Child Of The 1980's

Five years after the first Ghostbusters film, in 1989, the sequel was released. Reuniting us with all the characters from the first film, it was a good film, though as with many sequels, not as good as the original, or at least I didn’t think so. This film fell into the trap of trying to reproduce too much of the first film, a good example of this being when the Ghostbusters mobilise the Statue of Liberty by spraying it with feel good goo. I can imagine some Hollywood executive saying, hey, we need to have the Marshmallow Man back, and since this would have been a ridiculous idea given how the Marshmallow Man came into being, the Statue of Liberty was suggested instead.

This film opens with us seeing major changes to the make up of the Ghostbusters. Egon now works at a research lab for child studies, while Pete Venkman now has is own TV talk show about weird stuff. Ray owns an occult book shop, and he and Winston are the only two who remain as Ghostbusters, but as little more than childrens party entertainers now.

Of course, things don’t stay this way for long, and the Ghostbusters are soon back in action when they discover a large underground river of pink goo flowing under the streets of Manhatten. It seems this river is the outcome of New Yorkers bad feelings towards each other manifesting as some kind of ectoplasmic residue, and it is being tapped into by long dead evil dude Vigo the Carpathian, who is imprisoned in a photograph that is being renovated in a museum where Dana Barrett has been volunteering. Vigo has his eye on Dana’s baby son Oscar (and no, Venkman is not the father!) as a means of re-entering our world. He intends to use Oscars body to bring his own soul back from wherever it is currently trapped.

On New Years Eve, Vigo possesses museum curator Janosz Poha and sends him out to kidnap baby Oscar and bring him to the museum. Dana sees this happen and heads for the museum to save her son, getting trapped inside with Janosz and the painting of Vigo when it is engulfed in the pink goo.

With the museum encrusted in slime the Ghostbusters need to find a way in, which they do by spraying the Statue of Liberty with some positively charged gloop that brings the statue to life. They direct Miss Liberty to the museum, and smash a hole in it’s glass dome roof with her torch, then abseil in to confront Vigo. After a battle which leaves the Ghostbusters lying paralysed on the floor, Vigo, who has now left the confines of the painting, attempts to transfer himself into Oscar, but is thwarted when the crowd that has amassed outside the museum start to sing Auld Lang Syne. It has reached midnight and the start of a new year, and the happy crowd outside has produced enough positive energy to send vanquish Vigo and make him fade from existence.

There has been much talk of making a third Ghostbusters film, but as time goes by this seems to become less and less likely to happen. However, it has just been announced that there is to be a new Ghostbusters adventure created as a videogame. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis are supposed to be on board as writers, which at least bodes well, but so far the screen shots released seem to be recreating elements of the first film. That said, I’ve no problem with this as catching Slimer in the hotel ballroom or fighting the Marshmallow Man both sound like great game play ideas. Whilst it’s a little sparse at the moment, keep an eye on the games dedicated website for updates.

Search for Ghostbusters 2 items on Amazon.co.uk

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This entry is filed under Films - Teens and was posted on November 22nd, 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.