Movie Debate #155: Ghostbusters II

[Reed Rothchild | 9,544]

Yeah, they covered that one on MST3K 

[wongojack | 215]

4 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

Thats really odd.  Of course the first one is practically flawless, but this one was more tailored to kids with some adult stuff in there.  So I can't hate it, its funny, got great lines, effects are cool, and it has Janosh.  I don't even care if its very similar to the first one either.  If you're gonna steal, steal from the best.

Whatever a Janosh is, it definitely didn't make the movie any better.  It's just not very good.

[Tabonga | 2,320]

10 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Yeah, they covered that one on MST3K 

Believe it or not I have the soundtrack on vinyl. With the comic!

 

[wongojack | 215]

18 hours ago, Brickman said:

Geez some brutal takes in this thread. 

I went with a 7 (it’s a 7.5 for me). When I was younger I would have gone with an 8-8.5 but I re watched it about 2-3 years ago during my Bill Murray marathon and it didn’t quite hold up as well as I remember. It does drag on and the story has some pacing issues. However it’s still a fun movie and worth watching every now and then.

This has to be a troll? 2016 Ghostbusters is just a terrible terrible movie. No way that garbage heap rates higher than 2.

 

3 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

2016 is legit funny and we watch it almost as frequently as the OG.  And Chris Hemsworth is hysterical as Kevin.  I get it if Melissa McCarthy puts some people out but what about this movie is bad? 

My impression is that people just saw "Girl Ghostbusters" and generally flew off the handle without giving it a real shot.  2016 is mostly played for laughs and it delivers.

I have only seen Ghostbusters II, and Ghostbusters 2016 once each, but if I was watching one of them again, I would pick 2016.  Why?  Because I liked it in a meta sense.  The original movie came out at a time when cooky weird comedies just weren't very common.  4 guys came together to make a movie that featured their comedy set in the context of being ghost exterminators.  They didn't really want to make the same movie again, and you can tell with how bad Ghostbusters II is.  So, when it came time to reboot the franchise, they said "Hey, its time for some other folks to make a cooky movie that features funny comedians who happen to be playing ghost exterminators," and they handed it off to the very talented Bridesmaids crew.  2016 is not really a funny movie in the way the original was, but it does capture the same spirit as the original movie for me and that makes it better than GBII.

[Brickman | 3,989]

2 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

2016 is legit funny and we watch it almost as frequently as the OG.  And Chris Hemsworth is hysterical as Kevin.  I get it if Melissa McCarthy puts some people out but what about this movie is bad? 

My impression is that people just saw "Girl Ghostbusters" and generally flew off the handle without giving it a real shot.  2016 is mostly played for laughs and it delivers.

I guess comedy is subjective. That movie was definitely not funny imo. I don't think people saw girl Ghostbusters and dismissed it, I think they saw an awful movie and dismissed it. There's a reason why Afterlife got a sequel and 2016 didn't. Afterlife did a better job in trying to capture the Ghostbusters feel.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,544]

1 hour ago, Brickman said:

There's a reason why Afterlife got a sequel and 2016 didn't

They shrunk the budget for Afterlife.  Pretty much the only reason since the reviews and box office were about the same.

Afterlife was alright.  Basically carried by Paul Rudd, who I find funny,

[Reed Rothchild | 9,544]

1 hour ago, Brickman said:

I guess comedy is subjective. That movie was definitely not funny imo. I don't think people saw girl Ghostbusters and dismissed it, I think they saw an awful movie and dismissed it. There's a reason why Afterlife got a sequel and 2016 didn't. Afterlife did a better job in trying to capture the Ghostbusters feel.

Chris Hemsworth was funnier than anything in Afterlife.  Which is ironic considering the woman cast.  My biggest complaint is they wasted Kristen Wiig in the straight (wo)man role.  That's not her groove.

[Brickman | 3,989]

35 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Chris Hemsworth was funnier than anything in Afterlife.  Which is ironic considering the woman cast.  My biggest complaint is they wasted Kristen Wiig in the straight (wo)man role.  That's not her groove.

