Lackluster, unnecessary follow-up to Afterlife, which itself was nonessential, is the latest bait-and-switch to take an established franchise (in name only) in feeble hopes of getting fans in the seats, even though there's nothing worthwhile to justify its existence. Callie, Phoebe, and Trevor Spengler have abandoned the old dirt farm, teamed up with Gary Grooberson to cohabit the old firehouse, and strapped on their proton packs to bust ghosts that wanna take a bite out of the Big Apple. In the old days the question was: who you gonna call? Times have changed though, and the question now is: who gonna clean up the mess? Devoid of real humor but rife with flashy effects, there is a bit of plot thrown in amongst all the visuals involving an evildoing god--no, it's not Gozer, meanwhile Pheebs is literally sidelined from her own family and finds solace by shooting the breeze with the apparition of a teenage girl who speaks in monotone and can transeparate when the need arises. The overstuffed cast does have Raymond Stantz on hand to spout sophisticated, scientific jargon, along with some other legacy characters who show up to remind viewers that this franchise was really popular when it first originated...too bad four decades have passed since then. Ivan Reitman receives a posthumous producing credit, whether or not he'd be pleased with the results is anyone's guess, but maybe Robert Frost would've been glad to get a shoutout. *½
Review of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
