Franchises: Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters II (1989)

While I didn't see a single frame of the first Ghostbusters until I was in my late teens, I have a tiny bit of connection to this film, as I remember catching the climactic battle with Vigo one Saturday afternoon when I was in elementary school, as my parents were watching it on cable. But that was it until I got on YouTube in the mid-to-late 2000's, where I saw and heard clips and lines from it, along with the first one, as well as became aware of the general consensus on it. I learned that, as with most sequels to popular movies, it was deemed as a disappointment by the public, critics, and even many people associated with it, despite its being a hit when released. From the clips and scenes I'd seen online, it looked like it had some cool concepts, particularly the river of red slime and the many allusions, intentional or not, to The Blob, but I heard the story and characters didn't gel as well this time. I finally got the chance to find out for myself when I bought a Blu-Ray two-pack of both movies in 2017 and, upon watching Ghostbusters II, I thought it was pretty good. I guess since this one isn't as universally praised as the first, it wasn't so over-hyped to me and thus, I was able to really experience it as a first-time viewer, rather than feeling like I'd already seen it numerous times before I actually did. I will agree with various criticisms that state how certain parts of the story don't jive, the plot structure is almost identical to that of the first one, and the ghosts aren't nearly as memorable, as well as that, like Gozer, I don't find Vigo to be that impactful of a villain, and the novelty has certainly worn thin by this point. But, on the whole, this is infinitely better than numerous other sequels I could mention. I think the actors still do a great job in their respective roles and continue to play off each other wonderfully, I really like the development and arcs of certain characters, Ivan Reitman's direction is still on point for the most part, and there are, again, plenty of great special effects on display.

In the five years since they defeated Gozer, the Ghostbusters have fallen on hard times due to the property damage caused during the battle and their having been barred from researching the paranormal by a judicial restraining order. The guys have gone their separate ways, with Ray Stantz running an occult bookstore, as well as working as children entertainers with Winston Zeddemore, only they're anything but popular. Egon Spengler works as a scientist researching the physical and environmental effects of human emotions, while Peter Venkman hosts a talk show centered around the subject of psychics. But, the gang is brought back together when Dana Barrett, whom Venkman eventually broke up with, comes to Egon and Ray to find out why the stroller housing her baby from a failed marriage rolled into a busy intersection by itself. Getting a strong PKE reading at the intersection, Venkman, Ray, and Egon excavate the site, and when they lower Ray down to investigate, he finds a river of glowing slime flowing through an abandoned transit system. Though he obtains a sample, he also accidentally causes a massive blackout across the city, which they're arrested and taken to court for. During their trial, the very angry Judge Wexler unintentionally gets a reaction from the sample of slime that's present as evidence, leading to the appearance of the ghosts of two men he had executed. In exchange for all charges, including the barring of their supernatural investigations, being dropped, the Ghostbusters get to work and capture the ghosts. With that, they're back in business, and not a moment too soon. At the Manhattan Museum of Art, one of the newest exhibits is a large painting of Vigo the Carpathian, a tyrannical 16th century European magician whose evil spirit resides within it. Vigo enslaves Janosz Poha, Dana's superior in her job of cleaning artwork, and orders him to bring him a child to possess and live through in order to eventually rule the world. Janosz, who's infatuated with Dana, decides on her infant son, Oscar. Moreover, all of the negative emotions from the citizens of New York have manifested themselves in the form of the river of slime, which is also powering Vigo, who intends to come forth and begin his reign of terror on New Year's Eve.

While the first movie had something of a bumpy road to getting made, with the major hurdle being the tragic death of intended original star John Belushi, Ghostbusters II ran into numerous roadblocks during the five years between it and its predecessor. One of them is said to have been David Puttnam, a British film producer who became head of Columbia in 1986 and who, during his short tenure of just fifteen months, alienated a lot of people, including Billy Murray and Dan Aykroyd. He made this very telling statement about the movie industry as a whole: "The medium is too powerful and too important an influence on the way we live, the way we see ourselves, to be left solely to the tyranny of the box-office or reduced to the sum of the lowest common denominator of public taste," and, among other bone-headed ideas, said he thought E.T. should have actually died. Depending on who you talk to, Puttnam either had no interest in big blockbusters and thus, Ghostbusters II wasn't a high priority for his tenure, or he was intent on making it but was planning to replace of all of the principal cast with lower-tier and even unknown actors in order to save money (the latter of which he flatly denied). Whatever the case, once he left Columbia in September of 1987, development on Ghostbusters II began in earnest, with shooting starting the following year.

Rather than blame Puttnam, Ivan Reitman has said the reason why it took so long to do the sequel was because many of the cast and crew, especially Bill Murray, were reluctant. There's likely some truth to this, given how, after Ghostbusters, Murray went into a self-imposed exile for four years, with the only exception being his cameo appearance in 1986's Little Shop of Horrors. When he finally did return, it was for Scrooged, and it took months of negotiations and a private lunch with him, the other cast members, and Reitman to get him to agree to do it, and even then, he had some stipulations that had to be met. There was also apparently some disputes that had come up between the other actors and crew-members, and that lunch was a way of clearing the air between everybody to make sure they could work together again.

As for Reitman himself, after Ghostbusters he directed Legal Eagles, a drama with Robert Redford and Darryl Hannah that didn't do much when it was released in 1986. However, he bounced back with the smash hit comedy Twins in 1988, and almost immediately after he finished that, he began work on Ghostbusters II. Ironically, despite its years of development, the production was quite rushed, with a shooting schedule shorter than the first one, and ultimately, Reitman would say making it wasn't as fun the second time around. He would also be one of those who viewed the final movie as a disappointment, saying that the novelty had worn off, and in a 2014 Vanity Fair article, would further add, "We just sort of got off on the wrong foot story-wise on that film." And while the movie was very much a hit, he felt the reason why it didn't do as well as the first was because it was more light-hearted and also because it was released around the same time as the juggernaut that was Batman. At the time, Reitman even said he was taking a break from making comedies, although his follow-up would be Kindergarten Cop, another Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy (albeit one with a much harder edge than Twins), and he would go on making comedies until he pretty much stopped directing in the 2010's and switched to producing. Despite saying at the time that he had no interest in a third Ghostbusters movie, as time passed and they attempted to get a third off the ground, Reitman did come around to the idea of directing it. But, of course, that never happened.

Even though it took an arm and a leg to get him to commit to the movie, and regardless of his misgivings about the final product, I think Bill Murray handles himself really well in his second turn as Peter Venkman. When we first see him as the host of his own talk show about psychics, he's still the same cynical, wise-cracking smartass he was previously, riffing on his two guests who proclaim to know when the end of the world is coming and saying that his next show will be on hairless pets because... they're weird. He's also still somewhat friendly with the other guys, dropping by Ray's occult bookstore so the two of them can have lunch together, and when he learns he and Egon are working on something for Dana Barrett, Venkman is intent on getting involved, mainly so he can see Dana again. Even though he makes jokes about how their relationship soured and that her ex-husband dumped her, it's obvious Venkman still cares for Dana and proves to be very good with her infant son, Oscar. It also doesn't take any prodding to get him to assist Ray and Egon in investigating the large PKE reading at the spot Oscar's baby carriage seemed drawn to. Significantly, before he rejoins with the guys, Venkman attempts to speak with the mayor about the raw deal they were given after saving the city from Gozer, only to be stymied by his assistant, Jack Hardemeyer. And when they end up on trial for going against their being barred from investigating the paranormal and causing a massive blackout in the process, he defends their actions by saying, "Sometimes, shit happens. Someone has to deal with it, and who are you gonna call?" He's then proven right when the red slime sample on the evidence table boils over and resurrects two brothers whom Judge Wexler sentenced to death, leading to the Ghostbusters capturing them and getting back in action.

Once they're back in business, Venkman really proves what a great guy he truly is when Dana and Oscar come to his apartment one night after the red slime comes up through their bathtub and attacks them. He allows them to stay there until things blow over, goes as far as to give Oscar a makeshift diaper out of a jersey that supposedly once belonged to Joe Namath, and, though he makes jokes about her spooning with him in bed, he allows her to have his bed while he sleeps on the

couch. He also takes Dana out to dinner to get her mind off things, while the other guys do the dirty work and investigate the river of slime. There, the two of them start to rekindle their romance, with Dana telling Venkman that he's a better guy than he gives himself credit for. Also, throughout the investigation, Venkman continues to be funny and wise-cracking, like his response to Ray and Egon describing how they're experimenting to get a positive reaction out of their sample of the slime, his getting a response by saying, "Oh, baby," to it

in a seductive manner, and the way he acts like a fashion photographer when taking pictures of the portrait of Vigo. Most importantly, during the climax when Vigo is threatening to be reborn through Oscar and Dana is captured by Janosz Poha, Venkman steps up to the plate in saving them. The only downside there is that he doesn't get a really heroic moment in kicking Vigo's ass or saving Dana and Oscar from the brink of death, but he still proves himself, regardless.

In his second outing as Ray Stantz, Dan Aykroyd plays him as pretty much the same enthusiastic and excited paranormal investigator from before, although at the beginning, he's taken a major hit with the dissolution of the Ghostbusters and how he and Winston make extra money by working as unpopular children entertainers. Still, he looks back on the battle with Gozer as a wild ride, even if it did lead to them getting sued into oblivion. Of course, when Egon tells him of Dana's situation, Ray happily helps out in researching what's going on, assisting Egon in examining Oscar, his environment, toys, and stroller, as well as investigating the spot the stroller seemed drawn to. Significantly, after they drill through the pavement, Ray is the one who's lowered down and discovers the river of slime, which he takes a sample of. Once the Ghostbusters get back in business, Ray and Egon continue working together by investigating the slime and its connection to the portrait of Vigo at the museum, and through it all, they continue to prove what close friends they are with their banter. That said, the only really major thing that happens with Ray during the latter half is that, while examining the portrait, he temporarily falls under its spell, though Winston snaps him out of it pretty quickly. Also, during the climactic battle with Vigo, he gets possessed by him, though the Ghostbusters manage to defeat him and save Ray quit easily. That was part of an initial subplot where Ray showed more signs of his possession beforehand but it was dropped during the reshoots and editing. Other than that, there's little to say about Ray besides his being the same positive, likable guy he was originally, especially when he gets coated in the positively-charged slime they cooked up.