Yes but he isn't the whole movie, it's Ghostbusters not The Kevin movie. The movie overall just wasn't funny to me and it wasn't well written. 

39 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

They shrunk the budget for Afterlife.  Pretty much the only reason since the reviews and box office were about the same.

Afterlife was alright.  Basically carried by Paul Rudd, who I find funny,

Well that would be another plus to Afterlife. Had a smaller budget to work with and still managed to get a sequel and generally favorable reviews on open.

I like Paul Rudd in it and he was funny but I think that the teens actually did a really good job in it and it felt like a better continuation of the series then some bad reboot.

[Tulpa | 3,509]

Ghostbusters 2016 better be the next poll. I want to see the split on that one.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,544]

9 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Ghostbusters 2016 better be the next poll. I want to see the split on that one.

I'm like 100% sure we did it already

[Tulpa | 3,509]

3 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I'm like 100% sure we did it already

Did we? Was it on NA? Because it's not here.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,544]

3 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Did we? Was it on NA? Because it's not here.

 

[Tulpa | 3,509]

WTF? I searched Ghostbusters and it didn't come up.

Shenanigans! 

[Sumez | 2,963]

9 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

Of course the first one is practically flawless

 

[Tulpa | 3,509]

6 hours ago, Sumez said:

 

Heh, I read that they filmed a scene where Ray visited an old fort, put on a uniform (for reasons) and got in the bed (for reasons) when he was seduced by the ghost. They scrapped the scene but kept part of it for the dream sequence. Because ghost BJs = funny, apparently. 

[Tanooki | 4,934]

I remember the 2016 mess being done, I looked back, and I kind of regret being a bit nice with that 6.  I mean it's watchable, but it's also basically everything wrong in hollywood wrapped up into one franchise drive by shooting at the same time.  Thankully the two movies came out since that even they've gone to great lengths to use to redact that one movies existence out of history.  Alone it's fine for what it is, but ...ouch.

Ghostbusters 2 though I wanted to go 7.5 but can't, so 7.  It's good, not great, but it's a solid watch with some good moments just nothing as epic as the original, nor is it as inspiringly good as the rebirth of it with Afterlife.  I'm at odds to say if G2 is better or worse than Frozen Empire though, haven't had the time to stew on that one long enough.

G2 has it's problems, but it's pretty amusing, the ghosts are pretty fun and the possession bits are handled pretty nicely as well.  The puns aren't as good, the locations less amusing or interesting too, and well it's just not as improv as much of the script was on the original and that does hurt it.

[guitarzombie | 924]

10 hours ago, Sumez said:

 

I dunno why people are trying to dunk on me about the first one.  The first one wasn't really supposed to be a kids movie, it eventually became one when the cartoon came out, hence GB2.  And ya'll looked past me saying the humor in 2016 was OBNOXIOUS, or childish, I used my quote as an example.  Its like Ghostbusters meets "Scary Movie".

[Sumez | 2,963]

That BJ scene just bothers me so much because it's a massive step down from the rest of the movie, it's extremely cringey and embarassing. It's interesting to learn that it's a part of a longer segment that got excised, because that probably explains why they didn't just excise that scene.
People talk a lot about Ghostbusters being a "perfect" movie, but it has quite a few low points like that, and that's a specific example of a scene where if you just remove it entirely, the rest would still feel intact and be a better movie for it.  

[JamesRobot | 5,803]

10 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

I dunno why people are trying to dunk on me about the first one.  The first one wasn't really supposed to be a kids movie, it eventually became one when the cartoon came out, hence GB2.  And ya'll looked past me saying the humor in 2016 was OBNOXIOUS, or childish, I used my quote as an example.  Its like Ghostbusters meets "Scary Movie".

I can respect that 2016 is obnoxious or isn't your particular brand of humor.  I'll even agree that Ghostbusters is a much better and smarter film.  But it certainly has it's own juvenile jokes.  Which is fine by me for both movies.

