Tag Archives: Slimer

Ghostbusters Movies: All 5 ranked from Worst to Best!

The Ghostbusters franchise has been running for 40 years, with two hit movies in the 80’s, then introduced to a whole new generation with three more movies from 2016 onwards.

Unlike my Transformers Movie rankings where it was easy to rate all 8 movies in order from worst to best, I found this list of 5 Ghostbusters movies quite hard.  There is a general consensus about what constitutes the worst Ghostbusters movie and which was the best, but the middle three could arguably be swapped around according to the individual viewers proclivities.  So just because one movie is listed here at 4 and another at 2, there isn’t a gigantic gap between them.

So lets rank them – the 5 Ghostbusters Movies from Worst to Best!

 

Number 5 – Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)

There is a contingent of fans who loved this movie and still do, and more power to them.  Unfortunately for the movie itself, it came out during a year with a Presidential Election in the USA.  When one candidate professed their delight at the upcoming movie and the other their disapproval, before it even hit cinemas the flick was dragged into a political culture war which gave it a handicap it didn’t deserve.

However, even observed dispassionately without the lense of US culture war politics, this was not a good movie.  Ghostbusters movies are almost always comedies, but even in films where people get doused with liquefied Marshmallow Man or Mood Slime, the jokes have always been more character and situation driven.  Answer the Call treated the franchise like one long SNL sketch, trying to play each scene for big laughs which inevitably always fell flat.  The characters were one dimensional and uninteresting, the CGI was cartoony, the plot uninspired and overall this felt like a parody of the Ghostbusters franchise instead of a reboot. The majority of fans didn’t like it, and neither did the film critics, resulting in a poor box office showing.

There was the odd highlight here and there; the characters of Erin Gilbert and Jillian Holtzmann were amusing on occasion, and the idea of Ghostbusting knuckle-dusters was an interesting concept.  The movie did try to pay homage to what had come before, with cameos by many of the original cast as well as Slimer and Ecto-1.  But none of this was able to save what was a poorly executed and lampoonish take on a beloved franchise.  At least the comics have retroactively made Answer the Call a different universe from the original, thereby placating some of the more rabid fans who saw it as a stain on the Ghostbusters cinematic legacy.

Pictorial Toys Review – My Little Prime & Plasmane

 

Number 4 – Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

(If you have not yet seen this movie then spoilers ahead – you’ve been warned!)

Now remember at the start when I said spots 2, 3 & 4 could be swapped around according to your proclivities, and also when I said Ghostbusters movies are almost always comedies?  Well if comedies are your thing then Frozen Empire could easily be moved up from it’s 4th spot into 3rd, being a far funnier film than Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

The latest film of the franchise serves as a sequel to Afterlife and the 4th film of the original universe.  This movie is a true blend of the original cast and the newest characters, and whilst the focus of the movie remains on Pheobe and the other descendants of Egon Spengler, the like of Ray and Winston get a proper outing and there are plenty of side characters to enjoy.

This film runs at a good pace, has lots of laughs threaded throughout, plenty of action and does it’s best to bring the Ghostbusters franchise into the 21st century.  Add to that a splash of other original characters such as Peter, Janine and Slimer and a new bad guy who can control other ghosts as well as literally turn fear into ice, and you’ve got yourself one entertaining movie!

Movie Review – Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Where this movie lets itself down is trying to cram in too much.  There are some side plots that don’t go anywhere and seem to have only been included so that all the members of the huge cast have something to do, whereas other side plots take up a ton of screen time for very little payoff.  The stakes never feel particularly high – even Walter Peck shutting down the Ghostbusters is solved in mere moments with the picking of a padlock and a van full of new equipment arriving.  And whilst all the movies are about ghosts, they always approached the spiritual realm from more of a scientific standpoint than magical, thus the inclusion of someone who can bend fire like they are out of an Avatar cartoon feels as out of place as aliens did in the Indiana Jones franchise.

All this said, it is still a really fun movie, and perhaps the most funny we’ve had since the 1980’s.  While fans on the internet are still divided on how they feel about this latest installation of the franchise, if you love Ghostbusters it’s highly recommended that you get to your nearest cinema while it is still showing.

 

Number 3 – Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

If you watch Ghostbusters primarily for a laugh, then shift this movie down your personal list to at least Number 4.  However if you love the franchise as a whole, then Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the movie that is going to tug at your heartstrings and make you go ‘The world still remembers!’

Afterlife is, more than anything, a love letter to the original movies and the departed Harold Ramis.  It is set decades after the events of Ghostbusters 2, with the Ghostbusters being disbanded by Egon Spengler having abandoned the team to live on a dirt farm in order to prevent the latest coming of Gozer.  However we find all this out via, after the subsequent death of Egon at the start of the film, his estranged daughter and her family coming to pick through the remnants of his life.

