Tag: Annie Potts

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Review: Too Many Characters Creates a Scattered Film.

I quite enjoyed the 2021 Ghostbusters reboot, Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
It brought a smile to my face, as it lovingly paid tribute to what came before, while paving a road for a new set of characters.
After watching the sequel, however, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, I can say that it was lacking a lot of that charm.
Directed by Gil Kenan, and written by him and Jason Reitman, Frozen Empire picks up three years after Afterlife.
The Spengler family has now taken on the role of the Ghostbusters in New York, with the original team helping them out.
After being sold a mysterious orb, the team slowly begins to realize it holds a powerful spirit, capable of freezing the world. 

The ice age comes to New York in Frozen Empire.

And so, the Ghostbusters, new and old, have to unite to take on this latest threat.
This, naturally, means there are a lot of characters to follow in this movie, which is Frozen Empire’s biggest problem.
Some of these characters do have good storylines, don’t get me wrong.
Just like in Afterlife, Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) has the best story, with her befriending a ghost girl, and Paul Rudd is still a lot of fun as Gary.
Kumail Nanjiani also has a fun presence, and his character received most of the few laughs from the audience I saw the film with.
But there are just simply too many characters to follow in this movie, resulting in many of them having next to no story and thus feeling entirely unnecessary.
Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), and Podcast (Logan Kim) all just feel like they are there because they were in Afterlife. 

If half the cast from the previous movie had not returned, then I feel like Frozen Empire’s plot could have been more succinct.

As for the original Ghostbusters, while their return at the end of Afterlife was a well-done moment of fan service, some of them just feel like they are here to whip up nostalgia, most notably Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman. 
Having all of these characters to follow, many of them with pointless storylines or no storylines at all, makes the film quite jumbled.
This is not to say my opinion of Frozen Empire is entirely negative, though.
The villain feels unique, even if it does suffer a bit from the trope of standing around too much, giving the heroes time to fight back.

The antagonist at least feels somewhat intimidating.

There were some good storylines, like with the already mentioned Phoebe, Gary and Nadeem.
There were also a couple good laughs here and there, even if a lot of the jokes did miss the mark.
Overall, I would say Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a fine movie.
It is one you can watch to pass the time for a bit.
Certainly not as good as Afterlife but thankfully nowhere near as bad as Ghostbusters 2016.

Toy Story 4 Review: Four Installments in, Still Going Strong (Reposted).

4 and a half stars
I can honestly not think of a single film series where there have been four fantastic installments in a row, except Toy Story.
Before seeing the most recent of them, I, like many, was concerned about where the story would go.
Toy Story 3 felt like a perfect sendoff for the franchise so I was concerned that they were just doing another one for a cash grab.
I was wrong, however, because Toy Story 4 is another heart warming installment in the series with great character growth, animation and laughs.

animation toy story.jpg
Toy Story 4 delivers a strong story with the best animation out of all the films by a wide margin.

Directed by Josh Cooley, the film follows Woody (Tom Hanks) who is still dealing with the departure of Andy in the previous film pretty heavily.
When his new kid, Bonnie, literally makes a toy out of a spork, which she names Forky (Tony Hale), Woody makes it his mission to protect him to ensure her happiness.
However, this becomes difficult when Forky is separated from them on a family trip and, upon looking for him, Woody is reunited with the long lost Bo Peep (Annie Potts), who has certainly changed a lot since Woody, and the audience, saw her.

Bo Peep
Woody and Bo Peep’s relationship is at the center of the story, being a key part to Woody’s character arc.

The two then work together to rescue Forky and bring him back to Bonnie, before she and her family leave them behind.
Accompanying this story is, once again, the animation and comedy, which are all spot on.
Animation continues to get better and better every year, and it looks especially stunning in Toy Story 4.
Along with this, the comedy is also fantastic with new characters Ducky and Bunny (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele), and Duke Caboom (Keeanu Reeves) being particular highlights.

Ducky and Bunny.jpg
Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele are hilarious as Ducky and Bunny, especially during the plush rush scene, which is more than the trailers make it out to be.

It is with the character development of Woody, though, that the film truly shines, with Woody having what is probably his best arc out of any of the films.
Many of the new characters have great arcs as well, including the film’s villain (if you can even call her that) Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks).
However, this also ties into the one issue I have with the film.
This being that, even though Woody, Bo, and other characters’ arcs are fantastic, characters like Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and many more of Woody’s friends feel a bit underdeveloped and underused.
Otherwise, Toy Story 4 is another great installment in the franchise, and it will be interesting to see if it continues or if this is the final one for real this time.