Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

I really enjoyed Ghostbusters: Afterlife. But I think I am more of a fan of the newest film in the series, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. For one thing, there is way more presence of the original Ghostbusters in this 2024 film. Sure, the ghost of Egon was a major character in Afterlife. But his spectral form was executed by body doubles, special effects tricks and CGI. In Afterlife, when it came to the still living cast of Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson, you saw them on screen 4 to 5 minutes tops. With much expanded roles in this film, it really felt like a Ghostbuster movie. I just hope it's not the last one in the series.

Egon's daughter and grandchildren have been given the reins on the Ghostbuster empire by their benefactor, Winston Zeddmore. Along with Oklahoman science teacher Gary Grooberson, the Spenglers live in the old firehouse, chasing ghosts in the Ecto-1 with the same old aging equipment. Facing major backlash from former EPA inspector Walter Peck who is now the mayor of New York, young Phoebe Spengler must stop busting spirits until she turns 18 or the whole endeavor will be shut down.

Meanwhile, a young man clearing out his grandmother's apartment brings what he thinks is some old junk from her home country of India over to Ray's Occult Books. Hoping to make a few dollars, the man, played by Kumail Nanjiani, sells to Ray Stantz an orb made of brass that secretly imprisons a demigod from ancient times long before the birth of Christ.

For centuries, the orb had been housed safely away from the sounds of human voices. Now out in the open, the vibrations of the outside world are awakening the powerful god, who grows stronger with every sound the orb encounters. As this monster arises, the ghosts of the Big Apple are stirring, which causes the Ghostbusters original containment unit to start malfunctioning. The last time the unit shut down was in 1984 and it almost destroyed in entire city what with Gozer, people turning into demonic dogs and a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man terrorizing Manhattan. Only now, add to it a kingdom of ice that threatens to chill every last man, woman and child down to their very souls!

The weakest character in the movie was the precocious Phoebe played by McKenna Grace. Grace shined in the last movie. However, by putting her on the sidelines from active Ghostbusting, we get this typical teen angst trope that makes just about everything she does predictable. 

I was pleasantly surprised by Nanjiani. I usually can't stand him because every time I see him, he's got this disgusted look on his face like he just smelt a fart. However, he's got this loopiness that has been missing from the franchise since Rick Moranis' retirement from acting as the lovable loser Louis. Sigourney Weaver is also absent from this movie. But we get a big dose of Annie Potts' Jeanine this time around. Sadly, even though she finally dressed up as a Ghostbuster and even wears a modified blaster gauntlet, we never get to see her use the down thing. 

The last scene kinda sets up a 6th film. Fans have been talking about a proposed 'Ghostbusters International' film or cartoon series for a very long time. If what Winston hints at at the end of Frozen Empire is any hint, we might finally get to see what it's like taking down ghosts in places like Japan, England and maybe even Antarctica! Even if we don't get that premise, you can at least delight in a film that is probably about as close to a live-action version of Extreme Ghostbusters as we'll ever get. Only instead of Egon as the leader of the next gen of busters, it's Winston. And yet, it feels right. 

One More Movie! One More Movie! One More Movie!

Worth Consuming! 

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars. 

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 15

Consume mass quantities, people as we celebrate another 40th anniversary today. It's on this date in history that the Coneheads debuted on Saturday Night Live!

(L-R) Curtin, Aykroyd, and Newman as
the Coneheads, 1977.

  Over a 3-year period, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, and Laraine Newman would portray the Coneheads; an alien trio with large conical bald heads, trying to integrate into society while posing as a French immigrant family. Aykroyd, who created the idea of the Coneheads, was Beldar, the patriarch, was an instructor as a driving academy. played the matriarch Prymatt and Newman was their daughter Connie.

Image from the very first Conehead sketch.
January 15, 1977
Steve Martin (center) played a census taker.

 During the run of the Coneheads, the aliens learned new earth cultures, such as trick-or-treating, going to the movies, and were even contestants on the Family Feud. They managed to turn the canival ring toss into a form of foreplay. But what the Coneheads were most known for was the consumption of mass quantities.

    The Coneheads would drink an entire six-pack at one time. When learning to smoke, they lit the entire pack of menthols on fire. Liquid paper, wood shavings, and shaving cream were destined to become the Coneheads next snack.

Character study of Aykroyd's Beldar Character,
from the 1983 animated special.

  In 1979, Dan Aykroyd and buddy John Belushi left SNL. The Coneheads went with the comedian. But that wasn’t the end of the Coneheads. In 1983, Rankin Bass produced an animated special about the Coneheads in hopes of becoming a full series. Though it featured the voice talents of the original actors and now considered a cult classic, the cartoon Coneheads never made it past the pilot.

Official trailer to the 1994 live-action film.

The Coneheads returned again, this time is the 90s as a feature length film. Newcomer Michelle Burke replaced Laraine Newman in the of role of Connie. A Marvel comic about the family's exploits after the events of the film was also released. Both were bombs. But the 2015 commercial where Beldar and Prymatt converse with Jake from Planet State Farm was a critical success and a very memorable Super Bowl ad at that. (Laraine Newman would return to the role of Connie later that year as the Coneheads take Jake to France.)

   

Cover to the first issue of the
short-lived 1994 Marvel comic.

Finally, I have to admit, my wife got it right! A few years ago, she made me the really awesome shirt which lists all kinds of great things that were introduced in 1977 (including a certain Madman.) She had Coneheads on the list. I never told her, but I thought she was wrong and that they came about way earlier, like in 1975 when the show debuted.

   
  Here’s your credit, Pumpkin!