Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Ghostbusters Frozen Empire review says that the fantasmagoric film may not the best in the franchise, but there’s still much to like about the new generation that ain’t afraid of no ghosts. 

While this, the fifth installment of the something strange in the neighborhood franchise, may not be the strongest, it’s still spooktacular fun. It’s almost impossible not be engaged by the original cast—Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and even Slimer—banding together again.

Especially when they team up with the fresh faces from 2021’s last installment, Ghostbusters: Afterlife. They include Finn Wolfhard as Trevor and McKenna Grace, as Phoebe, the grandkids of the late Harold Ramis’s character Egon Spengler. Carrie Coon plays their mom Callie Egon, and Paul Rudd is Gary, Callie’s boyfriend and the kids’ ersatz stepdad. They met in the Afterlife.

Mix in some fun newbies to the franchise, ie: Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt, and you’ve got one highly entertaining cast. All that’s left is a clever script and some phantasmic special effects, and the end result is a satisfying movie. All the ingredients are there, and they bind together nicely.

Ghostbusters Frozen Empire review — The Plot

Although there are lots of complications, characters, subplots and twists, and ghosties and ghoulies both new and old, the story is relatively simple. Callie and Gary, plus Callie’s kids are living the life as the consummate ghost-busting team, having taken up residence in the old ghostbuster’s firehouse.

The repository where they have been storing all the ghosts they’ve busted for generations is getting precariously full, so it’s a real problem when an ultimately powerful scary skinny goat head freezing ghost arises to set them all free, and start a new ice age, void of humans.

Who ya gonna call?

You won’t see revelatory filmmaking or storytelling in this film directed by Gil Kenan and co-written by Jason Reitman and Kenan, but most viewers (and this critic) will be fine with that, as witnessed by the film’s relatively high audience scores.

In the long run, bustin’ makes us feel good.

Rated PG-13

1 Hour 55 Minutes

If, after reading this Ghostbusters Frozen Empire review, you feel like bustin’ out and heading over to the cineplex, get times and tickets at Fandango.com.