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Dom Robinson reviews

Ghostbusters 2

We're Back!

Distributed by

Columbia TriStar

Cat.no: CDR 91754
Cert: PG
Running time: 104 minutes
Year: 1989
Pressing: 1999
Region(s): 2, PAL
Chapters: 28 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English; DD2.0:German, French, Italian, Spanish
Subtitles: 20 different languages available
Widescreen: 2.35:1
16:9-Enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: DVD 5
Price: £19.99
Extras : Scene index, Theatrical trailer, Filmographies

Director:

Ivan Reitman

Dave, Father's Day, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Junior, Kindergarten Cop, Legal Eagles, Meatballs, Six Days Seven Nights, Stripes, Twins

Producer:

Ivan Reitman

Screenplay:

Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis

Music:

Elmer Bernstein

Cast:

Doctor Peter Venkman: Bill Murray

Caddyshack, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Groundhog Day, Kingpin, Little Shop of Horrors, Mad Dog and Glory, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Quick Change, The Rutles: All You Need is Cash, Rushmore, Space Jam, Stripes, Wild Things

Doctor Raymond Stantz: Dan Aykroyd

1941, The Blues Brothers, Blues Brothers 2000, Caddyshack II, Coneheads, Driving Miss Daisy, Feeling Minnesota, Getting Away with Murder, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, The Great Outdoors, Grosse Pointe Blank, My Fellow Americans, My Girl 1 & 2, My Stepmother is an Alien, Neighbors, Nothing But Trouble, The Rutles: All You Need is Cash, Sgt. Bilko, Sneakers, Spies Like Us, Trading Places

Dana Barrett: Sigourney Weaver

1492: Conquest of Paradise, Alien 1-4, Copycat, Dave, Death and the Maiden, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Gorillas in the Mist, The Ice Storm, Jeffrey, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, A Woman or Two, Working Girl, The Year of Living Dangerously

Doctor Egon Spengler: Harold Ramis

Baby Boom, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Stripes

Louis Tully: Rick Moranis

The Flintstones, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Honey I Blew Up The Baby, Honey We Shrunk Ourselves, Little Giants, Little Shop of Horrors, My Blue Heaven, Parenthood, Spaceballs

Janine Melnitz: Annie Potts

Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Pretty In Pink

Winston Zeddemore: Ernie Hudson

American Samurai, The Basketball Diaries, Best of the Best 4, Congo, The Crow, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Leviathan, Mr Magoo, No Escape, Operation Delta Force, Speechless, The Substitute, TV: Oz

Doctor Janosz Poha: Peter MacNicol

Bean, Dracula: Dead And Loving It, Dragonslayer, Housesitter, Sophie's Choice, TV: Ally McBeal, Chicago Hope

Vigo: Wilhelm von Homburg

Ghostbusters 2 is, as the name suggests, the sequel to the original 1984 blockbuster. Five years on, the team are no more. Egon still does research into the spirtual plane, Ray and Winston are doing childrens parties in their Ghostbusters gear and Peter hosts a cheap cable TV show called "The World of the Psychic".

What brings them back together are more spooky goings-on, preceeded by a mysterious force that sends Dana's baby buggy careering down the street and into the traffic. Yes, she's got a kid, the result of a broken marriage. She hasn't seen Peter for a long time. Will the forces of nature get them back together? What do you think.

As the plot, what there is of it, progresses, we find that the city of New York is full of "mood slime" that reacts to the same human emotions as we do. Couple this with a painting of an ancient tyrant named Vigo (Wilhelm von Homburg) which brings its subject back to life and who commands the museum manager, Doctor Janosz Poha (Ally McBeal's Peter MacNicol) to get him a child at whatever cost so that he may walk the Earth again and you have a reason for the Ghostbusting quartet to resurrect their defunct business and save the city again, especially when the R.M.S. Titanic comes to town...

This is the first time the film has been available in its original 2.35:1 ratio. Like the first film, it too never received a widescreen video release, but while the Ghostbusters PAL laserdisc only lost a small amount of side info, this sequel was cropped to approx 1.66:1 and to add insult to injury, Columbia thought they'd sell so little of it that they bundled them together for a penny under fifty notes.

The print used is mostly fine and is anamorphic but is certainly not perfect. The average bitrate is a so-so 5.3Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 7Mb/s.

The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 for English, while everyone else gets standard surround. Thankfully though, this is the one aspect of the disc that cannot be faulted, especially when the SFX come into play.

Extras :

Chapters/Trailer :

There are 28 chapters, like most Columbia releases, spread throughout the 104 minutes which is fine and the last chapter brings together the finale and the end credits. The original US theatrical trailer is also included.

Languages/Subtitles :

Dolby Digital 5.1 in English and French, plus subtitles in TWENTY languages : English, French, German, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Hindi, Turkish, Arabic, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, Italian, Icelandic, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Greek and Hebrew.

And there's more... :

But not much more. Filmographies for all the cast is as deep as it gets.

Subtitles are available for the trailer, but, bizarrely, only in several languages that aren't English.

Menu :

Unlike the first disc, all the menus here are static and silent with nothing but the basic options.

Overall, the first film was superb but this sequel loses its way completely. A very odd storyline could have been developed well, but those in charge turn it into one that's neither engaging nor funny. There's next to zero extras on here too - a far cry from the original's DVD. All it contains is a trailer that also featured on the aforementioned DVD and some brief filmographies.

Actually there is one funny gag - near the start when Ray and Winston attend their last childrens party and sing the famous song. After they chant, "Who Ya Gonna Call?", times have clearly moved on and all the kids chip in with "He-Man! He-Man!". Well, you had to be there.

If you must buy this disc, get it second hand - and don't think the American release has any more extras than this one.

FILM	 		: *
PICTURE QUALITY		: ****
SOUND QUALITY		: *****
EXTRAS			: *  
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: **½

You can find my review of Ghostbusters online too.

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

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