Review of Ghostbusters II (1989) by Kai82 — 27 Apr 2021

I often hear some complains that this is a weak sequel. I fully disagree. It has all the strengths of the first movie including the awesome cast, humor and immersive story. They even added a bit of new stuff.

Even after countless rewatches I still did not find any convincing evidence why some see this as failure. If you want to see a good example for a truly weak sequel just watch Highlander 2 (I am a fan of this franchise too by the way and it is pretty hard sometimes).

Closest thing to a complaint is maybe that they use the formula for the first movie too much. But even this is no real failure if the first movie is that great and the result this much entertaining. The story starts a few years after the events of the prequel.

The Ghostbusters had saved New York and probably the whole world (or mankind). Like many heroes they got blamed for the events in the aftermath and are forbidden from doing their jobs. Because the paranormal / ghost activities are on a very low to non existing level too there is nothing they can do.

However a true vacuum does not exist for long and so a new adventure starts for our heroes. I stop with this set up to avoid spoilers. The story works well and it is an enjoyable ride to the memorable climax.

Again they have Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd for the script and Ivan Reitman as director which is a success formula. The humor works great and the scene were the Ghostbusters are back in action is legendary good.

The great actors / actresses return into their iconic roles. Bill Murray is back as Peter Venkman, Dan Aykroyd as Raymond Stantz, Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler and Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore (Luckily has more screentime than in the first movie).

These four have become pop culture legends and fully deliver again in this movie. The actors have a great chemistry together and fun in their roles. It ends however not with those as we got a great support of other actors.

We got again Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett and Rick Moranis as Louis Tully. Both are are some of my favorite actors and so great to watch. I want to also praise Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz, Harris Yulin as Judge Stephen Wexler and David Margulies as the mayor of New York.

Smaller but really enjoyable roles. Special additional praise for the villain played by Wilhelm von Homburg and voice actor for the villain Max von Sydow (Nailed it perfectly). I fully enjoyed the humor.

Again we got good jokes, memorable scenes and the characters being themselves;-) The special effects again are really good for its time but aged a bit badly. Still good enough for me and they created their own style.

The music is truly good. Overall if you enjoyed the first movie this will be a equally good experience. It captures everything that makes the first movie great and adds a bit to it. Easy recommendation for me.