Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - Double Review

Wow, this is cats and dogs living together Mass hysteria, two movies back to back,

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, well if that's how the studios want to release them, that's how it's going to be, then let's do this, so it was spring break, the Schools were closed and what happens? I'm hit with a

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whammy, so first there's a new Ghostbusters movie in case you haven't heard of it, in case you haven't seen 200

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s yet, it came out the weekend before and then the weekend of Easter was another Godzilla movie, yeah, so it's Frozen Empire meets the new Empire, so it's been a very Empire theme, so anyway I'm thinking, oh boy, everyone's going to ask me about Ghostbusters and everyone's going to ask me about Godzilla, so boom, Monday morning, all over again.

I upload the show times, the earliest I can find is a noon screening of Ghostbusters on Tuesday, a noon screening of Godzilla and now I've seen them both and I'm ready to rock, so first let's talk about Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. I really enjoyed it, huh. The things I say here could be considered spoilers, so I'm going to issue on the spoiler alert side. Here we go in a nutshell. I think it's a great sequel to Afterlife. Afterlife did its job by introducing the production to a new, younger cast and finally bringing it back. the original gang even though it was extremely abrupt and in the end I will always remember back in the 2000s when Dan Akroy was talking about making another Ghostbusters movie with the old cast passing the torch to the younger cast and after so many rumors and false starts it was like a miracle when it finally happened it was a shame they couldn't have come back when Harold Ramis was still alive but since the Titanic arrived it's better late than never who would have thought we would see Bill Murray? playing Venkman once more let alone twice makes you wonder why all this is happening now.

Also, before the movie there was a trailer for Garfield, that's right. A preview of Garfield before a Ghostbusters movie. The connection with Garfield Venkman and Bill Murray never goes away. Frozen Empire could have lasted two. ways they could have been, well, we passed the torch and now it will just be Paul Rudd and the kids. I would have accepted it, but they chose to keep the original Ghostbusters involved, which is commendable because in the afterlife they were thrown in at the last minute in Frozen. Empire corrects this this time, the original gang are more part of the plot, this time it makes more sense for them to be there and their screen time is distributed evenly.

Venkman does not appear until the final act with the exception of an earlier scene. where he's testing a certain character's telekinetic abilities is a minor thing, but in my opinion, since they put the Venman stuff mainly in that final act, they should have used someone else for the telekinetic scene, that way his appearance in the fire station door. It would have had a much bigger impact, the one thing Afterlife definitely has about Frozen Empire as far as the old cast goes is that Egon Harold Ramis is there in spirit quite literally, so in a sense it brings all four characters together original Ghostbusters for the last time in a very moving way, the entire Afterlife movie was a tribute to Harold RIS and there is a lot of emotional content that is not in Frozen Empire.

There is nothing that will make you cry in any way. The only thing that comes close is a brief moment I remember when Winston scolds Rey that they're getting too old for this or whatever and that was a pretty good moment. Ry is featured very prominently and Dan Akroy looks like he is having a lot of fun with the role, you can see the look of delight on his face and every time he explains how paranormal things work knowing that he is actually very good at the subject he makes it even more entertaining, he is in his element.

I love how Ry hosts a YouTube show and is surrounded by all these occult and haunted books. artifacts, it's great, Annie Pots is back as Janine, who finally becomes a Ghostbusters like in the animated series The Real Ghostbusters, she is an essential part of the original cast. I wish Sigy Weaver and Rick Moranis had been there too, but I know it's hard to get everyone back. The most surprising returning cast member was William Atherton as Walter. Take a look at the guy you love to hate. He is now mayor. Wait, wait, when did that happen? Who elected that guy as mayor?

Anyway, he's back to business as usual, ruining the Ghostbusters' plans. It's a welcome call that I didn't see coming. The standout performance from The Young cast is McKenna Grace as Phoebe, Egon's granddaughter. She plays him as well as she does in Afterlife in general. I can't decide which movie I like more Afterlife or Frozen Empire each has its strengths and weaknesses the plot in the afterlife was very simple uh it was more character driven or at least that's what it felt like to me Frozen Empire is busier there's a lot going on Phoebe befriends a ghost there's an orb that contains a spirit, there's a whole plot about how Ecto's containment unit fills up, there's an evil incantation on an audio tape much like Evil Dead, There's a lot going on, uh, that's not to say that the original Ghostbusters movie didn't have a complicated plot if you want to talk about everything.