The star of the movie is Pheobe Spengler, Egon’s granddaughter and the similarities between the characters are played up from the get-go.  She is an awkward but incredibly endearing character and she is guided by the ghost of her Grandfather to thwart Gozer once again, along with the help of her family and some new friends.  We see Ecto-1 resurrected along with all the old equipment Egon scarpered with, a good analogy for the original Ghostbusters cinematic universe being dusted off and made use of once again  This film also contains a million Easter Eggs for fans – everything from the dancing toaster to Egon’s collection of Spores, Mould and Fungus!

This movie has funny parts, mainly provided by the interactions between Pheobe and her new friend Podcast, but it is much more of a nostalgic drama, thematically setting it apart from the rest of the movies.

Movie Review – Ghostbusters: Afterlife

What let this movie down more than anything, besides not a lot of busting going on, was the return of Gozer.  In the original Gozer was exciting – controlling things from afar through his Keymaster and Gatekeeper only to eventually appear itself on a rooftop in New York, nearly blasting the Ghosbusters off said rooftop with lightning and then turning into The Destructor – in this case a gigantic Marshmallow Man!  In this newest outing Gozer is already a known quantity, sits about in a cave when summoned and then has a less than thrilling fight with the Ghostbusters – both old and new.  No rooftop lightning or candy-based kaiju here.  The movie was stuffed with nostalgia already, it really needed a new baddie to fight to give it that fresh feel as well.

However it is this last fight that also really tugs on the hearstrings more than anything.  The ghost of Egon Spengler materializes to help his granddaughter fight Gozer, and then does so alongside the other original Ghostbusters – Ray, Winston and Peter.  Watching the four onscreen together for the first time since 1989 was by far the biggest tearjerker in Ghostbuters history, especially given that Harold Ramis passed many years ago.  Even my wife who is just a casual fan of the franchise had tears in her eyes and I’m not sure I’ve ever shed so many watching a film myself since Optimus Prime died back in 1986.

So is this a great comedy?  No.  Is it startlingly original?  No.  What it served as was a perfect link between what Ghostbusters had been, what it had meant to the fandom, and what it could become moving into the future.

 

Number 2 – Ghostbusters 2 (1989)

If you are after a drama-themed and streamlined plot, Afterlife is better.  If you are after a fast paced movie with lots of intertwining subplots and individual character arcs then Frozen Empire is better.  If you are after awesome Ghostbusting action combined with hilarious cast interactions, then Ghostbusters 2 beats all the new movies hands down!

Ghosbusters 2 had Bill Murray and Rick Moranis at what could be argued were their comedic peaks.  Combine those with the stellar performances of Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Sigorny Weaver and Dan Ackroyd – all from the first movie – and the highly underrated performance of Peter MacNicol as a new bad guy, and this brilliant ensemble of actors simply blow away anything that has come since in the Ghostbusters franchise.  Nadeem and Podcast might be funny supporting characters, but they have nothing on Luis Tully.  The interactions between the Spengler family might be interesting, but they pale in comparison when compared to the banter between the four original Ghostbusters.

Now this is not to say this movie was perfect, it was far from so.  Despite having a new bad guy in the form of Vigo (cue angry man in painting) and his lackey Janosz, this movies plot mirrored the first flick far too much: Ghostbusters getting their business going (again), Peter pursuing Dana, the guys getting locked up by a mid-level government official only to be summoned and pardoned by the Mayor, then capped off by a giant figure stomping down the street.  It’s like Ackroyd and Ramis went ‘Hey the first movie was a hit, lets just do that again!’.

Still, there was enough new stuff in this movie to make it entertaining, and the aforementioned fantastic cast make this a beloved part of the franchise.

Toy Review – Ectotron

 

Number 1 – Ghostbusters (1984)

“Who ya gonna call?”

A true pop-culture icon of a movie! A behemoth of sci-fi comedy!  The film that has inspired 40 years worth of movies, cartoons, comics and toylines.  The original Ghostbusters is still the best and still eminently watchable to this day.  The storyline, the pacing, the jokes, the scares, the dialogue, the characters – everything about this movie works, everything!

I didn’t care much for the joke where Luis Tully gets dragged down the glass window of the restaurant, then all the music and talking starts up again.  That’s it – that’s the entirety of things I can personally nitpick about this film – I have nothing else.  Well, maybe all the cigarette smoking too, but it was the 80’s, you were hard pressed to find a movie or even TV show where half the characters didn’t smoke.

