Ghostbusters II (1989)

“So, you're saying that the supernatural is your exclusive province?”

“Kitten, I think what I'm saying, is that sometimes, shit happens, someone has to deal with it, and who ya gonna call?”

            So, continuing on a Ghostbusters kick here is the second movie.

            Five years after the Ghostbusters saved New York City from utter paranormal destruction they are all barely making ends meet and rarely see each other due to being run out of business by the very city they saved. Ray (Dan Aykroyd) runs a paranormal book store and dons the Ghostbusters gear on occasion with Winston to do birthday parties. Peter (Bill Murray) runs a cheap and silly psychic show on local cable. Egon (Harold Ramis) is the only one to have a legitimate job as a scientist.

            Peter unfortunately did not end up with Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver). She wound up marrying someone else and having a baby named Oscar. The movie begins with Dana walking Oscar in his carriage. The carriage glides over some pink goo that bubbles up out of the sidewalk. As Dana picks up her groceries the carriage takes off with the baby in it dodging people, bikes and cars before it stops just as a bus comes speeding past. Dana visits Egon at work to ask him to look into what could have happened since the carriage just took off by itself. She also asks Egon not to let Peter know what they are up to. Egon and Ray take the job for Dana and of course Peter winds up finding out.

            Dana has been working as a conservator in an art museum. She works under a foreign man named Janosz. A large painting of a creepy looking medieval guy is brought up from storage for an exhibit. The painting is of a guy named Vigo the Carpathian. Dana is not thrilled with the painting it is very unsettling. That night as Janosz is working on the painting, Vigo comes to life in a way and zaps Janosz into doing his bidding. Vigo needs a baby so he can come back to life and rule the world. Guess the baby Janosz goes after?!

            Egon, Winston, Peter, and Ray find slim underneath the city streets running through an old New York City subway line. They get arrested and the slim put into evidence in court. As the judge starts yelling, the slim starts bubbling and two ghosts pop up. The judge throws out the case if they can get rid of the ghosts. After this the Ghostbusters are back in business.

            One night while Dana is giving Oscar a bath the pink slim comes in through the spout instead of water and tries to grab Oscar. Dana takes the baby over to Peter’s. Egon, Winston, and Ray investigate the subway line with the slim. Winston gets dragged into the slim so Egon and Ray jump in after. All three come out in front of the museum where the painting of Vigo is.

            Eventually the Ghostbusters figure out that Vigo is behind the slim and they have to stop the weird Carpathian bad guy from getting to Oscar.

            Again the cast was awesome. They were all crazier than the first one. I find it funny when I watch movies over and over as I get older because I notice more things. I notice some hilarious dirty or sly lines or funny looks. Egon’s sarcastic faces were even better and so was his line delivery. I realized how annoying Bill Murray is as Peter in some scenes. It is as if he was trying to steal all the scenes away from the other actors and characters. But I still love Venkman for some reason, he will always be one of my favorite movie characters. I was totally not crazy with the whole Lewis/Janine being in love with each other. That was silly and really not necessary but the cartoon was really popular and they had to come back. Oh, and I had no idea until this viewing that Max Von Sydow did the voice for Vigo. Sydow plays the Knight in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal which is one of my all time favorite movies. Thought that was pretty cool.

            For some reason when I was young I used to watch Ghostbusters II all the time. The movie is so cheesy and silly to me now! It is like to the point of campy almost but dear god do I love this movie with all my being! I love the scene where the goo kind of takes hold of the city and there is mass chaos. I always laugh when the police get a call from the docks that the Titanic has just arrived and the guy at the dock says “Better late than never.” When the Statue of Liberty walks the streets of New York City still makes me totally excited it is awesome! Again, I have fond memories of watching this with my cousin. At twenty-six (me) and thirty (him) we still love these movies maybe even more than we did when we were little. I will also repeat that if you have not seen Ghostbusters II you are un-American and should be ashamed of yourself and your childhood must have been depressing.