Once again, Harold Ramis is dead-on perfect as Egon Spengler, and watching him here makes me sad that we'll never see this character in flesh-and-blood again. At the beginning, he's researching to see if negative emotions can have a physical effect on the environment, foreshadowing the river of slime that's formed below the city due to the negativity from New York as a whole, and is the one Dana comes to after the incident with Oscar's stroller. He and Ray, whom he still keeps in touch with, decide to work on it together, first by examining Oscar and everything to do with him, then investigating the spot the stroller rolled to. This leads both to their discovery of the slime and their being brought to court after causing a massive power outage, which eventually results in the Ghostbusters getting back to business. In the midst of their returning to catching ghosts, Egon and Ray continue studying the slime, discovering how it reacts to negative human emotions and seeing if they can get a strong positive reaction from it as well, which eventually proves to be the key to saving the day. Like before, not only is he the brains out of the outfit, he also just has an eccentric, cool vibe to him that I love. He gets many more memorable lines and funny moments here, like when he, Venkman, and Ray are dressed as construction workers and he awkwardly says, "Yo!", to the suspicious cops; when the three of them power up their proton packs for the first time in years and, while Venkman and Ray respectively sing, "Do!", "Re!", Egon sings his name rather than mi; and how his insults to the red slime are, "You're nothing but an unstable, short-chained molecule!", and, "You have a weak electro-chemical bond!" Also, he admits that, when he was a kid, his parents "didn't believe in toys," adding, "We had part of a Slinky. But I straightened it." Yeah, Egon rules.

Sadly, after becoming a late addition to the team in the first movie and not having that much significant to do, Ernie Hudson gets shortchanged again in his return as Winston Zeddemore. Aside from his working with Ray as very unsuccessful and unpopular children's entertainers, you don't get much of a sense of how his life has been in the years since the first movie, and after the opening, you don't see him again until they're in court for causing the power outage. Since Winston is not a scientist like the others, it makes sense that he wouldn't be present when they're researching the slime, but when they're investigating the paranormal phenomena detected under the road, they could have at least had him help with the excavation. Really, he doesn't get into the story until he, Egon, and Ray head underground to find the river, which they fall into and then find themselves being affected by its negative emotional effects. And like before, when they try to explain the building threat to the mayor, Winston is the one who brings a sort of blue-collar perspective to their claims in order to better make him understand. Still, he's little more than just the fourth member of the group and the token black guy, and doesn't get any notable lines or moments, save for when Vigo blasts and paralyzes them and he says, "That was really stupid." It's kind of akin to how, as The Real Ghostbusters cartoon went on, Winston become more and more marginalized until basically his only function was driving the Ecto-1.

Like in the first movie, Sigourney Weaver's Dana Barrett gets caught up in the growing supernatural threat, this time through her infant son, Oscar. Having broken up with Venkman and had a kid with her now ex-husband, Dana is on her own, caring for her baby while taking a job as an artwork cleaner at the Manhattan Museum of Art, having had to put her career as a cellist on hold. When she's not dealing with the unwanted advances of her boss, Janosz Poha, Dana is trying to find out why Oscar's stroller suddenly took off by itself and stopped at an intersection. She gets Ray and Egon to investigate, but then has to deal with Venkman, who tags along. Though their initial interaction at her apartment isn't the greatest, as the movie goes on and Venkman proves to be good with Oscar and allows them to stay at his place after the red slime comes up through their bathtub, Dana clearly starts to have feelings for him again. When he treats her to dinner one night, Dana tells him that, despite his flaws, he's a much better person than he gives himself credit for. In the end, when Janosz kidnaps Oscar and takes him to the museum, Dana rushes there, only to be taken prisoner and trapped when the museum is encased in a hardened shell of slime. She does manage to trick Janosz into letting her out of the compartment she's stuck in and she tries to intervene when Vigo starts to possess Oscar, but Janosz stops her. However, when the Ghostbusters show up on the Statue of Liberty, she manages to rip Oscar away from Vigo and take cover. During the battle with Vigo, Dana is restrained by a cable that comes to life, forcing Venkman to try to save Oscar, though it's ultimately through the good vibes now emanating from the people of New York that lead to Vigo's defeat, ensure Oscar's safety, and possibly set the stage for Dana, Venkman, and Oscar becoming a family.

One original cast member who does get more screentime and a bit of an expanded role is Rick Moranis as Louis Tully. He's first seen when the Ghostbusters make the questionable decision to have him be their attorney, an opinion he himself holds as he reveals that, while he does have a law degree, he got it at night school. He does a pretty pathetic job at defending them, making the mistake of mentioning how they helped him when he got possessed and turned into a demon dog, and when Venkman is on the stand, he does most of the talking for the sheepish Louis, which the prosecutor objects to. After that, Venkman suggests he stop with the questioning, as he can see how bad it's going. But,when the red slime resurrects the ghosts of the executed Scoleri Brothers, Louis and the Ghostbusters take the opportunity to stick it to Judge Wexler, saying they can't do anything without violating the judicial restraining order prohibiting them from dealing with the paranormal, prompting the frustrated and terrified judge to rescind it. Once the Ghostbusters are back in business, Louis remains in their employ as their accountant, as well as helping them create a new commercial. At one point, he comes across Slimer eating his lunch at the headquarters, the sight of which sends him running, and this comes back around in the climax where, while trying to get to the museum to help the Ghostbusters, he decides to take the bus, only to find that Slimer is driving it. Regardless, he decides to go with him, saying, "Okay, but I didn't know you had your license." He also gets a little lucky, as he and Janine babysit for Dana while she and Venkman are out on a date and he realizes that Janine is very much reciprocating his interest in her. In fact, when Dana returns home, she finds that the two of them were apparently getting busy on the couch. And as I alluded to, after Oscar is abducted and the battle with Vigo approaches, Louis decides to become a Ghostbuster himself, borrowing a spare suit and proton pack and rushing to the site. While he doesn't contribute much to the battle, it is nice seeing him wield and fire a proton beam at the shell around the museum, which he also thinks he destroys himself, though it's just a coincidence that he happens to fire it right when the Ghostbusters vanquish Vigo.

When you first see Annie Potts back as Janine, you may be taken aback at the sight of her bright orange hair and big, round coke-bottle glasses. The reason she looks that way is to make her more akin to how her character looked in The Real Ghostbusters at this point, but some things don't translate that well from animation to live action. Regardless, like before, Janine's role is little more than being the snarky, indifferent receptionist. However, she seems to have given up on Egon and now has an interest in Louis (who I think is more of an appropriate match for her). She invites him to help her babysit Oscar and, when they get some time alone and she gets Louis to sit next to her on the couch, she makes her interests very clear: "I think motherhood is a very natural instinct. I'd like a trial myself. Would you?" She then puts her leg around his and reaches around and fiddles with his right ear. When Dana returns home, she finds them on the couch and they jump up, looking rather disheveled, only to get back to business when Dana is out of the room. And when Louis decides to become a Ghostbuster himself, Janine is very supportive of him, telling him how good he looks in the uniform and receiving a heroic kiss from him before he heads off to join the battle.

Although Walter Peck doesn't return, we do have not one but two human antagonists in his stead. One is Dana's superior at the Manhattan Museum of Art, Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), who becomes Vigo's willing slave. When Vigo demands he bring him a child through which he can live again, Janosz decides on Oscar, given his infatuation with Dana. Initially, though he pledges to serve Vigo, he seems unsure about sacrificing a child, but then, Vigo blasts him in a manner that both gives him supernatural powers and rids him of any scruples. He first attempts to abduct Oscar when the Ghostbusters accidentally cause a citywide blackout but Dana stops him from entering her apartment. He also becomes standoffish towards the Ghostbusters when they show up at the museum, using their equipment to see if there are any paranormal hotspots, and he really doesn't like it when they, especially Venkman, mess around with or flat-out insult the portrait of Vigo. During the third act, he asks Vigo if he could keep Dana for himself when he brings Oscar to him, which Vigo allows, saying Dana will be wife to Janosz and mother to him. Janosz then takes the form of a nanny-like apparition who pedals through the sky with a stroller and abducts Oscar. When Dana comes to the museum to fetch him, Janosz tells her what's going to happen, after which Vigo imprisons her while preparing to be reborn through Oscar. Janosz tries to convince Dana that being the mother to a god has a lot of perks, has her watch as the hour draws near, and stops her from interfering when Vigo begins to possess Oscar. Through all of this, Janosz remains surprisingly peppy and smiley, even when he deals directly with Vigo (he can even be heard saying, "I've heard this before," when Vigo is making the same statements all over again), and he apparently thinks he can succeed in convincing Dana that this is a good thing they've got going here. But, when the Ghostbusters arrive, they blast him with their positively-charged slime that makes him overly happy and lovey when he regains consciousness.

Jack Hardemeyer (Kurt Fuller), the mayor's personal assistant, is much more line as this movie's version of Walter Peck. He's another bureaucrat who's firmly against the Ghostbusters, particularly Venkman, flat-out telling him to stay away from the mayor when he tries to speak with him about how badly they were treated after they saved the city. Since the mayor is going to be running for governor soon, Hardemeyer is intent on keeping him from being associated with a group he considers to be a bunch of frauds and tries to have them sent to prison over the blackout. Naturally, he's none too happy when they, instead, get back in business. Like Peck, when the Ghostbusters meet with the mayor to warn him about the river of slime, Hardemeyer doesn't believe a single word they say and often interjects with statements deriding them. To keep them from going to the press about it, he has them committed, which proves to be a big mistake when, on New Year's Eve, the slime reaches the city streets and causes ghosts to run rampant. Of course, the mayor realizes he needs the Ghostbusters, and when he learns what Hardemeyer did, he fires him. In the end, Hardemeyer is little more than a poor man's version of Peck, nowhere near as memorably loathsome, and we also don't see him get his comeuppance. Instead, during the ending credits, we see him singing along with the crowd outside the museum, suggesting he had a major change of heart.

