Rate The Ghostbusters Films

The upcoming Frozen Empire looks promising. I get the feeling it'll be the best since the second film. Hopefully it'll be more than just a non-stop nostalgiafest for the first film as Afterlife was. I'm not really a fan of most legacy sequels in that regards, in that they try to re-create the original movies all over again but the novelty just isn't there.

The first one is brilliant. The second is a lot of fun.

The reboot with Kristen Wiig and co. has a lot of good moments (and some bad ones).

Afterlife was good. Nostalgic without overdoing it. Witty, imaginative screenplay and a good cast.

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The reboot had a lot of untapped potential. It's actually kind of frustrating to watch because it has some good ideas but doesn't know how to use them and doesn't have the balance of scares and humor as the originals did.

The first one is an all time favorite, for a variety of reasons including how well it fits into my self-created genre of New York movies (places I've been, streets I have walked, albeit without ghosts). The second one was similar and pretty good, but definitely second. All of the other derivatives are way down on my list. If they do more of them, hopefully they won't get gentrified out of the Big Apple.

Saw Frozen Empire last month when it came out. Pretty good and would definitely rank in third place behind the first two. Kind of a shame it's underperformed at the box office, but if it's to be the last ever Ghostbusters film it isn't the worst film to end a series on.

I agree with this assessment. I recently ranted on the Movie in another thread, but I think you've put it better here. The bottom line is it just isn't very funny. It's not a bad movie at all, but the laughs are definitely few and far between.

Ghostbusters (2016), for all its faults, was a very funny movie. I know Melissa McCarthy is very polarizing, but you could sleep through all her lines and it would still be a lot funnier than Frozen Empire. Kate McKinnon is an absolute blast. Just my opinion.

Ghostbusters 2 has a LOT of problems, but it's still a funny movie. Especially all of Bill Murray's scenes.

From best to worst (and also most to least funny):

Ghostbusters 1
Ghostbusters Afterlife
Ghostbusters (2016)
Ghostbusters 2
Ghostbusters Frozen Empire
Top is A+, Bottom is C+, and everything else is somewhere inbetween.

IMO, the 2016 movie shouldn't have been a reboot but a spin-off. Show a different branch of the Ghostbusters in another city with a new team. Maybe reveal they studied under the originals and from there are carrying on the legacy. That could've worked really well. That and getting the balance of being scary and funny as the original two. Like I said, it's a frustrating film because there's signs of what it could've been if only it had better writing and directing behind it.