Relaxing with friends, old and new – The Mercury News

Man, so many Ghostbusters to call.

At the cinema this week, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” is the continuation of the largely enjoyable 2021 adventure “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.” The latter, which saw Jason Reitman – son of Ivan Reitman, director of the original 1984 “Ghostbusters” film and its 1989 sequel, “Ghostbusters II” – at the helm, introduced a new generation of brave souls and captivating while bringing back a key legacy. characters.

Well, the “Ghostbusters” franchise is obviously not ready to let go of the past.

“Frozen Empire” – co-written, like its predecessor, by Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan, who this time serves as director – is also full of several generations of Ghostbusters. As a result, it doesn’t feel as fresh as “Afterlife.”

Still, it’s once again a pretty fun way to spend a few hours.

After a prologue set in New York in 1904, in which a few frozen characters literally fall to pieces, we head to the modern Big Apple and find the family at the heart of the new film, the descendants of the late original Ghostbuster Egon Spengler. Mom Callie (Carrie Coon), son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and daughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) are out hunting, crammed into the vehicle synonymous with the Ghostbusters, Ecto-1, driven by Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), who is graduated from Phoebe’s teacher to her, uh, “step-teacher”, as he awkwardly puts it.

Funded by Ghostbusters-turned-philanthropist Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), the family now resides in the Ghostbusters’ former Tribeca firehouse, traveling by pole from where they sleep to other levels of the old building.

Another hero is, once again, Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz, the former Ghostbuster who now spends his time buying old items which he eagerly scans with his PKE reader for paranormal energy and hosts a show online with the help of Podcast (Logan Kim), who migrated to New York from Oklahoma with the Spenglers, as did Trevor’s friend Lucky (Celeste O’Connor).

We also get – and no complaints here – Bill Murray’s original Ghostbuster, Peter Venkman, who appears for a few significant minutes of screen time.

Expect one or two other familiar faces, while newcomers include Patton Oswalt’s Dr. Hubert Wartzki, an expert in ghostly and gruesome folklore, and James Acaster’s Lars, a scientist working with the new Paranormal Research Center in Winston. (Making his film debut, Acaster is a very creative comedian who elicits a few lab-related laughs.)

The most important new characters, however, are Melody (Emily Alyn Lind of “Gossip Girl”), a ghost trapped in this world who befriends Phoebe, and Nadeem (Kumail Nanjiani), a neighborhood hustler who must embrace his destiny of “fire master”. » if humanity is to survive a coming threat.

That danger is Garraka, a terrifying demon with the power of “deadly cold” who has been trapped in an ancient artifact for over a century.

With so many characters to juggle and seemingly determined to give us a reasonable runtime, Reitman and Kenan don’t even try to give arcs to many of them. The main exception is Phoebe, who is benched after she turns just 15 and becomes a problem for the mayor of New York, who isn’t exactly a longtime ally of the Ghostbusters. (Meanwhile, Trevor is now 18 and wants to be treated like an adult, but “Stranger Things” star Wolfhard becomes an afterthought pretty quickly in “Frozen Empire.”)

The funniest is provided by Nanjiani, the star of “The Big Sick” and “The Lovebirds,” who nails a few comedic lines as only he can in the role of the increasingly important Nadeem.

Overall, even though “Frozen Empire” mostly goes through the ghost-hunting motions, it’s still enjoyable thanks to its attractive cast. For example, Rudd (“Ant-Man”) is his usual brand of charming everyone as Gary, who is asked by his girlfriend Callie to start being more of a father to his children, which sometimes means being the mean one.

Tastes surely vary on this sort of thing, but we’re glad that after building up the threat of Garraka, “Frozen Empire” doesn’t devolve into a seemingly endless supernatural battle sequence – like some episodes of “Ghostbusters” that we could name. Fear not, as there are plenty of ice spikes and proton bunches at the climax, but we all know how this thing is going to end, so there’s no need to drag it out.

Counting the disappointing 2016 reboot “Ghostbusters,” “Frozen Empire” – fittingly dedicated to Ivan Reitman, who died a few months after the release of “Afterlife” – is the fifth film in the franchise, and we think a sixth is. it’s not very far, far away.

We wouldn’t mind, but maybe don’t invite so many people to this paranormal party.

“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire”

Or: Theaters.

When: March 22.

Note : PG-13 for supernatural action/violence, language and suggestive references.

Duration: 1 hour 55 minutes.

Stars (out of four): 2.5.