Speaking of the mayor, Lenny (David Margulies), he represents one of the big problems with the movie's story, which is how nobody seems to remember how the Ghostbusters saved the city from certain doom, regardless of the property damage they caused. Moreover, while he didn't have much of an opinion of them when he first met them during the first movie's third act, he now seems to despise them, likely due to Hardemeyer's influence, as well as that three of them are in their long-johns when he meets with them. Still, the sheer hostility he has toward them doesn't make much sense, nor does how he doesn't believe them at all when they warn him about the danger that's brewing right below the city. Does he not remember how they rightfully predicted that a big calamity was coming originally, or the uptick in paranormal activity that preceded it? Apparently so, because he dismisses their claims, only for all hell to break loose the next day when the slime reaches the surface. He then realizes he needs to send in the Ghostbusters and has them removed from the psychiatric hospital, as well as fires Hardemeyer for putting them in there to begin with.

One last notable character is Judge Stephen Wexler (Harris Yulin), the very hot-headed judge whose boiling anger during the Ghostbusters' trial (when he pounds the gavel, he doesn't yell, "Order!", he yells, "Shut up!") causes the slime to resurrect two criminals he had executed and who has to rescind the judicial restraining order to allow the boys to do their thing. Also, Bill Murray's actor brother, Brian Doyle-Murray, appears as the psychiatrist who speaks with the Ghostbusters after they're

committed; Jason Reitman, Ivan Reitman's son, who went on to be a director in his own right, including on Ghostbusters: Afterlife, plays a bratty kid at the opening birthday party who tells Winston and Ray that his dad says they're "full of crap"; Reitman's daughter, Catherine, is a girl who's part of Egon's experiments in the opening; Judy Ovitz, the wife of Michael Ovitz, a talent agent who represented many of the stars, appears as a woman who Ray accidentally slimes; Cheech Marin plays a dock supervisor who sees the ghostly vision of

the Titanic arriving and comments, "Well, better late than never,"; Bobby Brown, who helped with the soundtrack, pops up as a doorman at Gracie Mansion; and Ben Stein can be seen in the meeting where the mayor realizes he needs the Ghostbusters. Eugene Levy originally had a role as Sherman Tully, Louis' cousin, but all of his scenes were cut in post.

In writing the screenplay for Ghostbusters II, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis decided to acknowledge that there had been a five year gap between films, which is not a bad idea in and of itself. In fact, I think it was a plausible direction to go in, to see what would happen if, after they defeated Gozer, the paranormal activity that had been plaguing New York suddenly ceased and there was no more need for them, resulting in them eventually going out of business and having to maybe go their separate ways. I also don't mind the

idea of them getting called out and sued for the damage they caused in the final battle, although I think they could have made the case that it was unavoidable. What doesn't work for me, though, is this utter contempt for them that permeates the movie, with them being seen as jokes and hasbeens and some still insisting they're frauds, to the point where young kids mock them. Like I said, even the mayor, who was so desperate for help against the onslaught of ghosts plaguing New York that he called them in, now pretty much hates them and is

dismissive of their claims about the river of slime beneath the city, even though he, of all people, should be more open to listening to them. In fact, I wonder if everybody in New York has awful short-term memory, given how no one seems to remember all the ghosts plaguing the city that the Ghostbusters caught or when the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man came stomping down the street and stepped on a church. Did Walter Peck go on some campaign discrediting them that everybody

actually bought into? And, once again, you're going to totally turn against them and bar them from investigating the supernatural altogether over some property damage they caused while trying to save the city, and the world, from total destruction? If I were one of the Ghostbusters, I'd be unwilling to help save all these ingrates from the river of slime and Vigo, as I'd wonder if everyone would turn on me again after the crisis is over.

Another problem with the story is how quickly and easily the Ghostbusters are officially back in business. The beginning makes a point of showing how the team has disbanded and the guys have gone their separate ways and into different professions, despite mostly keeping in touch (which I think should have been altered to where Venkman has no or, at least, very little contact with the others to make it more impactful). But almost immediately, Egon and Ray begin investigating what happened with Oscar, Venkman joins in

because he wants an excuse to be near Dana, they accidentally cause a blackout while investigating the PKE hotspot beneath the intersection, and they're defending themselves in court. Then, within just over half an hour into the movie, they go back to catching ghosts and there's another montage of them having great success in doing so. While there are still people like Jack Hardemeyer and the mayor who aren't 100% on their side, the plotpoint of their being unpopular and out of business is resolved without much time or effort, making me wonder why they even bothered.

Actually, I think I know why they bothered with it: it helped them recreate the story structure of the first movie. Indeed, like a lot of sequels, Ghostbusters II hits many of the same beats as its predecessor. The guys start out as down on their luck, with no one taking them seriously, until a successful, high-profile ghost capture effectively launches or, in this case, relaunches their business, and we then get a montage of their success set to a song, this time the new version of Ray Parker Jr.'s theme performed by Run-DMC. The main villain and his

scheme is tied to Dana in some manner. The Ghostbusters have a meeting with the mayor to warn him of the impending disaster, and also present at said meeting is someone deriding them as charlatans. The Ghostbusters' being institutionalized is akin to their being arrested before. A city-wide outbreak of paranormal activity convinces the mayor that he needs them to take care of things, leading to the climactic battle in one specific area, after which they leave while being hailed as heroes. Not to completely dump on Aykroyd and Ramis for their writing, as I do still like this movie, but I wish they could have done something to keep it from feeling a little stale.

A noteworthy theme of the script is this notion of the consequences of negative human emotions, the idea that they can have real physical effects on the environment, and the importance of positivity, as seen when the Ghostbusters' rally the New Yorkers to get behind the symbol of goodness that is the Statue of Liberty, which they animate through the positively-charged slime. Speaking of which, the slime itself is meant to be a metaphor for urban decay and how violent and dangerous big cities like New York are, with Aykroyd commenting at

the time, "Life has become cheap. You can go to see a movie and get machine-gunned on the street." You see hints of it at the very beginning, with various people on the street arguing with each other and Egon's research being focused on it, and then, when it's revealed what the slime really is and that it's actually powering the evil Vigo, it hits home how utterly miserable and hateful people have become on the surface. I'm sure the movie being set around Christmas and New Year's, times of the year when positivity is not only expected but, in many ways, enforced, isn't a coincidence either.

Like with his initial screenplay for the first film, Aykroyd's original concept for the sequel was very far out there, revolving around Dana being kidnapped, fairy rings in Scotland, an underground civilization, and the Ghostbusters having to traverse through a 2,000 mile underground pneumatic tube in order to reach her. His intention was to try to make it as different from the first as possible by moving the setting from New York and contrasting the climactic battle taking place atop a skyscraper by going underground but, like before,

Ramis had to help him pare it down to something more manageable. Like with the first, a number of locations in New York were used, with Columbia University and the exteriors of the Hook & Ladder Company #8 making return appearances, the latter now sporting the redesigned logo with the ghost holding up two fingers. They also shot at Washington Square Park for a moment where a dinosaur-like ghost appears, First and Second Avenue, Liberty Island, and the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, which served as the

exterior for the fictitious Manhattan Museum of Art. And like the first movie, additional filming was done in California, with the interiors of Fire Station No. 23 again being the inside of the Ghostbusters' HQ, Beverly Hills' Greystone Mansion standing in for Gracie Mansion, the mayor of New York's official residence, and a couple of other scenes, such as Venkman, Egon, and Ray drilling through the street, being done in downtown Los Angeles.

Like before, most of the sets and locations are average everyday places, like the streets of New York, the well-to-do house where the opening birthday party takes place, Dana's new apartment, the big courthouse where the Ghostbusters are put on trial, and the fancy restaurant where Dana and Venkman go out to dinner. A notable new setting is Venkman's apartment, which is this big loft that, when you first see it, looks exactly how you'd expected his home to be: messy and unkempt, with clothes and empty beer bottles everywhere. As

Janine comments, it desperately needs a woman's touch and gets it thanks to Dana. However, production designer Bo Welch, who replaced the original's John DeCuir, was able to build more extravagant sets than his predecessor. When Dana first visits Egon to tell him about what happened with Oscar's stroller, you see his laboratory at Columbia University, which houses things like a model of a human skull and brain, anatomical drawings of the brain on the wall, various recording machines and computers, and a room

with a two-way mirror where he conducts his experiments on the physical effects of negative human emotions. When the Ghostbusters get back in action, you don't see as much of their headquarters as you do before, but you do see some new rooms there, like the lab where Egon and Ray perform their experiments on the red slime and a darkroom where they analyze photographs they took of the painting of Vigo. The set where Venkman hosts his talk-show is small but

memorably kooky and colorful, with a light purple, carpeted floor, red chairs, and a white backdrop with various colored balls here and there. The psychiatric hospital the Ghostbusters are temporarily committed to is also a bit fanciful and bigger than life with its large, long, white-colored hallways and the dimly lit room where their psychiatrist talks to them. But the two most notable sets involve the movie's main threats: the river of slime and Vigo. While searching for the former, Ray, Egon, and Winston have to navigate a pitch

black, abandoned subway transit, which was filmed at the now defunct Tunnel nightclub in New York and makes for a pretty eerie scene, as they walk through the seemingly endless darkness, only to hear creepy sounds around them and see frightening visions. And finally, there's the interior of the museum, specifically the restoration area housing Vigo's painting, which is this big room with extravagant floor patterns, stone pillars, huge windows, and a skylight. Late in the movie, Janosz lines the circles on the floor with candles, making it all the more striking, and after Oscar has been abducted, he's placed on a stone pedestal in front of the painting, while Dana is imprisoned in a compartment off to the side.

