‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ Review: Bustin’ Feels Terrible in this Joyless, Charmless Non-Corporeal Wasteland

“Yes, it’s true. This man has no dick,” Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman sarcastically says to the Mayor of New York in 1984’s Ghostbusters. It is, perhaps, the most iconic line in one of the most iconic films of the 1980s. There is an audacious juvenility to the start of what would surprisingly become this blockbuster franchise. If two things define the original Ghostbusters, they are a willingness to lean into innuendo and a focus on technical jargon. The “low-brow” but clever dialogue is countered by the specific pseudo-science of the ghost-catching tech that reminds the audience that the film is not talking down to them. Ghostbusters never lacks laughs, but it also garners those laughs within a fully realized, consistent universe. Unfortunately, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire imitates the series’ landmark achievement only in setting, with the return to New York merely a superficial reminder of the better days left behind. 

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire follows the continued ascension of the neo-Ghostbusters, led by the Spengler family, the children and grandchildren of Egon Spangler, the truest scientist of the 1984 crew (played by the late Harold Ramis, who was brought back to life via CGI in one of the most manipulative and morally-questionable artistic decisions in 2021’s film). They are now living in the iconic Ghostbusters firehouse, and the ghost-busting business is booming. However, the discovery of an ancient evil with power greater than anything the team has seen before consumes New York City in what threatens to be a second Ice Age. Along the way, they encounter the likes of Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt in an effort to overcome the fearsome foe that is revealed over the course of the film.

Taking center stage in Frozen Empire is Mckenna Grace, a true talent at age 17 who does her best to keep the film’s head above water. The directions her character goes never feel wholly true, but Grace has enough integrity to make her arc resonate. Utterly wasted in the film is one of the most talented performers on Earth, Carrie Coon, who I pray has not been prejudicially demoted to playing “Mom” for the rest of her career, as so many actresses of a certain age have been; she deserves so much better. Paul Rudd and Finn Wolfhard round out the rest of the new cast, but the classic Ghostbusters play significantly more prominent roles than they did in the previous film. Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson are fully locked in, exuding the energy that endears franchise fans to the decades-later sequels we see so often. Bill Murray is also there, so there’s that.

The problem remains, though: there was nothing derivative about Ivan Reitman’s first crack at the continuing tales of New York’s preeminent supernatural law enforcement. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the first film in the franchise to be released since the passing of Ivan Reitman in 2022, but the architect of this iteration of the Ghostbusters universe (Frozen Empire being its second entry) is his son, Jason Reitman. Jason, once a darling of the indie scene, has been swallowed up by the lega-sequel factory that has dominated the film world for the last 15 years or so. It is easy to understand why one Reitman would want to adopt the longest-lasting legacy of another, but the last two films in the franchise reek of compromise and painting by the numbers. Reitman is a credited screenwriter on the film, but it is journeyman Gil Kenan, a writer on 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, who takes over as the director of Frozen Empire. Kenan fails to establish any sense of personality to the film outside of being similar to that thing you’ve heard of before. The tone is muddled, to be sure, but that is just the state of “comedy” on the big screen these days. Gone is the willingness to push the boundaries, as is the sense of in-universe intelligence.

One of the great tragedies of the film world over the last decade has been the disintegration of the comedy film. Comedies, as we used to know them, are not allowed to exist in 2024. At least, that’s what the actions of major studios for the last decade seem to imply. This theory only gains steam with the release of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Just as the previous film did, Frozen Empire leans into a superficial, Amblin-esque sense of wonder combined with the worst comedic trends of the day. Nearly every moment of honest tension or emotion is undercut by some lame, deflating joke. It becomes a film of stops and starts, never able to build momentum because of its tonal cowardice. And, of course, there have to be a handful of tired, CGI-laden setpieces that imply a sense of grandiosity worthy of a trip to the theater. The push and pull of commercial palatability and artistic value has become increasingly one-sided in recent years, with intellectual property replacing individuals as the driving success of box office success, but that doesn’t make the hollow references to the things people loved in the past in place of new things they may hold dear any less disappointing. Don’t worry, fans; you get your Slimer moments, your cheeky references to the original theme songs, and the nonsensical return of William Atherton… it’s just so cheap and uninspired.

Beyond being a generally unsuccessful film, the most disappointing thing about Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is that there is nothing new to complain about. There is nothing interesting about pointing out the pitfalls of IP-first filmmaking. Great actors have been wasted in films like this for a long time. Like so many others, the Ghostbusters brand has gone so far as to establish its own production arm, Ghost Corps, that all but guarantees a cookie-cutter mentality. Heck, this film even succumbs to one of the most maligned trends of the 2010s: the climactic set piece has a skybeam! That was the most embarrassing thing your movie could do five years ago! If recent box office trends are any indication, it seems the tide may be turning on the cynical brand of art embodied by Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Let’s hope that is true because contrary to the world of 30 years ago, busting feels oh so very bad in 2024.

Grade: D-

Columbia Pictures will release Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire only in theaters on March 22.