Ghostbusters II
Release date: June 16, 1989
Writers: Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis
Director: Ivan Reitman
Main Cast:
·
Bill Murray as Peter Venkman
·
Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stantz
·
Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler
·
Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore
·
Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz
·
Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett
·
Rick Moranis as Louis Tully
·
Peter MacNicol as Dr. Janosz Poha
·
Harris Yulin as Judge Stephen Wexler
·
Janet Margolin as Prosecuting Attorney
"Kitten"
·
David Margulies as Mayor Lenny Clotch
·
Kurt Fuller as Jack Hardemeyer
·
William T. Deutschendorf and Hank J.
Deutschendorf II as Baby Oscar
·
Wilhelm von Homburg as Vigo the Carpathian
·
Ivan Reitman as the voice of Slimer
(Rating 5 of 5)
Summary:
(Spoilers! After all it’s a summary.) The movie begins with slime oozing on the
street and Dana Barrett coming back from the store with her baby. When her back is turned the baby’s carriage takes
off by itself almost killing the child.
With such a strange and horrifying experience she decides to once again
turn to the Ghostbusters.
The
Ghostbusters however are going through a hard time as they are now under a court order to stop ghostbusting. In order to pay the bills, Peter becomes a TV
host interviewing people who claim to be physics, Egon is doing psychological
research on people, Ray owns a book store and he and Winston try to make money
off their ghostbusting fame by hosting kids’ birthday parties. When Dana comes to Egon he agrees to both
investigate and not include Peter because of their history. However when Egon was talking to Ray in the
book store Peter was able to figure out what they were doing.
 |
| Not just a painting of the big bad! |
While
this is all going on Dana has had this new job at the museum restoring
paintings under the directorship of Dr. Janosz Poha. Poha is interested in Dana but she doesn’t
return his affections. They have just
presented their new prize possession: a painting of the sixteenth century
warlord Vigo the Carpathian. However it
is not just a painting of Vigo. The audience sees early on that Vigo himself is in this
painting. At night Vigo speaks to Poha
and recruits him to be his minion on Earth instructing Poha to bring a him a child so he recreate
himself. Poha agrees and also convinces
Vigo that Dana’s baby would be the best and if he got the child he should be allowed
to have the mother.
 |
| Very odd job interview! |
In
Dana’s apartment Ray and Egon show up and, to Dana’s dismay, are with Peter. The three continue with the investigation of
the apartment and examine Oscar. They go
to the place where his carriage stopped.
They discover the readings are off the chart, so they decide to drill. After a while the cops stop by to ask what
they are doing. Peter gets them to leave
long enough to lower Ray down and discover a river of slime in old
abandoned subway station. The cops also
made a discovery: that these men have no right to be there. The cops promptly arrest the Ghostbusters but not before they knock out the power.
 |
| Ray finds a river of Slime! |
So the
Egon, Peter, and Ray go to trial with a judge who doesn’t believe in ghosts
and thinks the Ghostbusters are nothing short of ridiculous. The Ghostbusters have Louis Tully as their
lawyer. He isn’t good as a lawyer but
they don’t have a case so didn’t really matter.
At their sentencing the judge goes on tirade about how he doesn’t like
them. The slime the Ghostbusters
collected starts to react and as the judge continues two ghosts of condemned
criminals that the judge had sentenced to death emerge to attack the
courtroom. The first thing they do is attack
the prosecutor and the Ghostbusters use that to blackmail the judge into dismissing their case and lifting the legal injunction.
The Ghostbusters then take care of the two ghosts.
 |
| Yeah in world where ghosts are real the death penalty is a bit of risk! |
 |
| Nothing like having two death row ghosts to blackmail a judge with! |
Now
that they Ghostbusters are allowed to operate again business is booming. Lots of ghosts that need to be captured are
flying around. The Ghostbusters are making good money catching them. They are also working on the case that Dana
brought originally. Since she had mentioned
to Peter the creepiness of the painting at the museum where she worked they decide show up to investigate. Poha tries to
stop them but they push him aside. At
one point Ray becomes entranced as they are taking pictures, but it seems to
free himself rather quickly.
 |
| Business is booming! |
 |
| Doesn't want the Ghostbusters near his boss! |
During
their ongoing investigation they discover that the slime reacts
to human emotional states. It bubbles and boils when provoked negatively, while
popping and causing objects to dance when positively charged. Changing course to the painting Egon and Ray discover the subway and the river of slime underneath the city in
the photos when observing the them in ultralight.
While trying to determine what they make of this mystery the pictures catch fire and Egon and Ray
discovered they are locked in the room.
Fortunately Winston comes to the rescue with the fire extinguisher.
 |
| Playing with Slime! |
Peter and Dana go on a date they have Janine and
Louis watch over Oscar. While Peter courts Dana, Egon, Ray, and Winston go to investigate underneath. Despite severed
heads and ghosts trains they find the river of slime. They try to measure it but Winston gets sucked
in, so Ray and Egon jump in after him.