All of the equipment made famous in the first movie, the proton packs, the ghost traps, the PKE meters, and the Ecto-1, make a return here, albeit slightly redesigned. The proton packs and their wands look a little sleeker and more refined, and were mainly reconfigured to be less heavy and cumbersome than they were before. The proton beams themselves function a bit differently, as they now lasso and hook ghosts rather than simply sequester them. The Ecto-1's general shape and design is the same, but it has more equipment on

its roof, digital announcement boards on either side proclaiming GHOSTBUSTER FOR HIRE... and such, the updated logo, which is now also on the hood, and black and yellow strips along its sides (this version is officially called the Ecto-1A). The Ghostbusters' uniforms have more variety to them as well, as they sometimes dress in these dark blue versions in addition to the classic gray ones. New equipment includes a "giga-meter," a special scooper they use in order to get samples of the red slime, and a slime blower, which are these big tanks they used to blast the Statue of Liberty and Janosz with positively-charged slime.

While the first Ghostbusters was geared more towards older audiences but could still be enjoyed by kids, the sequel was made to be more kid-friendly and lighter in tone overall, due to the popularity of The Real Ghostbusters. Ergo, you have less profanity (not that the first movie was that vulgar to begin with), no smoking (Ray puts a cigarette in his mouth but he never lights it), and less sexual humor, save for when Janine comes on to Louis and the two of them have clearly had a wild time when Dana walks in on them. Fortunately,

though, they didn't totally dumb it down with fart jokes or Oscar peeing in someone's face, something I was just waiting for him to do when Venkman fashions a makeshift diaper out of a jersey for him. As for the supernatural side of things, while the river of slime is kind of creepy (if I'd seen this movie shortly after seeing The Blob for the first time, it would have gotten to me), and there's quite a horrifying moment down in the abandoned subway tunnels where Ray, Egon, and Winston are faced

with a vision of decapitated heads on spikes, the film never gets quite as spooky as its predecessor and, therefore, doesn't walk that same sort of line between comedy and horror. The ghosts are much more over-the-top and colorful in their design, with none of them looking even remotely realistic, and even though we're talking about a baby potentially losing his soul and becoming the vessel for the spirit of an ancient, evil dictator, it never has the atmosphere of dread that accompanied the gradual coming of Gozer.

None of the incidental ghosts that appear in the movie are that memorable or iconic. The first ones seen, the Scoleri Brothers, who were a couple of murderous brothers sentenced to death by Judge Wexler, appear as two electrically-charged ghosts who first manifest in electric chairs before breaking free and wreaking havoc in the courtroom. One's thin and lanky, the other's really tubby (their designs seemed to have been based on Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in The Blues Brothers), and they have a gray, transparent

look and glowing eyes, but they do nothing of note other than fly around and blast things while cackling madly, although they do have a motive in that they specifically target the prosecutor and likely plan on going after Wexler next. During the montage, you see a ghostly jogger, the most human-looking ghost in the movie, who the Ghostbusters have run right into a trap, and an apparent invisible thief who's levitating a number of crystal figurines in one store. Since Slimer had become very popular because of the cartoon, he

had to make a reappearance, even getting his own credit at the end of the movie. Here he's just a gag, appearing when Louis finds him eating his lunch at the headquarters and also when driving the bus Louis uses to get the museum to help the Ghostbusters, but they gave him a notable redesign, with a much more expressive and articulated face that was made to resemble his animated counterpart. When the river of slime reaches the city streets, you see a demonic ghost

with multiple eyes and arms, a reptilian body, and a pair of bug-like wings emerge from a theater; a woman whose mink stole comes to life and attacks her before she throws it down and it scampers off (an apparition that was meant for the first movie and who's also likely PETA's favorite part of any of these movies); a ghostly dinosaur-like monster that appears at Washington Square (a stop-motion creature that was animated by Phil Tippett); and a vision of the Titanic with ghostly passengers disembarking.

My favorite concept from the movie is the river of slime the Ghostbusters discover is growing under the city. I like the idea that all of the negativity and misery that's infested New York has taken on a physical form through this goo, that it's been building and building over the years, and is now about to reach the surface. I also like the notion that it reacts to and feeds on negative human emotions, bubbling and overflowing until it combusts, and that anyone who's coated in it becomes really angry and volatile. Of course, it has the power to resurrect

ghosts and apparitions, and the slime itself is shown to be somewhat sentient in that it creates tendrils that grab at people when they get close. Let's also not ignore how the sight of this gooey, red substance rising up through sewer grates and coming through bathtub faucets to get at people makes one think of the Blob, which I don't think was entirely coincidental, especially given that moment where you see people fleeing from a theater the slime has oozed into and when it

engulfs the art museum in a manor not dissimilar to how the Blob covered the diner in the original movie (since this was just a year after the 1988 remake, I have a feeling it was probably in the air at the time). You also learn that the slime can be switched around to where it's positively charged, making someone coated in it feel wonderful and very loving towards their fellow man, and also responds to uplifting music with enough energy to animate something as large as the Statue of Liberty.

Much like Gozer, Vigo the Carpathian isn't that impressive of a villain to me. I find him to be most effective when he's just a really creepy painting, as it taps into the eerie feeling you sometimes get with paintings and photographs, where you wonder if the eyes are following you. But when his spirit manifests itself, enslaves Janosz Poha, and commands him to bring him a child that he can be reborn through, it feels like a repeat of Gozer having his minions do most of the dirty work before he makes his appearance near the end. At

least Gozer had the excuse of having not yet made it to our world, and while Vigo appears to be in a similar situation in being stuck in the painting, his suddenly taking on physical form during the climax in order to merge with Oscar negates (I know, the negativity from the red slime has made him powerful enough to do so by this point, but then, it makes me wonder why he needs to be reborn through a child at all now, diminishing the impact of what should be a truly horrifying plan). Also like Gozer, he's built up throughout the movie

as being this huge threat, said to have been both a cruel tyrant and a powerful sorcerer who managed to live to be 105 and only died because he was murdered in every imaginable way you can murder someone, but in the end, he doesn't do much except randomly possess Ray (again, why does he need to be reborn through a child if he can do that?), make parts of the museum come alive to attack his enemies, and give Janosz supernatural powers that include brightly glowing eyes and the ability to

become a ghost in order to abduct Oscar. Finally, Vigo himself, as played by Wilhelm von Homburg, does have a distinctive look and comes off as imposing, but, in the end, doesn't do enough to make him come off as truly frightening. His overdone, booming, thickly-accented voice doesn't do him any favors either, even if his voice is that of the legendary Max von Sydow.

It seems like early test audiences didn't think Vigo was much of a villain either, so in post-production, the filmmakers added new scenes to try to build up his presence, which is where you get the moment where Ray, Egon, and Winston get freaked out by visions of severed heads and a ghost train down in the abandoned tunnel, meant to give the impression that Vigo is trying to keep them from finding the river of slime. They also added a scene where Ray and Egon are studying photographs they took of his painting, discover an image of the river of slime

below Vigo's head in one of them (an attempt to create more of a connection between the two, although their simultaneous appearances still come off as just coincidental), only for an unseen force to lock them in the darkroom and the photos to burst into flame and set the room on fire, nearly killing them in the process. It did add a little bit but not much, and in the end, I feel that the evil Janosz, with both his powers and obsession with Dana, is creepier than Vigo, which makes me wonder why they didn't just have Vigo possess him and do everything he wants directly through him? It would have given him a more active role in the story, that's for sure.

One thing I don't think anyone would disagree with is that, like the first movie, Ghostbusters II has numerous instances of cool special effects work. This time, Industrial Light & Magic, the original choice to work on the first film, are behind the ghosts, though their workload ultimately grew so massive that they had to outsource many effects to other companies, with another company altogether doing those needed for the reshoots. Like before, the best ghosts are the ones done practically, such as the Scoleri Brothers (who were actually two

guys in suits with articulated heads and faces), Slimer, the ghostly jogger in the montage, the mass of red slime with a mouth that attacks Dana and Oscar in their bathroom, the severed heads in the subway tunnel (which are so grisly-looking that I'm surprised the movie was still able to get by with just a PG-rating), the nanny-like ghost Janosz becomes at one point (done through a combination of using Peter MacNicol and a puppet), the ghost that comes out of the theater, the mink stole that comes to life, and the makeup used for when Vigo

possesses Ray. There are also many well-done marriages of practical, miniature, and visual effects. For instance, in the scene with the Scoleri Brothers, their electric chairs are miniatures composited with the actual actors, and they used plenty of animated lightning and sparking effects, as well as the always well-done effects for the proton beams. The wide shots of the river of slime is a nicely-done miniature that's combined with matte paintings of the abandoned station and a

practical set. Also, when Winston falls into the river, they composited Ernie Hudson into the miniature via blue screen and it looks really good, as it does when Ray and Egon jump in after him. The shot of the ghostly Titanic is another impressive miniature, combined with many extras dressed in costume and with details like dripping water and seaweed that you can't see in the final shot because it's too wide. The Statue of Liberty was similarly a combination of a man in costume,

miniatures, and a full-size crown for the actual actors to sit inside. And there are the shots that are the traditional visual effects combined with real elements, like matte paintings of the city with actual buildings and locations added in, the ghost train, which was actually just a toy, the miniature of the museum encased in a shell of the slime, as well as larger models of it used for close-ups of the slime coming through cracks and seams, a really eerie-looking eclipse in the sky, and the optical effects of Vigo being sucked back into the painting at the end of the final battle among many others.

