I’m not going to lie as a long-time fan of The Ghostbusters franchise, it’s hard to contain my excitement for next week’s release of “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire”. I have been hooked (and ladder?) since the first one in 1984 and have never looked back. So, when thinking about what to do this week, it was almost a no-brainer. I just recently re-watched all of these in preparation for the new film and I recommend you do the same. It may get you hyped up for it. So, in honor of the release of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire this week, it is time to share my thoughts and rankings on the other films in the series before the new one launches.
4. Ghostbusters (Answer the Call) (2016) – This is a short list and I imagine most people will agree with every position except I may get some blowback on having two and three in flip-flopped positions. However, there was no doubt that this one was going to be at the bottom (or top in this reverse case). Some people may not include it on this list at all. Looking at this movie in a vacuum, it isn’t a terrible watch. I am not as down on it as other hard-core fans are. In fact, it has lots of laughs, an all-star cast (Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Chris Hemsworth), and an interesting story with plenty of Easter Eggs hidden throughout. Seriously, if that cast was in any other movie together, it would probably be a hit. The issue I have is that it failed as a “Ghostbuster film”. If the first two movies never existed or this was named something different and took out the logos and proton packs, maybe it would have done better. But having the original cast make cameos as completely different characters was a terrible idea because that just took it further away from what we love. It was also odd that they cast it almost 100% like the original except with a complete gender swap for all of the major roles. It’s almost like they wanted to do a complete reboot without any ties to the original, but still made it with ties to the original.
3. Ghostbusters 2 (1989) – I will explain more about why Afterlife has the number two spot when I get there next, but I did go back and forth on this. Ghostbusters 2 is a classic (to me at least) and something near and dear to my heart. Having 100% of the original cast come back was a homerun here and made the movie as great as it was. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, and Annie Potts is about as good as a cast that has ever been put together, and kudos to Director Ivan Reitman for getting them all back for part 2. Vigo The Carpathian is a worthy adversary and Peter MacNicol as Janosz is hilarious. The river of slime adds a fun factor to the whole thing along with some new ghosts and a couple of my favorite scenes (The courtroom and the old abandoned train tracks). There are a few corny parts, like walking through New York in the Statue of Liberty (which keeps changing size from scene to scene), but not enough to put a damper on the good vibes of the movie. I also loved that Winston had a bigger role this time around.
2. Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) – OK, so how did this make it to the number two spot over part 2? The main reason is nostalgia. Director Jason Reitman was able to work with his dad Ivan to make this movie together. They hit all the right spots in my opinion. A very compelling story that centers around Egon Spengler’s family, namely his daughter Callie (Carrie Coon) and his grandkids Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard). Yes, they did re-hash the original story a bit, but they did it in a real and up-to-date way. Also, what better way to get a new generation hooked since it had been 37 since the original story was told. As good as it was to see Ray Stantz on the big screen in a Ghostbusters movie again early in the movie, it was even better when Peter, Winston, and Ray all showed up at the end to assist the Spengler family. I had both tears of joy and a huge smile across my face. Other than Moranis, all of the original cast makes an appearance (even Ramis as a ghost) and the ECTO-1 gets some love as well. Seeing what that team was able to do with this story makes me excited to see what they have in store for us next.
1. Ghostbusters (1984) – So, no doubt about this being at the number one spot right? This one is an absolute classic from start to finish. From the first moment I watched Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), Peter Venkmen (Bill Murray), and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) visit the library and have their first interaction with a ghost, I was all in and haven’t looked back since. The comedy, the horror, the story, and the characters were all great and the rest of the cast just put it over the top. Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts), and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) all did amazing with their respective roles, and again kudos to Ivan Reitman for putting it together with Ramis and Aykroyd and making this all possible. Has any movie ever made had so many iconic characters and/or props emerge from it? From the proton packs, ghost traps, and other fun tools they use, we also get Slimer, The Stay-Puft marshmallow man, and the terror dogs (Zuul and Vinz Clortho)… you know, the infamous Gatekeeper and Keymaster! This is also one of the most quotable films I have in my arsenal. (“Listen… do you smell that”?). This movie cleanly sits in the top five of my all-time favorite movies and I may do a full review on it one day just for fun.
So, there you have it for my rankings for the Ghostbusters movies? Where will Frozen Empire end up sitting? I hope you get a chance to go out and watch it this upcoming weekend/week, they deserve all the love and ticket purchases that they can get.
In the meantime, check out some of my other lists here.