When they get out they nearly kill each other until Egon tells them to
take off their outer clothes. The slime
has been so negatively charged by the people of New York City it infects those
it touches.
 |
| The Mayor decides he needs the Ghostbusters after all! |
The three
try to go to Peter but the sight of three grown men in long johns covered with
slime just gets all four of them arrested. They try
to talk to the Mayor but he rejects them and his assistant has the Ghostbusters committed. At Peter’s apartment, where Dana and Oscar
were staying after the bathtub tried to eat Oscar, Dana,
Janine, and Louis were watching a movie.
Dana goes to check in on Oscar and finds that he has crawled out the
window—with supernatural assistance but Dana didn’t see that part—and he is
abducted by Poha dressed as Victorian era mother flying through the air with
his new powers given to him by Vigo.
Dana
goes to the museum and after she enters it she finds her baby on an alter about
to be merged with Vigo. She tries to
stop it but can’t. Outside the museum
gets covered with slime and a shell
forms over it.
 |
| New recruit! |
The
city is then overwhelmed with ghosts with breaks out happening everywhere. The Mayor fires his assistant and releases
the Ghostbusters. They go to the museum
and try to their particle throwers on the shell but nothing happens. The negative energy is still strong. Realizing the people need inspiration they
retreat and go to the Statue of Liberty.
Ray and Winston now with slime-throwers cover the statue’s interior with
positive slime and with music get her to move.
The emergence of the statue causes the people to become euphoric and weakens
the shell.
 |
| Taking down the ghost shell! |
 |
| We all wanted to do this during the movie! |
Liberty
smashes the top of the dome interrupting the Vigo merger process allowing Dana to save
Oscar. As they jump down Winston slimes
Poha and things look good until Vigo leaves the painting. Outside Louis shows up in ghostbuster gear,
having been sent by Janine, and tries to battle the shell. Vigo is doing a job defeating the
Ghostbusters but the people of New York start singing for New Year weakening
Vigo. The Ghostbusters get up as Vigo is
forced to get back, he briefly possesses Ray but he is quickly slimed and
blasted. He is forced back into the
painting and is destroyed. The shell outside cracks and goes away and the
city celebrates. Also there is a new
image on the painting.
 |
| Vigo takes over Ray! |
 |
| New image! |
My Take: (Spoilers
here too!) Yes, I rated it a five.
Remember it is a five point scale not a one hundred. If I rated on a hundred point scale the
original would have had a ninety-nine where this one would have been an eighty-five. I think this is great
movie. An interesting point about this movie is how it is perceived. In my experience opinions of this movie is
almost dependent on how old you were when it came out. Very similar to the movie Hook, people who were young when it came
out tend to like it where people who were older tend to criticize it more.
The
main criticism of this movie is that it isn’t as good as the first one. I agree with that as I stated on a one
hundred point scale I would rate fourteen points lower. Even as a kid if you asked me which was
better I would say the first one. I
think however that criticism is unfair.
Ghostbusters was one of the all-time classic movies; most films, even one of
its own franchise, won’t equal it. This film deserves to be judged on its own
merits. This also the position I hold to
the movie that is coming out this year.
The
second criticism it gets is one I never really understood and it is “what was
the need for a second Ghostbusters movie?”
My response to that is simply was there a need to for first one? Why do movies need needs? I suppose if a film ends on a cliff hanger
another film is needed but why must this be a prerequisite? As a young kid, at this point with the first film
and the TV series, I had watch a hundred Ghostbusters' adventures. There was always a new one on Saturday
mornings why not have another live action one?
I
remember first seeing the trailer for this in the preview section of some other
movie I was seeing with my family. It’s
telling that I didn’t remember the movie I was seeing that day just the
Ghostbusters trailer. I was so excited
that they were doing another live action Ghostbusters movie. I wasn’t able to see the first one in
theaters because I was only three[1],
but I would be able to see this one.
One
morning I remember my mother calling me into my parents' bedroom
because they had something to tell me.
My father was taking me to see Ghostbusters II! It was a dream come true, I was going to see
the Ghostbusters in the theaters. So
this movie will always be somewhat special to me. As an adult I can more fairly
access the movies strengths and weakness.
They’re things l like still and things that I don’t like as much. I will discuss the things I didn’t like
before the things I do because I finish on a positive note. However, first I want to discuss how the cartoon show
influenced this film. Although the show
and it’s stories are not directly acknowledged the show clearly made an impact.
How The Real
Ghostbusters influenced Ghostbusters
II:
·
The fact that there is a Ghostbusters II: With exception to Dan Aykroyd; Ramis, Reitman,
and Murry all saw the first Ghostbusters movie as one shot. The very existence of the cartoon lead to
pressure from the studio to create the new movie.