Finally, the filmmakers took the very simple physical effects used in the original's opening in the library and cranked it up a notch with several even more impressive effects. These include the stroller that takes off by itself at the beginning of the movie, which was achieved through a series of remote-controlled strollers; the slime itself, which was actually Methocel, and its bubbling and overflowing; the chairs in the courtroom getting tossed aside by the invisible Scoleri Brothers (you can see the wires on the chairs in some shots); and the toaster that actually bounces and dances after some slime is put inside it and it reacts positively to Jackie Wilson's Higher and Higher.

I don't think I've ever seen a sequel that announces how long it's been since its predecessor right off the bat, but Ghostbusters II does, as the very first thing you see is a black card that reads, FIVE YEARS LATER. We then see a crack in some pavement as red slime oozes out of it, which Dana unknowingly rolls over while pushing her baby carriage. As she walks down the street, she passes by a number of aggravated New Yorkers, such as a man arguing with a cop over his car being towed

and a running guy slamming into a woman on crutches, with her yelling at him to watch where he's going. When she reaches her apartment building, she finds the superintendent, Greg, arguing with a man about the jobs he needs him to do, after which she has him help bring in her groceries. She talks with him about fixing the radiator in her baby's room, when the stroller slowly rolls away from her. She notices this and moves towards it, only for it to seem to deliberately

move away from her and then take off down the sidewalk. A couple of moving men try to help her stop the carriage, when it swerves off the sidewalk and into the street. Dana screams for those on the road to be careful, and a man almost hits the stroller when it, again, swerves to avoid hitting his car. It then swerves around more cars, avoids a man on a delivery bike, and then gets back on the sidewalk, with Dana barely missing it when she dives for it. It rolls back into the street, right in front of numerous oncoming cars, forcing them to

swerve to avoid hitting it, and it then comes very close to getting hit by a tour bus. It finally stops and Dana rushes out into the street and plucks little Oscar out of it. That's where we should see the title but, instead, we just get an animation of the ghost in the "no" symbol holding up two fingers (the actual title isn't seen until at the very end of the closing credits).

We then see the Ecto-1 driving down the street with its siren blaring, as well as leaving a bunch of smoke behind it, suggesting its exhaust hose isn't working properly. Ray and Winston disembark and head inside of a home. A woman leads them to a room, saying she hopes they can handle whatever is waiting for them inside, saying it's been like a nightmare. We then see it's not a bunch of troublesome ghosts or demons she's talking about but, rather, a bunch of rowdy kids who are having a

birthday party. Said kids are none too thrilled when the Ghostbusters come in, actively booing them, with one kid saying he thought it was going to be He-Man. The two of them desperately try to break the ice by playing the Ray Parker Jr. song on a radio (yea, the song actually exists in the context of this universe now) and getting the kids to sing along, but when they get to the, "Who you gonna call?", lyric, the kids yell, "He-Man!" and start chanting it, totally deflating the whole vibe. After

the party, and while they're loading up their proton packs, Winston tells Ray he's sick of this and that the Ghostbusters are dead. Ray calls the kids "ungrateful little yuppie larva" and comments on what they did for New York, to which Winston says, "Yeah. We conjured up a hundred-foot marshmallow man, blew the top three floors off an uptown high-rise, and ended up getting sued by every city, county, and state agency in New York." Ray, ever the optimist, comments, "Yeah... but what a ride." Meanwhile, Dana visits Egon at

Columbia University and tells him what happened with the baby carriage. We also see one of his experiments on the physical effects of negative emotions: a couple behind a two-way mirror think they're there for marriage counseling, have been waiting for two-and-a-half hours, and Egon has been gradually raising the temperature to where it's now 95 degrees. He then has an assistant come in and ask if they wouldn't mind waiting for another half hour, which causes an angry outburst from the couple, especially the husband. Getting back to the

carriage, Egon decides to bring Ray in on it but, per Dana's request, he promises not to mention it to Venkman. She asks him how Venkman is nowadays and Egon says, "He was borderline for a while... then he crossed the border." He also tells her that he never mentions her, and while her back is turned, he scans her with a small device, trying to see what kind of an effect it would have on her. After she leaves, Egon continues with an experiment on positive emotions involving a little girl and a puppy, suggesting they should see what would happen if they took the puppy away.

We then see what Venkman is up to nowadays, as he hosts a talk show called World of the Psychic. He introduces one of his two guests, Milton Angland, a supposedly psychic author who's written a book called The End of the World. Venkman asks him if he can say when the end will come or if they have to buy the book, and he says it will happen at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, which is only a few weeks away. Venkman jokes about how that cuts it a little close

and won't do much for the sales of his book, which Angland doesn't take kindly to, insisting he has a strong belief that the end will come on New Year's Eve, getting a bit emotional about it. Venkman responds, "Well, for your sake, I hope you're right." He then turns to his other guest, a woman known only as Elaine, who says the end of the world will actually be on Valentine's Day in 2016 (ironic, considering what movie related to this franchise came out that very year; check in tomorrow for that

very misguided experiment, by the way). She elaborates, "I received this information from an alien. As I told my husband, it was in the Paramus Holiday Inn. I was having a drink at the bar, alone, and this alien approached me. He started talking to me. He bought me a drink, and then I think he must have used some kind of a ray or a mind control device, because he forced me to follow him to his room and that's where he told me about the end of the world." When Venkman, who stared right at the

camera during her rambling, questions her about the alien having a room at a Holiday Inn, she says, "It might have been a room on the spacecraft made up to look like a room at the Holiday Inn. I can't be sure about that, Peter." With that, Venkman closes out the show by walking towards the camera, saying, "That is the whole problem with aliens, is you just can't trust 'em. Occasionally, you meet a nice once: Star Man, E.T... But usually, they turn out to be some kind of big lizard! But that's all the time we've got for this week on World of the Psychic." Announcing that his next show will be on hairless pets, holding up a hairless cat for emphasis, and then acting like he's sending the audience a psychic message, he ends the show.

Afterward, Venkman spots the mayor walking through the officers backstage and tries to speak to him, but is stopped by Jack Hardemeyer, who introduces himself as the mayor's assistant, makes it clear he's not a fan, and tells him to stay away from the mayor. As he walks away to rejoin the mayor, Venkman comments, "You know, I'm a voter. Aren't you... supposed to lie to me and kiss my butt?" We then cut to the Manhattan Museum of Art, as the large portrait of Vigo the Carpathian

is wheeled into the main room, while Janosz Poha is introduced as he walks through, criticizing those working around him. His interest in Dana, who's cleaning a piece of artwork, is shown as he compliments her work, then touches her hair from behind, claiming to be removing a piece of lint, while talking about her assisting him in "more important restorations." Telling him that she's planning on returning to the orchestra soon, she turns down an offer to have brunch with him and leaves for an appointment. Janosz walks over to his

desk near the painting of Vigo, and as he talks to himself about how he thinks Dana likes him, Vigo's face becomes three-dimensional and turns to look at him. Cut to Ray's occult bookstore, where he and Egon are doing research on cases akin to what happened with Dana's baby carriage, when Venkman shows up to have lunch with Ray. He says he can't, and when Egon hands him some research, Venkman becomes curious as to what he's working on. Trying to be coy, Ray says, "We're just checking something out for an old friend," but Venkman now wants to know what an old friend it is. Ray is reluctant to give any specifics, and is momentarily spared when his phone rings, but Venkman then grabs his ears and squeezes. Ray screams and says he can't say, then finally breaks and says it's Dana.

At Dana's apartment, she answers a knock at her door and is greeted by Ray and Egon. She then tries to close the door, only for Venkman to come marching in; Ray tells her that he made him talk. While he and Egon get to work, first by giving Oscar a standard evaluation, Venkman and Dana talk about how their relationship fell apart and how Dana's husband left her. When that goes nowhere, Venkman joins the others in what they're doing, only for Egon to ask him to get a stool sample from

Oscar while he and Ray have a look at his room. As they scan the room with a PKE meter, Venkman, left alone with Oscar, starts playing around with him. Dana rejoins him and Venkman playfully calls Oscar ugly, saying, "I mean, he's not Elephant Man ugly, but...", and also says he stinks. When Dana tells him his name is Oscar, he says, "Named after a hotdog! You poor man! You poor, poor man!" Ray and Egon find nothing out of the ordinary with Oscar's room, and after he suggests

running some gynecological tests on Dana, Egon decides to check the street. Dana leads them to the spot where Oscar's stroller stopped and, when Ray and Egon check it with their PKE and giga-meters, they get very high readings. That night, they begin excavating the spot, only for Egon to draw the attention of the police when he's seen drilling by himself. He becomes nervous while being questioned but, fortunately, Venkman and Ray emerge from a nearby coffee-shop and rush to the spot. Venkman acts like Egon's agitated boss, irked

that he stopped drilling, and they're able to get rid of the cop by saying they're being forced to work on a Friday night. They then measure the PKE reading they get from the hole, which appears to go down through an old air-shaft. Egon suggests getting a deeper reading, meaning that someone is going to have go down there... and he and Venkman both slowly turn to and eye Ray.

At the museum, Janosz adds some touches to the portrait of Vigo, when he's suddenly blasted by orange-colored bolts of power and falls off his ladder. Vigo's spirit then manifests through the painting, telling Janosz that he commands him to do his bidding, something he's more than willing to comply with. Vigo declares, "On a mountain of skulls in the Castle of Pain, I sat on a throne of blood. What was will be, what is will be no more. Now is the season of evil... Find me a child that I

might live again." Janosz is eager to serve his new master, but is slightly taken aback when he realizes he just asked for a child. Vigo reacts by blasting him with more power in the face, further enslaving him and giving him supernatural abilities. Back with the Ghostbusters, Ray is lowered down through the large hole in the street, deep down into the air-shaft, when he goes through a ceiling made up of tile-work. He finds himself in a large chamber lit by a red glow, and is shocked when he

sees the river of slime running below him; he also sees that he's in a long-abandoned pneumatic transit station. Telling them to stop lowering him, as he's now only a few feet above the slime, he takes out a wand with a scoop at the end to get a sample. Up on the street, however, Venkman and Egon run into problems. The cop from before returns, this time with a man from Con Ed, and when Venkman claims they're trying to repair some phone lines, the man indicates that they're in the wrong spot. Moreover, as Venkman tries to make it

look as though it's Egon's fault, the cop says they've checked and learned they're not with Con Ed or the phone company. Desperate, Venkman then changes his story, saying they're trying to repair a big gas leak. Meanwhile, Ray gets his sample and asks for the guys to hoist him back up. That's when the slime suddenly reaches for him with tendril-like protrusions and he yells for them to pull him. They do, but as he's very rapidly hoisted back up, he knocks off a section of old, fragile piping that hits a power cable, plunging the street above and much of Manhattan into darkness.

