Ghostbusters II (1989)

A 1989 supernatural comedy about the same four men, the same business, and a new supernatural threat underneath the city, five years after the first film. The film is honest about the difficulty of being a sequel, and the honesty is the part most sequels of the 80s were not willing to pay.

What the film does

The film is set five years after the first film. The ghostbusters have been shut down by the city, the proton packs are in court-ordered storage, and the four men are doing the kind of work that is not catching ghosts, which is to say Peter Venkman is hosting a psychic-tv show and Ray Stantz is running an occult bookshop and Egon Spengler is in a lab and Winston Zeddemore is driving a limousine. The film is interested in the five-years-later of the four men, and the film is interested in the five-years-later as the actual premise, not as a setup for the next ghost. The five-years-later is the film.

The new threat is a river of mood slime underneath the city that is empowered by the negative emotions of the people on the surface, and the threat is that the slime is about to manifest a new god, and the new god is about to walk out of a painting in the museum of art, and the four men have to catch the new god, and the catching is the second ghost. The film is interested in the slime as a metaphor for the city, which is to say the slime is the city’s mood, and the city’s mood is the thing the film is quietly about, and the film’s quiet is one of the better things the film does.

The third act is the museum, and the museum is the place the film has been heading, and the museum is the place the film delivers. The four men are allowed to be the four men again, and the four men are allowed to be the four men because the film trusts the four men to be the four men, and the trust is the part the sequel gets right. The sequel is allowed to be the sequel, and the being-allowed is the reason the sequel works.

Why it’s in the canon

Criteria blend is 1+3, loved it and want to remember it. A funny 80s comedy that is also a good sequel, which is the rare combination, which is the combination the film is for. Most sequels of the era were not willing to admit they were sequels. This film admits it is a sequel, and the admission is the reason the film is in the canon. The film is not embarrassed to be the second ghostbusters, and the un-embarrassed is the part the film is allowed to be proud of.

The film pairs with the original Ghostbusters (1984) in the canon. The two films are not the same film. The two films are both 80s supernatural comedies, the two films are both Ivan Reitman, the two films are both the four men, the two films are both willing to commit to the bit. The two films belong in the same canon for the same reason. The original is the original and the sequel is the sequel, and both films are the films they are.

A note on the year

The film is 1989. The Letterboxd page is the 1989 film. We use 1989.

A note on disambiguation

This is the 1989 Ivan Reitman film. There is no other feature film of this title in 1989. The 2021 reboot is unrelated.

On hand

Yes, DVD + digital. The DVD is the Sony release. The digital copy is the same transfer, no extras.