[JamesRobot | 5,803]

12 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I remember the 2016 mess being done, I looked back, and I kind of regret being a bit nice with that 6.  I mean it's watchable, but it's also basically everything wrong in hollywood wrapped up into one franchise drive by shooting at the same time.  Thankully the two movies came out since that even they've gone to great lengths to use to redact that one movies existence out of history.  Alone it's fine for what it is, but ...ouch.

2016 is more authentic and fresh to me.  I like the new flicks too, but it feels like they're painted with the Disney/Marvel/Star Wars brush.  Nostalgia cash-in all the way.  Which is great because they're bustin ghosts, just like new Star Wars 78&9 are great because they have lightsabers and space battles.

[wongojack | 215]

8 hours ago, Sumez said:

That BJ scene just bothers me so much because it's a massive step down from the rest of the movie, it's extremely cringey and embarassing. It's interesting to learn that it's a part of a longer segment that got excised, because that probably explains why they didn't just excise that scene.
People talk a lot about Ghostbusters being a "perfect" movie, but it has quite a few low points like that, and that's a specific example of a scene where if you just remove it entirely, the rest would still feel intact and be a better movie for it.  

It does stand out.  I was a kid too young to really understand it at the time, and I thought it was weird.  There was definitely something unmistakably adult going on there, but I'm not sure if it really is a "massive" step down from the rest of the movie.  There are a lot of baudy and stupid jokes in this thing.

I actually remember that scene more because I think it was featured in the music video (wasn't it?)  It was easy to forget about in the film, but then they re-used it, and Dan Akroid's tidy whiteys were right in your face all over again.

Edited April 10 by wongojack

[G-type | 2,482]

Viggo the Carpathian makes for a fun mid-tier baddie if Ghostbusters were doing a monster of the week type of thing... 

The Good: River of pink slime was cool. Ghost train scene and Egon as a construction worker was funny.

The bad: Bringing back Dana Barret (and her baby) was unnecessary and having the ghostbusters be reduced to fools after saving the city didn't seem right. The statue of liberty walking was just a rehash of the stay puft scene. The Louis and Janine romance didn't really work either

Overall, a pretty mediocre sequel that just goes show how much the first movie was lightning in a bottle and a bit of a fluke.

[G-type | 2,482]

On 4/8/2024 at 5:12 AM, Brickman said:

This has to be a troll? 2016 Ghostbusters is just a terrible terrible movie. No way that garbage heap rates higher than 2.

I've tried to watch Ghostbusters Answer the Call a couple times, and never made it more than 30 or 40 minutes, before losing interest.

[fox | 1,667]

Which one is this again?  Frozen Empire?

my nephew loved it.  First film he saw in a theater.  Soon as he left he said he wanted to see it again.

[xelement5x | 66]

Put GB II as an 8, but it could also be a 7.5 to me.

A lot of weird moments in 2 that bring it down compared to the first but the best parts still make it shine to me.  It had a lot of great one liners and they hold the movie together when it starts to come apart sometimes.

Some of my favorite parts:
Statue of Liberty down main street, Titanic appearing at the dock, Venkmenn's "photo" shoot with Vigo, and of course the courtroom scene when they save the judge. "Do!, Re! Egon!"

But some weird character development too, I was always confused if Egon had a thing for Dana after this movie.  

I was a big fan of the cartoon growing up as well, and my parents still have my original proton pack hiding in the basement.  

 

Regarding Ghostbusters 2016 I watched it much later, but it also had some good parts.  A bit too crass than I would have wanted to see, but the parts where it shined was fun.  Testing new weapons, the silly bickering in the beginning, but the final ghost battle was so much fun as well, especially with the remixed GB theme.  Where GB2 overly sanitized the franchise, GB 2016 was a bit too raunchy.

My Ranking:
GB1 > Afterlife > GB2 >= Frozen Empire > GB2016 
(I enjoyed Frozen Empire but I think it had too much going and that hurt it a bit)