At her apartment, Dana walks into Oscar's room with a candle and finds him awake in his crib. She tells him to go back to sleep, when Janosz knocks on her door, much to her annoyance. She opens the door and finds him standing in the hallway, which is bathed in red emergency lighting. He says he happened to be around when the blackout happened and stopped by to see if she and little Oscar are okay. She says he is, and when Janosz asks if she needs him to come in, she says no,

clearly wanting to get rid of him. After he says good night and she closes the door on him, he walks back down the hall, an eerie, supernatural light emitting from his eyes and illuminating the walls as he looks side-to-side. Some time later, the Ghostbusters are put on trial for the blackout, with Judge Stephen Wexler stating beforehand that he doesn't believe in ghosts and doesn't want to hear anything about them, which doesn't bode well for the guys. Neither does the fact that they're having Louis Tully act as their attorney, as he himself tells

them, "I think you guys are making a big mistake. I do mostly tax law and probate stuff occasionally. I got my law degree at night school." In regards to the last part, Ray tells him, "Well, that's fine, Louis. We got arrested at night," before planting his face on the table. Opposite them, Jack Hardemeyer tells the prosecutor that he wants her to make sure they're put away quickly and for a long time, before turning to Venkman and saying, "Violating a judicial restraining order? Willful destruction of public property? Fraud? malicious mischief? See ya in a couple of years, at your first parole hearing." Venkman just chuckles and says, "They'll never take us alive."

Louis' opening argument is absolutely pathetic: "Your Honor, ladies and gentleman of the audience, I don't think it's fair to call my clients frauds. Okay, the blackout was a big problem for everybody, okay? I was stuck in an elevator for two hours and I had to make the whole time. But I don't blame them. Because one time, I turned into a dog and they helped me. Thank you." As Wexler looks at him with a completely bewildered expression, Tully sits down and Egon comments, "Very good,

Louis. Short, but pointless." The prosecution questions Mr. Fianella, the Con Ed man who busted the guys, having him identify the Ghostbusters' equipment, as well as the sample of slime, which is being used as evidence against them. After Fianella says the stuff is possibly used for catching ghosts, the prosecutor reminds the court of the judicial restraining order the Ghostbusters are under. She then brings the jar of slime to him and as he looks at it, he says he

doesn't recognize it as being anything naturally found underground and accuses the Ghostbusters of planting it below the street. This prompts an outburst from Ray but Wexler pounds the gavel, yelling at him to shut up. Following Louis' pathetic questioning of Venkman about what they were doing, with Venkman leading him in what to say, Louis sits down and the prosecutor begins her questioning. She asks Venkman, "Would you please tell the court why it is you and your co-defendants took it upon yourselves to dig a very

big hole in the middle of 1st Avenue?" Venkman answers, "Well, there are so many holes in 1st Avenue, we really didn't think anyone would notice." Though it gets a laugh from the audience, Wexler is not amused and threatens to find Venkman in contempt of court if he mouths off again. At that moment, the slime on the evidence table bubbles. When she questions him again, Venkman basically says it's their duty to deal with bizarre phenomena, which gets some cheers and applause from the audience. Again, Wexler pounds the gavel and yells for everyone to shut up.

At the end of the trial, an angry Wexler tells the guys that he finds them guilty on all charges and reads off their punishment. As he does, they notice that the red slime is bubbling, and as Wexler gets angrier and angrier, it bubbles all the more violently and builds up until it knocks the lid off the beaker and starts overflowing. The guys try to warn him of this but he yells at them to shut up each time, instead giving them his unflattering personal opinion of them, culminating in his

yelling, "If my hands weren't tied by the alterable fetters of the law, then I would invoke the tradition of our illustrious forbears, reach back to a purer, sterner justice and have you BURNED AT THE STAKE!" Seeing that the shit is about to hit the fan, the guys, including Louis, duck under the table, and after Wexler screams that last part, the slime explodes and the ghosts of the Scoleri Brothers appear. While everyone in the audience runs out the door, Wexler recognizes the ghosts and

jumps over the bench to the floor. At that moment, the Scoleri Brothers break free of their floating electric chairs and fly down behind the judge's chair, causing an explosion. Hiding under the table with the guys, Wexler explains who the ghosts are and asks them for help. The brothers then lift the table up above them and throw it aside. Wexler and the guys try to escape through the door in the back of the courtroom but it's locked on the other side. He, again, asks them to help him, but Ray tells him to talk to Louis, who says, "My guys are still under

a judicial 'mistrangement' order... They could be exposing themselves!"; Venkman adds, "And you don't want us exposing ourselves!" One of the brothers grabs the prosecutor, carries her through the room to the door, and passes through the wall while she flies through the door. Horrified and, as Venkman says, knowing he's probably next, Wexler rescinds the restraining order and dismisses the case against them. Now allowed to take action, they grab and strap on their proton packs and heat up their wands for the first time in a long while.

For a few seconds, the courtroom is eerily quiet, but a small gust of air picks up, followed by the chairs in the audience being knocked aside by an invisible force. Both the brothers pop up in front of the Ghostbusters and they blast them with their proton beams but, as per usual, the beams fly around and cause even more damage to the room. The brothers disappear and Venkman lets out an angry yell. The guys then look at each other and start laughing at themselves, when the large, fat

brother comes out of the wall across from them. Venkman fires at him and initially misses him, but when he tries to flee, he follows and snares him with the beam. Ray tells Egon to get the ghost trap ready, when the other brother comes flying through behind them. Ray fires at him and, while he blows out a chunk of the wall, with Wexler shielding himself from the bits of debris, he manages to snag the brother as well. Venkman pulls the one brother back in and Egon places the ghost trap on the floor. On Ray's cue, he activates the trap and both brothers are contained instantly. The guys then triumphantly say, "Two in the box," "Ready to go!", "We be fast," and, "They be slow!" After that, they emerge victorious from the courtroom, announcing to the press that the Ghostbusters are back.

We then get the montage of the Ghostbusters back in business. Janine is answering calls again like usual, a new logo is placed outside the headquarters, the Ecto-1 takes off on business in the night, and they start catching ghosts again, including the jogger ghost, while also finding more samples of the red slime. Jack Hardemeyer is none too happy when he sees a new commercial for their business on TV (this one featuring Louis and Janine badly acting like a married couple with a

ghost in their house), and after that, the Ghostbusters attempt to help the owner of a jewelry store that has crystal figures floating in midair... unfortunately, what they do causes the figures to drop and shatter. We then see Louis going to eat his lunch at the headquarters, only to find that Slimer got to it first, Ray and Egon collecting more slime, and Dana, as she's giving Oscar his bottle, seeing another commercial, this one for a half-price service plan, as well as some merchandise like a mug and balloons for kids.

At the headquarters, Egon removes a plastic container of the slime and places it on a table. As they sit around it, he and Ray demonstrate how it works to Venkman and Winston. They hurl insults at it and it responds by bubbling violently. Ray almost overdoes it and causes it to overflow, but they manage to ease him back in time. Though Venkman is initially unimpressed, Ray tells him that the substance is psycho-reactive, responding to human emotional states. Venkman says, "Oh,

baby," to it in a seductive manner and it responds to that, while Egon explains that he and Ray have been testing for an equal positive response. When asked what that consists of, Ray sheepishly answers, "Well, we sing to it, and, um, we talk to it, and say supportive, nurturing things to it." Venkman jokingly asks if he's sleeping with it, and though Ray doesn't say anything, he looks at Egon, who, in turn, looks away. Venkman comments, "Oh, you. You hound," as Winston adds, "It's

always the quiet ones." Eager to change the subject, Egon goes to the "kinetic test." He unplugs a toaster, Ray puts some of the slime in one of the slots, and they place it on their pool table. Explaining that the slime also responds to music, Egon turns on a nearby stereo and plays Jackie Wilson's Higher and Higher. Again, Venkman is initially dumbstruck by this, but then, the toaster actually starts dancing, hopping and swaying on the table. It shoots the toast inside it high up in the air and Egon catches it, while the toaster keeps

dancing until he turns the music off. Absolutely overjoyed, Venkman takes the toaster and cuddles it, saying, "Ohh! Oh, baby! Oh, you're my number one Christmas boutique gift item!" Winston jokingly mentions how the toaster could eat someone's hand if they got mad it and Venkman, saying they'd put a warning label on it, acts like it's biting him, only to reveal he was faking. The guys all playfully attack him in response.