I was too young to see it at the cinemas so had to wait for it to be aired on TV and I still remember the excitement of watching it, even getting in trouble with my mother for telling the rest of the family off any time someone made a noise.  This movie is full of iconic scenes, everything from the Library Ghost to the catching of Slimer, right up to the final showdown with a giant Marshmallow Man.  And what other movie could make a giant Marshmallow Man not seem completely ridiculous?  There are so many quotable lines in this movie; ‘What about the Twinkie?’ ‘I collect spores, mould and fungus’, ‘Are you a god?’ and of course ‘Yes its true, this man has no dick’.

It’s hard to critique a movie one loves so much and feels so passionately about.  But perhaps it is a testament to how good the original Ghostbusters is that even in my own family, if asked if they would like to watch a GB movie that my wife, son and daughter will always want to watch the original above all others, and no one ever complains that we’ve seen it a hundred times before – we just grab the popcorn, plunk ourselves on the couch and prepare to be thoroughly entertained for the next few hours.  This movie has a worldwide cult following and even 40 years later remains one of the most beloved films of its genre, helped by having perhaps the most catchy movie theme song in history.

“They’re the best, they’re the beautiful, they’re the only – Ghostbusters”

 

Would you list the Ghostbusters films in a different order?  Pop it in the comments section below!

Transformers Movies: All 8 ranked from Worst to Best!

Movie Review – Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

In 2016 we saw Ghostbusters rebooted, which did not go down well with a goodly portion of the fans or at the box office.  In 2021 we saw the original continuity resurrected with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, showing what happened to our most beloved paranormal investigators in the decades since having a smackdown with a guy in a painting.

Now in 2024 we get the sequel to Afterlife, the 4th movie of the original timeline and the 5th movie overall – so lets take a look at Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.

Before continuing a reminder: this is a movie review so that means SPOILERS AHEAD.

 

We catch up with the Spengler family two years after the events of Afterlife.  Gone from hating her father, Callie Spengler has, for reasons unspecified, moved her family and her boyfriend into the old Firehouse in New York and taken over the Ghostbusters franchise.  Unlike Afterlife which was required to spend a great chunk of the movie setting up the story and characters, we are treated to busting right from the get-go as they chase a ghostly dragon through the streets, causing a great deal of collateral damage along the way.  This results in the Ghostbusters old nemesis Walter Peck, gone from an Environmental Assessor to Mayor, telling the family to bench daughter Pheobe or be put out of business.

Thus starts a series of events that see’s Pheobe make friends with a ghost-gal Lind, the old Containment Unit about to burst and the return of the old cast as Winston introduces the Spengler’s to a new generation of Ghostbusting research and equipment.

Pictorial Toys Review – My Little Prime & Plasmane

The story arcs for most characters follow a logical and interesting progression, spliced equally with ghostbusting sci-fi and humour.  Trevor is busy trying to trap Slimer, who evidently has been living in the attic of the Firehouse since the events of GB2, Grooberson is trying to be less a friend and more a father, Winston is attempting to bring Ghostbusting into the 21st century, Pheobe is chafing at not being allowed to bust ghosts while simultaneously making friends with one and Ray and Podcast are on the trail of the new big bad – Garraka.

Talk, dark and horny

All of these arcs run simultaneously and intertwine, leading up to the final confrontation with the new bad guy, a cold fellow who can turn fear into ice and make other ghosts do his bidding.  Whilst I loved Afterlife for what it was, a love letter to the original movies and Harold Ramis, I had felt that bringing back Gozer had been a mistake.  Thus it was nice to see the team have a new enemy to fight with new powers and abilities, perhaps making him/it the most chilling enemy in the franchise to date.

Another thing Afterlife was missing was humour.  Oh there was some here and there, but whilst Answer the Call pushed the needle too far in one direction, with cringeworthy forced jokes and slapstick comedy, Afterlife went a tad to far in the other direction, perhaps in direct reaction to the negativity surrounding ATC. Afterlife was by far the most serious of the GB movies and seemed to forget that at their core the originals were comedies.  Frozen Empire returns the GB franchise to its roots with lots of humour interspersed throughout the movie, without taking it to a zany place that nobody wants to see.

Movie Review – Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Both the original and new casts do a great job in Frozen Empire, with well-rounded and relatable characters.  Admittedly Venkman and Janine add little to the overall story and similarly Lucky and Podcast seem more along for the ride.  That said, it’s a big cast of characters – there is only so much you can fit into a 2-hour flick and the absence of the aforementioned characters would have been something negatively commented upon had they been left out.  One is left wondering how many more Ghostubusters movies Bill Murray will show up for before, like Rick Moranis, he decides he’s had enough of the franchise, as Venkman puts in far less of a showing than the other original cast members.

