrant and magician. Turns out the painting is haunted by Vigo's ghost himself and possesses Janosz, ordering him to bring him a child to be reborn into. Because of his infatuation with Dana, Janosz chooses Oscar. When Dana and Oscar are attacked again, this time in their apartment, they flee to Peter's apartment since they didn't know where else to go. This spurns the Ghostbusters to begin investigating Vigo's portrait after Dana mentions how much it creeps her out. Upon closer examination, they discover the portrait shows the same river of slime they found running under the city. Mounting an expedition underground, they discover the river of slime leads all the way to the museum...and Vigo. 

The film was once again directed by Ivan Reitman from a script by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. This film does tap into some very interesting ideas, especially the idea that the slime running under the city is a physical manifestation of all the anger and hate that is festering in the city and is literally bubbling up to the surface at various parts of the city, as well as feeding directly to this film's big bad, the genuinely creepy Vigo the Carpathian. It is certainly something that reflects the New York City of the 80's. The idea that part of defeating the villain this time around is the Ghostbusters having to figure out a way to turn the tide of all the anger and misery of the city is a unique idea. Where the film stumbles a bit for me is in the beginning, where we discover the Ghostbusters not only are no longer in business but that they were sued for the destruction they caused during the first movie, have a court order preventing them from working as Ghostbusters and the general public seems to think they're frauds. It just doesn't seem to jive with the climax of the first movie as we see thousands of witnesses and plenty of press documenting everything. I'd especially love to know how they think the Ghostbusters faked a 100 foot tall marshmallow man rampaging down Central Park West and climbing a high rise, while on fire, like King Kong. Still, it's not long before the band is back together and on the case again to stop the end of the world...again. Once that happens, the movie picks up significantly. I did appreciate that this film is a bit darker and creepier than the original film, although a lot of that may have to do with Dana's infant son being in jeopardy several times in the movie (the ghost nanny in particular always freaked me out as a kid). Also, in-between the two films there had been the animated cartoon series, The Real Ghostbusters, so the filmmakers do their best to bridge the gap between the movies and the animated show, with an increased presence of Slimer, the little green spud shaped ghost, is notably different and more in line with his character in the show than the first film. Since the first film and animated show had become incredibly popular with kids, there is also an overall softening of some of the coarser elements we saw in the first film (no crazy sex dreams for Ray this time around, for example).  

The film reunites pretty much the entire cast from the original film. Bill Murray slips back into the role of the wise-cracking Peter Venkman with ease. As we catch up with him, he is now hosting his own paranormal talk show, but still remains friends with Egon and Ray. Ray, meanwhile, is living the quiet life and running his own occult bookstore. As always, Aykroyd perfectly captures the wonderfully pure and eccentric Ray Stantz. Likewise, Harold Ramis does great as Egon, although he gets to loosen up and have a bit of fun in this one at times, which is a refreshing change. Sigourney Weaver is given a bit more to play with this time around as Dana is now a new mother, having both been married and subsequently divorced in the five years since we last saw her. Clearly things hadn't worked out with Venkman, and the movie makes it clear he is not Oscar's father. Still it's not long before those same sparks are flying between Dana and Peter again and the two continue to play off each other wonderfully. Ernie Hudson is given a bit more to do this time around as well as he actively participates in investigating this new slime with Egon and Ray. My only complaint is his character shows up at the beginning of the movie to work a birthday party with Ray as Ghostbusters to entertain the kids and then disappears for a large stretch of the movie until the Ghostbusters are back in business. It would have been nice to get a scene where Ray, Egon and Venkman have to talk him into coming back and see what Winston had been up to since the Ghostbuster were largely out of business. Rick Moranis also gets a bit more to do this time around since Louis Tully is working as not only the Ghostbusters' accountant but also their not entirely effective legal representative as well. He also has a bit of a romance going on with the Ghostbusters' receptionist Janine Melnitz, played memorably by Annie Potts. Peter MacNichol is memorably goofy as Dana's boss at the museum, Janosz, who sports a unique and undetermined accent throughout the film that always cracks me up. MacNichol also does well with the creepier side of the role once his character gets possessed by Vigo.      

Overall, Ghostbusters II is not as good as the original but the more times I see it the more I love it. Yes, I do have my nitpicks with it as I detailed above but it also has a lot of heart and charm to it. I do wish we got a third film with all four original Ghostbusters together (Bill Murray was notoriously the lone hold out for a third film) but I am grateful for the two that we do have. It may not be perfect, but it still is a worthy follow-up to the iconic original film.