Walter Peck is back!

It’s been three years since Ghostbusters: Afterlife came around and not only entertained literally everyone but brought the Ghostbusters back after a very long hiatus. And yes it was a film that relied heavily on nostalgia and in some opinions forced sentimentality. But I thought it was a fantastic movie worthy of the Ghostbusters name. Gil Kenan has been promoted from writer to writer/director for this film, you may recognize Kenan from directing the terrifying A Boy Called Christmas.

Frozen Empire picks up three years after the events of the last film. Paul Rudd and his love of milfs is now fully part of the Spangler family. Now living in New York City again and actively hunting ghosts, the crew gets into a lot of trouble when yet another escapade results in massive collateral damage to the NYC property. Unfortunately for the Ghostbusters crew there is a new sheriff in town and that sheriff’s name is Mayor Walter Peck (William Atherton) who threatens charges against the group unless Phoebe is taken off the force being a fifteen year old girl and all. So they do.

Feeling dejected, Phoebe comes to meet a ghost named Melody played by the lovely Emily Alyn Lind, one of my favorite actresses since the Babysitter series. Melody is one of those ghosts that seems friendly but you kinda figure she’s taking advantage of a lonely girl in the way that cults do. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about, she just wants to play chess. Winston (Ernie Hudson) and Ray (Dan Aykroyd) are heavily involved in keeping the Ghostbusters going with a team of researchers and all kinds of new tech and research. And Venkman (Bill Murray) is doing his own thing.

I love Annie Potts, even at 70 she’s still got it going on. Finn Wolfhard is back as is Celeste O’Connor. Lars Pinfield (James Acaster) is one of my new favorite characters, a science nerd and inventor responsible for most of the Ghostbusters’ cool new tech. I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out one of my favorite actors, Kumail Nanjiani who plays what else but a lazy schlub who inexplicably becomes central to the plot. I hope Kumail doesn’t get into any controversy after this review is posted. Oh and Patton Oswalt is here as a nerd who knows a lot about the paranormal, because Patton Oswalt is up there with Steve Agee and Brian Posehn on people you go to if you need a stereotypical nerd.

My biggest complaint on Ghostbusters is that much like the ghost trap at the firehouse the series has gotten really bloated and needs to let some things go. The appearances by Slimer for instance aren’t egregious and take up little time, but it does feel like the film is going down a list of things we need to remind people this is Ghostbusters. It becomes damn near self-referential when Slimer shows up and Finn mimics the audience by shouting “I know that guy!” Someone calls Walter Peck dickless.

I don’t know if the mini-puffs are hitting with children but damnit if Sony isn’t going to not push that line of marketing in every film. And for what it’s worth, retaining the old cast works as well as it does because the characters are so great. If the old Ghostbusters crew weren’t charming as shit the nostalgic crutch would be much less appreciated. John Rothman is back as the librarian from the first film, and most importantly nobody is back from the Ghostbusters 2016 film which continues to be an embarrassing memory that Sony wishes it could wipe away.

There wasn’t any forced sentimentality in this film from my impressions, and thank Christ they didn’t have Egon’s ghost appear again, I think that would have knocked my score down a full point and a half. For a film that spends a little bit of time with Phoebe talking about wanting to visit the ghost dimension, it would have been really easy to have another appearance by his spirit. Frozen Empire made roughly the same box office return as Afterlife ($200 million), and I’m hoping they keep the series going with a third movie in the reboot series.

Even if they want to expand on the mini-puff story, which I could do without. Frozen Empire is a great film that is worth the nearly two hour runtime. Check it out on Netflix or wherever the hell it’s playing by the time you read this.

Rating: A