Venkman goes to see Dana at the art museum, meeting a security guard who recognizes him from his talk show, saying it was one of his favorite shows along with Bass Masters. Up in the restoration room, Dana finds herself creeped out by the painting of Vigo, feeling like it's watching her. Venkman shows up and, after complimenting Dana on her work, is introduced to Janosz, who merely touches his fingers rather than shake his hand. Venkman notes the painting and Janosz tells him

it's Prince Vigo, describing him as a powerful magician and a genius. Dana also calls him a genocidal maniac and mentions that she's never liked the painting, telling Venkman in private that she feels like it's watching and even smiling at her. Later, at her apartment, she prepares to give Oscar a bath after feeding him. She runs the bathtub behind her while removing his clothes, unaware that the water suddenly stops and is replaced by slime that pours down through the faucet. It builds

up in the tub behind the oblivious Dana and then rises up. Dana doesn't see it until she picks Oscar up and turns around. It opens up a maw and slightly lunges for her as she runs out. She runs to Venkman's apartment, waking him up while he's sleeping on the couch, apparently in a drunken stupor. He lets her in, she tells him what happened, he has her sit down with Oscar, and then calls Ray, who's still experimenting with the slime at their headquarters. After hanging up, Ray tells Egon, and Egon, in turn, shows him the information he

found on Vigo the Carpathian, which not only mentions his being a sorcerer but also that he lived to be 105. Ray asks if he believes there's a connection between Vigo and the slime, to which Egon asks, "Is the atomic weight of cobalt 58.9?" They leave to go over to Dana's apartment, while over at Venkman's, he not only gives Oscar a makeshift diaper but also allows him and Dana to sleep over in his bed. When Dana says she needs to put Oscar down for the night, Venkman even volunteers to do it for her. He points at Oscar and says, "You're short, your bellybutton sticks out too far, and you're a terrible burden on your poor mother!"

Venkman meets up with the other Ghostbusters at the museum the next day. Ray says they only found a little bit of residue from the slime in the bathtub but gives him some info on Vigo, including that he lived to be 105. To that, Ray adds, "He didn't die of old age, either. He was poisoned, stabbed, shot, hung, stretched, disemboweled, drawn, and quartered,"; Venkman responds to that with, "Ouch!" Noting what a horrible tyrant he was, Ray then adds, "There was a prophecy. Just before his

head died, his last words were, 'Death is but a door. Time is but a window. I'll be back.'" They then walk into the restoration area, where Janosz tries to get rid of them but they ignore him, while Egon tells Venkman the room is teeming with otherworldly energy. Venkman goes to take some photographs of the painting of Vigo, which Janosz tries to prevent him from doing, but Winston drags him away. Venkman takes many photos of the portrait, acting like he's a fashion photographer,

while Ray stands up on a ladder next to it and tries to get a reading. When he does, he looks at the eyes and they have an effect on him, as he falls into a trance-like state. Once Venkman has plenty of shots, Egon tells him they need to talk in private. Winston notices how Ray is still standing atop the ladder, slumping over the railing, and snaps him out of it. Venkman returns to his apartment that afternoon, and is shocked to find that Dana cleaned up his place. Meeting up with her when she gets out of the shower, he tells her how Ray and Egon

found a little bit of slime residue at her place, then tells her the two of them are going to go out that night, that he's already gotten a babysitter for Oscar: Janine. Dana is initially unsure but Venkman convinces her, revealing that he got some of her clothes from her apartment. After Janine closes up the headquarters that evening, she invites Louis to help her babysit, telling him to meet up at Venkman's apartment at 8:00. Louis is more than willing, and is so taken with the notion that he forgets he's standing in the middle of a crosswalk and gets some angry drivers honking at him.

That night, Ray and Egon examine the photos of the portrait in the darkroom and determine that there is a presence within them. They then run a wide shot through an analyzer and, when they look at it, Egon notices something. When he puts a magnifying glass to it, Ray recognizes the image, as it's the river of slime he saw below First Avenue. Unbeknownst to them, an unseen forces locks the door on the other side, and suddenly, the photos burst into flames. At first considering putting the

flames out, they then try to escape, only to find the door's locked. They pound on it and yell for Winston, telling him that there's a fire, then rush to the other side of the room as he breaks through the door with a fire extinguisher and promptly puts out the flames. The three of them quickly meet up with Venkman as he waits for Dana outside his apartment, telling him about the river of slime in the photos and that they're going down into the sewers to find the source of it. They try to get him to accompany them but, of course, he's not keen on doing so. When Dana comes down, he tells her what they're planning on doing, asking if she'd rather join them than go to dinner, which she scoffs at, and he leaves with her.

In the next scene, Ray, Egon, and Winston are walking through an abandoned transit in the dark, Egon holding out a PKE meter, while Ray tells Winston there are rats down there the size of beavers. They tease him a little bit about it, then have some fun yelling down into the tunnel and listening to their echoes, but when Winston yells, "Hello!", a rumbling demonic voice replies, saying his name. Now scared, the guys turn around and look back down the tunnel, then back up and turn around to find themselves surrounded by numerous

severed heads on stakes. The sight of this has them screaming in terror, when the ghastly vision disappears as suddenly as it materialized. Deciding they may need their proton packs, they move to go get them, only to stop, as they, again, hear something. Winston says it sounds like a train but Ray reminds him that the area they're in has been abandoned for fifty years. They walk a little further, then hear a sound that confirms it is a train they're hearing. Egon suggests it's in a tunnel above them, but Winston doesn't think so, as the ghostly

vision of an old-fashioned locomotive comes right at them. Ray and Winston jump to either side of the tracks, while Winston stays on them, too scared to move. He passes right through the train when it comes at him as stands there yelling. After it's passed, Egon says the train might have been one that was derailed in 1920, though Winston was, naturally, too preoccupied to see the number on it. Egon figures they must be close since something is clearly trying to stop them, when they realize Ray

is nowhere around. They scan the tunnel, searching for him, when he pops up behind them and loudly yells, telling them he's found an entrance in the wall. They go through it and walk a little further until they find themselves in the chamber containing the river of slime. Egon notes how much negative energy it must have taken to create it, with Winston adding, "New York. What a town!" They decide to see how deep it is and Winston drops a line into the slime. It goes down to

twelve feet, when something starts pulling on it from below, threatening to yank Winston down into it as well. The line, attached to Winston's belt, quickly runs out and Ray and Egon try to unbuckle it, but he gets pulled into the slime and dragged down the tunnel. Knowing they have no choice, Ray and Egon hold their noses and jump into the slime to try to save their friend.

While Venkman and Dana begin to rekindle their romance at a restaurant, and Louis and Janine, after putting Oscar to bed, talk about the latter having a trial for motherhood, the guys emerge onto the street through a manhole, completely covered in the slime. An argument between Ray and Winston nearly turns into a fistfight, when Egon tells them to remove their clothes. They quickly strip to their long johns and realize they were under the influence of the slime. Egon also notes that it's flowing right to the building they're standing in

front of: the art museum. They run to the restaurant and walk in, wearing nothing but their long johns and still covered in the slime. Ignoring the frustrated maitre d', who tries to make them leave, they find Venkman and Dana's table and excitedly rush to them. They tell them about what they've found and how it's flowing to the museum, much to Dana's horror, and Ray gets so excited that he flings his arm, sending a wad of slime right onto a woman sitting behind them. The maitre d' brings several police officers and has them arrest the

slime-covered men, though Ray is totally fine with this, saying they need to speak with the mayor. Venkman and Dana follow after them, the former accompanying the guys when they're taken to Gracie Mansion. Upon arriving, the doorman asks them if they have a spare proton pack he can give his little brother, but Egon tells him, "A proton pack is not a toy." At the same time, Dana returns to Venkman's apartment to find that Janine and Louis have been getting busy, and also learns they

gave Oscar some French-bread pizza. While she checks on Oscar, Louis and Janine discuss whether or not they should leave but Janine says they shouldn't leave her alone, giving Louis the opportunity to get back on the couch with her. At Gracie Manor, the Ghostbusters meet with the mayor, who's not at all happy to see them and gives them two minutes to say their peace. Ray gives the overly technical explanation that, "A psychomagnotheric slime-flow of immense

proportions is building up beneath the city," with Egon giving the less helpful elaboration that, "Negative human emotions are materializing in the form of a viscous, psychoreactive ectoplasm with explosive super-normal potential." Winston then gives it to the mayor in layman's terms, with Venkman adding, "Lenny, have you been out on the street lately? Do you know weird it is out there? We've taken our own headcount: there seems to be 3 million completely miserable assholes living in the Tri-State area!" Ray adds, "If we don't do something fast, this whole place is gonna blow like a frog on a hot plate."

Standing up, the mayor asks, "What am I supposed to do? Go on television and tell 10 million people they have to be nice to each other?" He starts out the door, but before he leaves, says, "Being miserable and treating other people like dirt is every New Yorker's God-given right. Your two minutes are up. Good night, gentlemen." The Ghostbusters try to reason with the mayor but he walks out the door. They then start discussing what news publications they should say this to, when Jack Hardemeyer says he would like them to tell it

to, "Some of our people downtown." Ray says it has to be done immediately and it is... they're committed to the Parkview Psychiatric Hospital. Janosz then makes the bargain with Vigo to allow him to have Dana for himself, and then, we're back at Venkman's apartment, where Dana is really wishing Louis and Janine, who are watching an old Rita Hayworth movie, would leave. In the bedroom, Oscar is lying on the bed, when the window behind him opens by itself. In the living room, Dana feels a gust of air blow her hair and

she decides to get up and check on Oscar. When she walks into the bedroom, she sees he's gone and the window is open. She looks out the window and is horrified to see Oscar standing up on the narrow tip of the ledge's corner. Dana calls for Louis and the two of them crawl out onto the ledge, trying to reach Oscar. Dana then sees something appear in the sky and begin heading for them. She tries to reach Oscar, but the figure, which is Janosz as a nanny-like apparition wheeling a stroller through

the air, reaches him first. He grabs him with a long, stretched out arm, places him in the stroller, and flies away. Dana ducks back in and, having recognized Janosz, heads to the museum, while Louis tells Janine they need to find the Ghostbusters. Speaking of which, they're doing themselves no favors with the psychiatrist, telling him the crazy stuff that's happened without any filters, save for Venkman, who just says, "Don't look at me. I think these people are completely nuts."