The doorman and Key Master thing may sound pretty absurd, but in the original none of that felt like Exposition, it was covered up with all that comedy and you never had time to think about it, but in Frozen Empire it feels like I'm getting a lot of explanations all the time, there's a scene in the library with Paton Oswalt that is very, very entertaining, but it's like the old Trope where you stop everything and we tell you the whole story. I like that there's a new villain, Gaka, who freezes New York under all that ice, so she doesn't have to be crowded all the time.

Remember how many villains there were in The Real Ghostbusters. It was endless, but I think the problem in Frozen Empire, if I had to pick any problem, is. I think there are too many characters. I suspected this might be a problem by having the older Ghostbusters and the younger Ghostbusters all together, it might get too messy, because think about it, you have all the kids, which is enough, then you have Paul Rudd and then. you have the old Ghostbusters, including Janine, and then they felt like for some reason that wasn't enough, so they also added a superhero character and that's exactly what a guy with fire powers is, yeah, because fighting ghosts with proton packets it is not.

It's not enough, so they needed someone with AB fire skills to fight the ice villain played by Kum Nanani. He's really good in the new Twilight Zone and a lot of other movies, but I don't see the point of having a superhero character when all Ghostbusters. the young and old characters should have been enough. I felt like the interaction between the old Ghostbusters in the afterlife, even though it was brief, was actually closer to the chemistry they had in the original 1984 movie, it's kind of hard to replicate and it was in the '80s. That was a long time ago. time, but you can't overstate how fun that original movie was, I even forgot that it's probably been close to 10 years since I last saw it because it's one of those movies that I watched so many times that I got it in my head, I felt like I didn't need to watch it again, but I recently watched it again and damn, it holds up, it's about that natural chemistry between those actors and even in Ghostbusters 2, some of that chemistry obviously holds up now.

It's hard enough without Harold Ramos, but the comedic tone of these new films is very different: Paul Rudd reciting the lyrics to the Ghostbusters theme song or Kum Nanani lighting a lighter at Gaka. We're not getting the same kind of spontaneous comedy. I don't think it's possible to get that same lightning in a bottle back, but maybe if they had allowed a little more time for improvisation and given Bill Murray more room to joke, maybe they could have come close. Slimer was something to be expected, but what I did. What I didn't expect was how close they brought him back to the original character, they actually made Slimer a little scary again, it's hard to remember but that first scene where he attacked Venkman was pretty scary watching it as a kid , so I like what they did with Slimer.

The reason I mention all the old nostalgic stuff is just to say that as a Ghostbusters kid, I appreciate that with Afterlife and Frozen Empire, they gave us what we wanted. I thought the original Ghostbusters Cannon was long dead, but it's nice that they delivered overall. I enjoyed both. movies and I'm glad they did, now get ready for Beverly Hills Cop 4 Twister 2 Beetlejuice 2 Gladiator 2 Spinal Tap 2 alien Mad Max Karate Kid, anything that ever existed will have another sequel, we are living in very strange times right now. We're talking about Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, so the timing of this movie is a little unfortunate because didn't we just see a Godzilla movie?

It was last December, but it seems like it just happened. Godzilla minus one was a masterpiece, that's very difficult. to follow so this is the best way I can describe this if you have been to a metal or rock concert or can at least imagine seeing an opening band that is just amazing and blows everyone away and then the main act comes out with a giant high-production LED. walls, maybe there's some pyrotechnics in all that, but the actual performance and content behind it just pales in comparison, don't get me wrong, it's still a lot of fun, of course, this is part of the American Godzilla-verse series of the monster, and it is a continuation. to Godzilla versus Kong, which came out in early 2021 and aired the same day as in theaters because, of course, things weren't quite normal back then, but I loved the same-day airing.

I wish we still had that option since we dated. Going to the movies requires a lot more planning and unless it's something the whole family wants to see we'll have to wait until the holidays to watch streaming versus theaters is a topic for another day but these last two Monster Vers movies are a perfect example, that's the I mention it to highlight the fact that the experience was different with the broadcast. I'm in my own layer. I feel more comfortable. I can start the movie any time I want, especially if I'm reviewing it. I can start early. tomorrow and while I watch it, if I see something that excites me or some observation or thought that I want to write down, I can pause the movie that way I can write it without missing a second of the movie, so I give it That's it, this time it's in the cinema, like this that I'm just working on memory, which is fine, it's just a different way of doing it, watching the movie and then writing the full script, so it's two different experiences, it's an important topic that's worth it.