We are introduced to some new characters; Lars Pinfield who is the head researcher for Winston and Nadeem Razmaadi who apparently took his cues from watching the Avatar cartoon and can bend fire.  Both these characters work well with Lars adding some much needed scientific paranormal examination which was previously Egon’s domain, and Nadeem being a weird guy played solely for laughs, taking the place of Luis Tully.

Is this the perfect Ghostbusters movie?  No.  Some of the story plots feel contrived, such as it never being spelled out why the family decided to take up Ghostbusting and Pheobe deciding it would be a grand idea to turn into a ghost for a few minutes.  Walter Peck is a far less interesting foe as the Mayor – he’s more mellow and thus more boring.  His shutting down of the Ghostbusters is a total non-event – they simply pick the lock and a van full of new Proton Packs shows up almost immediately.  Peter and Janine felt shoehorned in, as did Slimer though it was wonderful to see him back and he arguably did more than he did in GB2.  The new big bad being able to freeze the proton streams rendered the Ghostbusters too impotent far too easily, thereby leaving the gang with their throwers in their hands and too obviously setting Pheobe up to save the day.  And really, that ghost-girl hung about for decades just so she could light a match – that was her arc? Don’t get me wrong, the frienship/budding romance was sweet, but still.

That said, these are minor quibbles.  Overall this is a really fun and entertaining movie with a great cast – the old and new cohorts having blended together nicely.  It’s funnier than Afterlife and has a more involved storyline than Ghostbusters 2.  And perhaps the main takeaway from this movie is that it is and is meant to be fun – it’s fantasy about catching ghosts, something your more serious critics and fans sometimes forget.  Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire walks the tightrope of treating the existing lore with respect and delving into new territory and walks it well.   If you are a spectre-head who doesn’t mind a chuckle then it is highly recommended you get to your nearest theatre, as watching all the busting will make you feel good!

Toy Review – Ectotron

 

Toy Review – Ectotron

Transformers may be an intergenerationaly beloved franchise that began in 1984, but there is another that began that same year that is just as beloved and famous, and that is Ghostbusters.

Transformers rock! Ghostbusters rock! One involves giant shape-changing alien robots, the other using proton streams and containment systems to catch ghosts. Plus both have cool vehicles and catchy theme tunes!

It’s the cool vehicles (or at least one of them) we will be looking at today. Ecto-1, the Ghostbusters vehicle and a true icon of pop culture. But here Ecto-1 has been given the Transformers Crossover treatment, so for the 35th anniversary of both franchises we get Ectotron.

 

The Packaging

Oh it’s just sooo beautiful! Pure 80’s Transformers G1, right down to the transformation steps at the top. And subtly altered with the odd bit of slime and Ghostbusters symbols to show the dual heritage of this toy.

 

Vehicle Mode

Be still my beating heart! Ecto-1 looks superb here! So much detail! From the grill to the doors to all the various equipment on top, this is an incredibly faithful rendition of the original vehicle. The only downside is that there is no interior detail, but given this is also a Transformer I find this completely forgivable – all those robot pieces have to go somewhere after all.

 

Robot Mode

Who ya gonna call?

Very cool! The colour scheme is mostly white due to the vehicle form, but incorporates some brown as a shout out to the uniforms the Ghostbusters wear. The figure has great articulation which allows you to put him in all sorts of bustin’ poses. Instead of the usual robot optics, he has spectro-goggles such as Ghostbuster Ray Stanz wears. And speaking of equipment the Ghostbusters wear…

 

The Proton Pack

The roof equipment from the vehicle form transforms into a detachable Proton Pack for the Ectotron robot mode. This is very clever! Not only can he take the pack on and off, but he can also either holster the gun on his back, or can hold it in order to do some bustin’ of his own. Very, very well done – Slimer better watch out!

Back-Bling

 

Worth Getting?

This wasn’t a very hard review to write as I am absolutely in love with this figure! Could it have been better? Perhaps. Inner detail for the vehicle, maybe some more paint apps on the robot mode and some eye and mouth colour on Slimer so he is not just a green blob (though really, the character literally is a green blob). But given this figure is not that cheap as is, it would have resulted in a far higher price tag in order to accommodate all that, and I think he is fine as is.

Personally, whenever not playing with it I’ll be keeping Ectotron in the beautiful packaging as a display piece. Ectotron is currently available at multiple places online or here in Australia at Zing & EB Games stores for around $80. If you are a fan of both the Ghostbusters and Transformers franchises (and let’s face it – who isn’t), then I heartily recommend picking up what, in my opinion, is the best TF crossover toy we’ve ever had!

Got something to say about this figure?  Pop it in the comments section below!

 

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