Rating: 
Summary: Ghostbusters.... yes, we're back!
Review: The story starts off on a bummer note. The ingrates of the Big Apple sued Ghostbusters for saving the day in the first movie, result of which they went bankrupt. Secondly, Peter Venkman and Dana Barrett did not get back together, having parted on bad terms. Rather, Dana got married and divorced to someone, but not after having a child, Oscar.However, when an invisible force hijacks Oscar's pram, sending it on a merry whirl on First Avenue, Dana looks up Egon, now working at the Institute for Advanced Theoretical Research. Dana is also working at a museum restoring paintings. However, prominent among the paintings is a large portrait of Vigo von Homburg Deutschendorf, a 16th Carpathian nobleman with a very nasty leer. Upon investigating with those familiar instruments, the ex-Ghostbusters detect something under First Avenue. The scene where they imitate some rough-talking workers is funny. There are some interesting concepts introduced in this sequel. One is the river of slime discovered by Ray, which is a great effects sequence. Egon finds out that the slime is a psychoactive substance reacting to human emotions. Their experiments on this with a toaster is a highlight, which reminds me, I gotta add some Jackie Wilson to my collection soon. Anyway, this leads into the whole message of this movie, how mean people became, even back in the 80's. Ray says "I can't believe how things have gotten so bad in this city there's no way back. Sure, it's dirty, it's crowded, it's noisy, it's polluted, and there's people all around who'd just as soon step on your face than look at you, but c'mon! There's gotta be a few specks of sweet humanity left in this burned out burg!" The idea of psychokinetic energy generating a high emotional force that could call down demons is nothing new, as in the case of black magic, but that's one of the reasons used to explain the presence of ravaging demons in hentai anime, feeding on bad vibes. The mayor at one point says, "What am I supposed to do, go on television and tell ten million people they have to be nice to each other? Treating other people like dirt is every New Yorker's right." Lewis Talbot (Rick Moranis) is back, helping the GB's out, even in babysitting. "I'm very good with children. I practiced with my hamster," he says. He's got a better deal in this go-around--he scores, so that gives me hope. Ditto Janine (Annie Potts), who has a somewhat reduced role in this movie. However, the only downer in this movie is Peter MacNicol who as Janosz Poha, Dana's Hungarian colleague at the museum, has one of the most annoying voices, call it a very bad imitation of a Hungarian Doctor Strangelove. Seeing some familiar things, like the Ghostmobile with the ECTO-1 license plate, the proton-backpacks, the steaming traps, lots of slime, and even a bureaucrat who makes life difficult them, is welcome. The usual one-liners by Bill Murray are there--"I'm a voter. Aren't you supposed to lie to me and kiss my butt?" he says to Jack Hardemeyer, the mayor's assistant, but I also found Harold Ramis kind of lightening up in this movie. While some ghosts do come out of this movie, it's an equal amount ghostbusting and exorcising as well. So, as a sequel, is it better than expected, and something I wished I'd seen at the box office when it first came out? To quote Egon, "is the atomic weight of cobalt 58.9"?
Rating:
Summary: good movie
Review: This was a good movie but I liked the first one better.
Rating:
Summary: "I used to have a roommate, but my mom moved to Florida."
Review: My second favorite movie of all time, the first Ghostbusters being my first favorite. This is the best sequel to the best movie of all time. People say it follows the original to much, while that may be true....who cares?! If the first one was good, why not try it. Allthough, this movie is still very different from the first. The soundtrack IMO is better, the movie has more recent feel to it and look I might add. The whole original cast is back. What more can you want for a sequel?! Get this movie, now and the first. As they are both probably the best comedy/sci-fi movies of all time. Long live Ghostbusters! Oh yeah, get the new Ghostbusters products coming out this fall including a new comic book series! And maybe some day the gang will suit up one last time for a Ghostbusters 3.