Mentioning that everyone is different, everyone has their own preferences, so once again, what's happening in this movie I'll give you a spoiler alert in case here we go. Kong still lives in the Hollow Earth exploring this new region of Uncharted that brings him. to the villain Scar King, who is almost like an evil Kong who is the leader of a hostile army of ape creatures, makes me think of the kingdom of the ape plan, which I'm looking forward to because all these new movie plans of the apes have been Awesome anyway, Godzilla is on the surface beating up other monsters while absorbing radiation and turning into a new shiny, supercharged Godzilla and then there are the human characters, Team Monarch, who are investigating the source of a signal coming from the Hollow Earth that brings them into the mix. to help with the good monsters, the human characters leave a lot to be desired, but it's not about making a serious drama or anything like that, this is a "brain in the door" type movie because they know you're here to see the monsters so it delivers exactly what is advertised with that said uh Gia is still a very charming character she is the one from Godzilla versus Kong who talks to Kong with sign language that is cheerful and cute so she has that to their favor, but the real stars are the monsters.

Kong is definitely the protagonist, he has the most screen time. I like how they mastered his personality. There are a lot of facial expressions and body language, so you can always tell what he is thinking. Kong's personality is definitely a big A+ for me. Godzilla. He also has some interesting behavioral traits, some of which I've never seen before. He goes to sleep in the Roman Coliseum. As soon as I saw it, I immediately thought that's what my cats would always do: they would walk around the house and if they felt like taking a nap, they would just look around and go there, that's a good place, it's fun and also It is totally believable because if there were a giant monster in lifereal i would probably do the same thing there are definitely a lot of other beasties like suko who is a cute ap like creature who Kong befriends and then Mothra shows up and I'm always happy to see Mothra but it feels like If it was crowded at the last minute, there is also an ice monster, shimo, that heals.

King Controls and this is where it draws a very strange similarity with Ghostbusters Frozen Empire, which I'm sure was a complete coincidence since these films were worked on separately and simultaneously, but there is a scene on the beach very similar to Frozen Empire and the ocean . It freezes. I'm sitting there thinking holy. This is great Deja Vu and there was another Deja Vu moment where they destroy the pyramids. Can you remember what movie I'm talking about? Especially when Kong gets this robotic arm and there's a shot where you see the robot's hand like it reaches behind the pyramid and grabs it if you had taken a screenshot and shown me that shot I would have done that.

I said that It's from Transformers Revenge of the Fallen again. I don't think it was intentional, but he makes me wonder: are we running out of landmarks to destroy? We should start making Italians see what is left. I really enjoyed all the scenes when they are on. in cities and whenever we see human made structures destroyed because that gives us the proper sense of the scale of the monsters when they are in the Hollow Earth, they are just in a big fantasy world so I don't find those scenes at all . So interesting, I like the cities as the battle setting, that's my personal preference with the monster characters.

It's nice to see them try out new villains like Gaka and the Ghostbusters because we've seen Gadora and Mecca Godzilla and all that, it's like the Batman movies like how many versions of the Joker and Catwoman do you need maybe it would be a good idea to see Gyan eventually. I always liked Gyan if they ever go that route in the future, but they should try to come up with new villains. Personally I would like it. watch a movie called Godzilla versus insert a new monster name we've never heard before, just like every movie from the '60s and '70s, it was always Godzilla versus this Godzilla versus that was always a new monster.

I'm not sure what the general public is. You'll think about this if you're looking for a really good story with substance then you'll be disappointed, but if you just want to see monsters fighting and all that good stuff then you'll have a good time. There was a very small child. At the cinema there was a long line behind me making all kinds of noise, it was quite annoying, but I was more interested in trying to gauge what the child thought of the movie, it was a mix of random crying and screaming, so I couldn't to do a lot.

Anyway, they probably didn't care too much, this is a fun Monster Mash. I'm very proud of Adam Windguard for taking the Helms and continuing the monster verse, so if you want a popcorn action movie and don't want to wait. until summer, this is true anyway. I just want to sign off by saying that I'm honored that someone wants to know my opinion on these movies. I mean, the fact that you think of me is still a big deal to me because there are probably hundreds of other YouTubers who review these movies maybe even thousands like them and some of them get early access to these movies.

I don't know how all that works. I think you have to live near Los Angeles or New York for that, I'm not sure. but I still feel honored and privileged to know that there are certain films that people want to know what I have to say about. I'm that Zilla guy from God and I'm that guy from Ghostbusters. For better or worse, I hope you enjoy the movies and the review. back to work on nerd and many other projects that I'm also very excited about, see you soon