The river of slime inches its way towards the surface, as Dana reaches the museum and goes through the door. Once she's inside, the door seals itself and the slime begins oozing out of various cracks and edges in the structure, building up around it. Dana heads up to the restoration room and finds Oscar lying on a stone pedestal in front of the painting of Vigo. She rushes in and takes her baby, but before she can leave, Janosz appears. He tells her about Vigo's intention to be reborn through Oscar and how being the mother to the ruler of the

world could be a nice existence for her, but Dana isn't having it. She goes to leave, when Oscar is yanked from her arms and she's flung into a compartment in the wall, the door closing on her. She watches as Oscar floats back onto the pedestal and is laid atop it. Meanwhile, the river of slime reaches the city streets and complete chaos breaks out, with various ghosts appearing and terrifying the civilians. The local police department is overrun with calls, including a dock supervisor

who says the Titanic arrived. The craziness is still going on come morning, and in a meeting, the mayor orders Hardemeyer to call the Ghostbusters. Hardemeyer then has to admit that he had them committed, enraging the mayor, who has him removed from the building. When he looks out the window and sees a vortex of swirling energy block out the sun and turn day into night, he says, "Somebody, get me the Ghostbusters."

Louis manages to get them out of the psych ward and tells them what happened, including Oscar's abduction and Dana's disappearance. Ray figures out Vigo's plan as they head out of the building and drive to the museum, which is now covered in a hardened shell of slime. Inside, Janosz tries to get Dana on his side, telling her of the many perks to being the mother of the reborn Vigo and suggesting that the two of them could learn to love each other. Dana pretends to go along with that last notion just so she can be let out of her compartment and get

closer to Oscar. Back outside, the Ghostbusters march up to the slime mold, remove their proton wands, and fire their beams at the mold. But despite hitting it with four beams at full power, they don't even make a dent. They stop firing, as the crowd turns on them and start booing and jeering them. Egon explains that the wall is so full of evil energy that it would take an enormous amount of positive energy to get through it, which New York doesn't have to spare. Ray tells them,

"You know, I just can't believe things have gotten so bad in this city that there's no way back. I mean, sure, it's dirty, it's crowded, it's polluted, it's noisy, and there's people all around who'd just as soon step on your face as look at you. But, come on. There've gotta be a few sparks of sweet humanity left in this burned-out berg. We just have to figure out a way to mobilize it!" Egon says they need some kind of symbol everyone can get behind, and he notices something, as does everyone else. As

they describe what they're looking at as something pure and good, you see what it is: the Ecto-1's license plate, which has a drawing of the Statue of Liberty on it. With that, they make their way to Liberty Island, where they hook up speakers to the statue and prepare two of their slime blowers. Winston and Ray coat the statue's innards with positively-charged slime, then up inside the crown, they prepare their "pilot controls," which look suspiciously like an NES Advantage controller.

Venkman begins playing the song Higher and Higher, sung by Howard Huntsberry, over the speakers and within a few seconds, the positively-charged slime reacts. Its energy goes into the statue, the flame lights up with a large burst, and the statue comes alive, walks off its pedestal, and wades through the harbor towards the city; the two men who reported the appearance of the Titanic earlier are just dumbfounded by this sight. Elsewhere, Janine helps Louis suit up in a spare Ghostbuster uniform and, after laying a big one on her, he rushes out with a proton pack, realizing how heavy the equipment is.

A police escort leads the Statue of Liberty through the city streets, with the people cheering and the Ghostbusters encouraging them to keep it up, even to sing along with the music (Venkman does it but the results are kind of painful). At one point, the statue crushes a police car under her massive foot, which Ray yells an apology for. As midnight quickly approaches, Vigo starts imprinting himself onto Oscar, and you see the disturbing sight of his face forming over the baby's. Dana is unable to do anything due to Janosz, when the Statue of

Liberty's face appears above the skylight. Her positive energy causes a gap in the slime there, while Dana takes the opportunity to grab Oscar and run for cover. The statue smashes through the skylight with her torch's handle and the Ghostbusters then repel down to the floor. Janosz actually tries to demoralize them, telling them they're nothing against Vigo, when he sees that Vigo's figure has disappeared from the painting. They blast Janosz with the slime, knocking him to the floor, unconscious. Dana runs to Venkman and

kisses him, while Venkman takes Oscar in his arms commenting that he's a bit ripe and adding, "That's alright, my friend. I think I had an accident too." Egon then gets a PKE reading and a gust of wind blows through the museum, signaling that Vigo is still there. A bit of scaffolding falls and Dana is snagged by a long, black tube. Dana tells Venkman to get Oscar to safety and he hides him on a blanket behind some boxes. The others try to get Dana free, when Vigo materializes, now taking a physical form. He walks across the floor, then turns

to face Ray when he yells at him, telling him to get back in the painting. Venkman and Egon point their proton beams at him and blast him on the count of three. Though it looks like it works, Vigo suddenly repels the energy, sending the Ghostbusters flying back and landing on the floor. As they lie there, they realize they're paralyzed. With no one left to oppose him, Vigo uses his power to move aside the barrier Oscar is behind. He walks up to the baby, picks him up, and then walks back into the center of the room. Venkman tries to distract him with

insults, saying, "You know, I have met some dumb blondes in my life, but you take the taco, pal. Only a Carpathian would come back to life now and choose New York! Tasty pick, bonehead! If you had brain one in that huge melon on top of your neck, you would be living the sweet life out in Southern California's beautiful San Fernando Valley!" Vigo tires of him and blasts him and the other Ghostbusters with energy that causes them a lot of pain. He then looks at Oscar and raises him, saying, "Now, we become one."

Before he can begin the merge, though, he looks up at the destroyed skylight and starts writhing at the sound of some lovely singing. The Ghostbusters realize it's the people outside, singing Auld Lang Syne. At that moment, Louis arrives, pushes through the crowd to the base of the slime mold, and takes out his proton beam. The singing not only weakens Vigo but also starts destroying the slime outside. The Ghostbusters then find they can move again, while Vigo's form disappears, dropping Oscar, who's caught by Venkman and

given to Dana. They watch as Vigo reappears in front of the painting and his form begins to be sucked into it. Venkman has Dana take cover with Oscar, while they approach the painting. But then, Vigo takes control of Ray like he did before. Ray walks up to the painting and the others ask him to move so they can destroy Vigo once and for all. But Ray turns around and reveals that Vigo has possessed him, his face replaced with Vigo's distorted one. Regardless of this and his boasting, the others blast him with a combination of their

proton beams and the slime; at that moment, Louis blasts the slime outside. They manage to expel Vigo from Ray and continue blasting him with the combination, which forces him back into the painting and causes it to explode. Outside, the hardened slime cracks and disintegrates, which amazes Louis, as he thinks it was all his doing. The crowd cheers and some of them congratulate Louis, who proudly proclaims himself to be a Ghostbuster. Inside, Winston and Egon help Ray to his feet,

while Venkman kisses Dana. Covered in the slime, Ray is all lovey-dovey, saying he loves Winston and Egon, as well as Venkman. Ray and Egon then help Janosz to his feet and, just like Ray, he's feeling pretty good, returning Ray's affections and joining him in a hug. Everybody then sees that Vigo's painting has undergone quite a transformation, replaced with an image of the Ghostbusters in togas and gathered around Oscar, who's floating on a little cloud. Like the first movie, it ends with them heading outside to cheering crowds, as the theme song plays. The rest of the credits play over outtakes of the cast and the aftermath of the ending, which includes the Statue of Liberty having returned to Liberty Island.

Like production design John DeCur and cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, composer Elmer Bernstein was another key part of the original Ghostbusters who didn't return for the sequel. Instead, the music was done by Randy Edelman, who'd worked with Ivan Reitman previously on Twins, but this is one instance where the movie really suffers. While Bernstein's work was memorable from top to bottom, Edelman's music here goes in one ear and out the other, coming off as really generic and typical. I will give him some credit for not wanting to be influenced by the original score, as it's sometimes good for a sequel to have its own musical identity, but I cannot remember any of this score. In fact, the score for the 2016 Ghostbusters is far more memorable than anything here! 

The soundtrack itself fares much better. Not only do you have the return of the Ray Parker Jr. theme song, which is heard here and there, but you also get the new version performed by Run D.M.C., which you get during the montage of the Ghostbusters back in business (as well as over the ending credits). While I'm not the biggest fan of rap in general, and I prefer the original song, this is a pretty cool remix, with a faster, more modern take on the original's melody and beat. I'm not big on the lyrics and the rapping, though. I also like the song by Bobby Brown, On Our Own, which plays over the majority of the ending credits after the original Ghostbusters song. It's a nice, smooth, cool R&B song, the kind of tune you can just chill to, and it's fun seeing the actors dance and mess around to it behind the credits. During the montage of the ghosts invading New York and wreaking havoc, you get the Glenn Frey song, Flip City, and it accentuates the craziness and chaos going on nicely. Going back to rap, the song Spirit, performed by Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew, plays over the first part of the traditional scrolling white text on a black background ending credits. Eh, it's fine, and it has some parts that I like, but, again, rap is not my thing. And finally, two versions of Higher and Higher, one by Jackie Wilson and another by Howard Huntsberry, are nicely made significant in the story.

Ghostbusters II may be a flawed movie and not quite as strong as its parent, but for me, it's hardly the abject failure many, including those involved with it, felt at the time. It does suffer from story-points that aren't ironed out enough, an opening dilemma that's resolved rather quickly, a plot structure that is very similar to the original's, Ernie Hudson still getting the short end of the stick as Winston, ghosts that aren't as memorable as those seen in the first one, another villain who's pretty

lackluster, despite the attempts to build him up, and a forgettable music score, but there's still plenty to like. Most importantly, the actors still play their roles really well and have great chemistry, some of them are given nice development, character arcs, or more screentime, there are some cool concepts, particularly the river of slime and its symbolic meaning, some nice sets and use of New York again, a plethora of great effects work by ILM and others, a catchy collection of songs on the soundtrack, and, like the first one, it's a very well-made and directed movie. In the end, it was a movie born under turbulent circumstances and could have turned out better, but I also think it could've easily been much worse. As it is, it works perfectly fine as another fun supernatural-comedy and, for me, is a worthy companion to the original.