My Review of "Ghostbusters 2"

Ghostbusters 2 is the sequel to the ever popular Ghostbusters (1984). it took them 5 years to come out with a sequel but somehow they got the whole cast from the original back in on this fun project. With those 5 years come advancements in special effects and I guess some acting lessons. There are a lot of improvements and there are a few missteps along the way as well.

This movie starts off true to the 5 year hiatus between the original movie and this sequel. It also notes at the very beginning that it's 5 years after the events of the first movie. No more ghosts are around since they had eradicated the Zuul. New York is quick to forget our heroes' heroic deeds for the city. In fact many think it's all a sham.

The city never paid for the ghost busting service and since there are no more ghosts, business has been dry. Ray and Winston have ended up doing children's birthday celebrations. Egon is working at a University. Peter is now a charlatan on television.

Things basically have gone downhill. Meanwhile poor old Dana seems like a lightning rod for bad luck with evil spirits. This time there seems to be some sort of evil goo flowing in the depths of New York's oldest subway stations. This goo is finally resurfacing. It somehow gets ahold of Dana's baby carriage. Yes Dana was married and had a kid in the last 5 years and it wasn't with Peter.

Desperate to save her baby she goes to the Ghostbusters to figure out what's going on. As the Ghostbusters start learning more and more about the goo it unravels a big fantastical story that is just over the edge of cartoonish.

Let me start by saying the whole cast is as charming as ever. Someone you didn't expect to come back was Louis. I guess he stole the show in the first movie and he does it again in this movie. They put him in such ridiculous situations and no matter what it is he just goes with it.

I love the time where he's preps up to become a Ghostbuster to come rescue the guys. The problem is he's a little guy and the rest of the guys already took the car out. He's floppily running with this really heavy proton pack on his back and he has to take the bus. A lot of the jokes are ridiculous like that and it's a shame they don't do things like this in movies anymore.

There's a surprising amount of cameos this time around as well. Those that didn't grow up in that time won't likely recognize some of these stars. I know for sure I saw Cheech from Cheech and Chong and Bobby Brown to name a few. Pretty cool stuff but it's a product of its time.

Special effects have gone from zero to one hundred in this movie. There were lackluster special effects in the first movie. They were good at the time but after 5 years you can see a remarkable improvement in effects. Even to this day some of the effects are pretty cool because you know they did these without CGI. Sure they still seem outdated by today's standards but you can definitely appreciate them.

With the better effects it does add to the creep and jump scare factor to the movie that we didn't have in the first. They did up the ante with the updated 4k Dolby Atmos mix if you get the physical copy of the movie. I thoroughly enjoyed this update.

So much of this movie was well done to develop the relationships between the characters in the movie. It's just too bad the end of the movie was kind of a mixed bag for me. I had fun with it and I'm sure kids will love this ending but it is kind of a wacky solution to their problem. At certain points I felt like I was watching a cartoon rather than a live action movie. Still it's not supposed to be taken seriously so I have to let it pass.

Overall, I really had fun with this one despite the uneven ending to the movie. It is a real fun time that will make you feel like a kid again. The updates in technology are great and the characters are as lovable as ever. Probably even more since we know them even more after seeing them in 2 movies. I have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. I think you still have to watch the first movie to get the full impact of this movie but that's not a bad thing.