Rating: 
Summary: Impossible to Equal the Original
Review: Ghostbusters was such a uniquely entertaining and hilarious film that nearly any sequel would be doomed to fall short of the lofty expectations ladled upon it. Unfortunately, Ghostbusters 2 does indeed fall short, and far more so than one would have expected from such a great comedic team. First, the story: a few years after the Ghostbusters saved New York from the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, the guys are banned from practicing ghostbusting--yet soon their talents will be required again as a new painting at the museum where Dana Barret (Sigorney Weaver) works is posessed by the Dracula-like spirit of its likeness, Vigo. My first problem has to do with the implausibility of these events. Why would the Ghostbusters, after obviously having saved the city, be banned from ghostbusting? And why does Dana have a kid--not Peter's? I let that pass, though. From there, it seems the painting has a rather unnatural attraction to Dana's young baby, though whom it believes it can be reborn. Peter MacNichol as the geeky museum curator does deliver a hilarious performance as he falls under both Dana's and the painting's spell. The Ghostbusters return to duty when they find a strange psychoactive slime flowing through tunnels beneath the city, a slime that causes negative emotions on contact--but which reacts positively to "Your Love Lifts Me Higher," animating a toaster to dance (and eventually the Statue of Liberty). Needless to say, the Ghostbusters save the day. Yet he film lacks many of the elements that made the original so unique. The dialog and situations, though funny, aren't so dead-pan and lack the timing that created the chemistry of the first film. Nor does the villian seem quite so menacing as a giant marshmallow man. The movie does provide a number of laughs, but there's a reason you see it far more often on cable than the original: the licensors know very well which one is the superior and thus charge more for the rights. The film is in and of itself decent as the product of the Murray-Akryod-Ramis team--it just couldn't live up to the original.
Rating:
Summary: Who you gonna call? Special feature -busters!
Review: Well, the only good thing I can say is that they put this great film on DVD. They did not, however, add a single special feature worth noting, they didn't add a widescreen option, and they didn't even give it a cool main menu like Ghostbusters 1. Oh well. The movie itself is great, though it may take a couple of viewings to be funny (it's one of those not-so-great the first time, but hilarious every subsequent time movies).
Rating:
Summary: A Good Sequel
Review: This is a better sequel than most I Have Seen. It could have been much better but as sequels go, It was pretty good. They kept most of the same cast and had a pretty good story. It featured a good soundtrack featuring Bobby Brown. It was released in 1989 and it didn't do as well at the box office. The DVD is pretty good. Buy It if you really like Ghostbusters.
Rating:
Summary: worthy sequel
Review: Ghostbusters 2 wasn't better than the first but it was just as good. The story was good and all of the returning actors did a fine job. I liked the slime guns, the statue of liberty scene, and I thought that Vigo the Carpathian was more of a spookier spirit than Gozer from the first film. Plus, I think the logo from Ghostbusters 2 looks better than the logo from the first Ghostbusters. Unfortunately, the DVD for Ghostbusters 2 does not have near as many extras as the origional Ghostbusters DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: Phone on Redial for these Ghostbusters!
Review: The boys are back and better than ever! Vigo, a psychopathic sissy in a painting, will take over New York City with slime that penetrates its concentration from hostile feelings in the city. Complication! The whole cast has returned for a fun movie that will guarantee non-stop laughter. An errand boy named Janosz (pronounced 'Yaw-knowsh') Poha, a comic mastermind, is the funniest addition to the stellar cast makes funny noises and can not speak clearly. He will give you a puzzled face. Ultra hilarity from beginning to end. The boys have split, but with Dana Barrett's baby in jeopardy, they join forces one more time and use the Statue of Liberty to kick some major rear. Lifting me higher! Oh yes!
Rating:
Summary: "I thought it was going to be He-Man!"
Review: The Ghostbusters are at it again in this 1989 sequel. This time, the Ghostbusters are up against a painting with an evil spirit living in it. The spirit is a ghost of a powerful magican by the name of Vigo. Vigo wants to live again, and to do that he needs a child. Vigo is helped by a museum worker.
Meanwhile, the ghostbusters find some strange slime under the streets of New York and quickly finds out the slime reacts to human emotions. This slime is made from all the evil that goes on in NYC ("Hey, New York, what a town").
Rating:
Summary: Ghostbusters II
Review: So, after risking their lives by crossing the streams and barely averting NYC from a disaster of biblical proportions, the guys in grey are sued out of business and shunted off into their own stupid little jobs. Even Dana Barett, the love interest from the first movie, has a baby, but w/o Venkman, who now runs a shoddy psychic talk show.
But when the guys are called into court over charges of Ray's causing a power outage, two dead killers return from the grave to menace the judge and jury. Reluctantly, the recalcitrant judge rescinds the previous sentence and the guys are back, blasting away and having a whole new car.
Unfortunately, while it has a strong start and good performances, the plot holds up like a wet paper bag. Never boring, but a bit of an anticlimax, especially with the end villain. Zhuul and Vinz Clortho are far superior to Vigo's half-possessing of Ray and a museum clerk, and the end battle doesn't make much use of his supposedly wizard-like abilities.
Final Analysis: While have a good start and entertaining performances, Ghostbusters II, unlike its predecessor, is a film that doesn't really pull you in (if you'll pardon the pun).
|