·
Terminology: The first Ghostbusters movie never used the
phrases such as “proton packs.” Where in this movie they use that phrase and others a
number of times.
·
Music: Parts of the score in Ghostbusters
II uses is based very closely on the cartoon particularly the creepy ghost
scenes.
·
Look of the characters: They had Winston clean shaven and Janine with
longer hair like in the cartoon. They
had different colored uniforms at times. At this rate they might have gone with The
Real Ghostbusters’ color coded uniforms and forced Ramis to dye his hair blonde.
 |
| Janine looking more like her Real Ghostbusters self! |
 |
| This altered image was featured on this review of the same movie on the site Den of Geek! |
·
The story: The actually story for
Ghostbusters II was clearly inspired by two second season episodes "Beneath These Streets" and "Hard Knight's Day." Now I am saying inspired
not copied. Those are two very different
episodes but parts of each make it into the movie.
·
Slimer as a good guy: Since Slimer is
their pet on the cartoon they couldn’t make him one of their catches again,
instead he is driving Louis to the main event.
 |
| Slimer is a good ghost! |
Okay there are some things in
this movie that I don’t care for. As
much as I like the movie overall these parts could have been improved.
 |
| 9 year old Jeremy Perron would have loved to have the Ghostbusters at his birthday party! |
·
The beginning: I didn’t like the start of
the movie that was “oh the poor Ghostbusters” they are out of business nobody
loves them.” That was just dumb. The whole point of a sequel is you don’t have
to learn who all these characters are again.
We already had the origin of the Ghostbusters in the first film; we
don’t need to see them become the Ghostbusters again. Also the party scene probably makes more
sense nowadays then it did then. The
Real Ghostbusters in 1989 was the most popular children’s cartoon out there. The whole "Ghostbusters are out of touch" feel
didn’t relate to the intended audience.
 |
| What is up with this? It gets strange when she starts dressing him in Egon's clothes! |
·
Janine should be in love with Egon and no one
else: Sorry, Louis I like you in the court room scene but the whole babysit
date thing was dumb. These two aren’t
teenagers. Was that supposed to be the
joke? I love the whole Janine is in love
with Egon but Egon is clueless as how to handle it. I heard Ramis overruled this. Harold Ramis was an artistic genius who can
never be equaled and whose loss will forever be a whole in hearts of all who
love film. But even genius can mistakes
and if it was Ramis’s idea then was his mistake. So if there is an afterlife where they review
what you did wrong while you were alive I fully expect this decision to have been mentioned. A better scene would have been a double date
with Egon and Janine with Peter and Dana. Also why is she dressing Louis in Egon’s
clothes and sending him out for? If the
guys need extra gun she should strap on the pack herself she already knows how to use one, unlike Louis.
·
This symbol: Okay it is fine for the
movie poster but why is it on their jumpsuits, firehouse, car, and
advertisements? It doesn’t make
sense. The characters are somehow aware
they are in a sequel?
Now let’s get into the stuff that I
love about this movie.
·
It was another Ghostbusters movie: That alone made me happy.
 |
| I was glad to have them back! |
·
The courtroom scene: Who doesn’t like
that court room scene?
·
Vigo as villain: I thought the main bad
guy filled all the necessary perquisites to being an all-time villain for the
Ghostbusters to fight.
·
The Titanic scene: “It’s better late than
never.”
 |
| Better late than never! |
·
The Statue of Liberty: How often since Planet of Apes has the
Statue of Liberty get trashed in various Hollywood films? Well in this movie it
kicks some serious ass!
 |
| It's ass kicking time for a symbol of America! |
Now for my stray observations:
·
Egon should not be allowed to work with humans.
·
2016 is this year!
 |
| Well, we missed it! |
·
Okay is the party thing Winston’s only income?
·
Did they have to drill a hole in street? Later in the movie they found their way down there just as easy.
·
I have a strong suspicion that Peter Venkman is
Oscar’s biological father. I could go on
about this for an hour but don’t want to right now. And by the way Peter
already knows.
·
What’s the judge’s real issue?
· "Doe! Ray! Egon!" When I was eight I thought Egon
was correct and they were shouting their names. I didn't hear Peter's "Doe."
·
Why go anywhere without their packs? Much less in an underground scary place.
·
How weak were these ghosts guarding the slime?
·
Why does Vigo want to be a baby?
 |
| I would pick an older host! |
·
When saw this as a kid at the scene where the Ghostbusters were talking about getting a symbol everyone could rally around my father thought they were talking about Santa
Claus.
·
Was anyone else afraid the positively charged slime was going to
wash away when Liberty was in the water?
·
Okay so how did the painting of the Ghostbusters
end up under Vigo? Ghostbusters III
should have been a time travel story.
Anyway if you have never seen
Ghostbusters II I highly recommend watching it and if you have seen it you
should watch it again.
[1] I
have actually seen the first one in the theater. Years later in throw back Wednesdays at the
local theater.
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