“Hey you! Yah you! Yah, the big guy with the baby! I've seen some dumb, blondes, in my time, but you” (waves proton thrower at Vigo) “take the Taco pal.”

Ghostbusters 2 had me until the Statue of Liberty. Even after it began to bug me, I dug it…

High Points -

- The Courthouse.
- The ‘busting Montage.
- Peter and Dana - always nice to see them rekindle it. I was glad they made it a challenge instead of putting her in the background.
- Winston as a character instead of a straight man for the jokes.
- Louis (at times)
- ILM effects.
- World of the Psychic
- Egon at NYU. “…take away the puppy.”
- Janosz Poha - BRILLIANTLY performed by Peter MacNicol
- Ray Parker, Jr.’s theme - Bus Boys “Cleanin' Up The Town”

Low Points -

- The Statue of Liberty (oy vey. The movie just loses it here.)
- Randy Edelman instead of Elmer Bernstein.
- Ghostbusters coming back as losers after the first movie
- DOCTOR RAY STANTZ as children's party character…of course this goes for Winston, but with Ray…OH how the mighty have fallen.
- Kurt Fuller as the Mayor's Assistant…he ain't no Walter Peck.
- Dancing Toaster
- Louis/Jeanine subplot - yuck…just YUCK. “Jeanine and EGON” wasn't properly explored in the first. It worked.
- Jeanine's weird-ass “Real Ghostbusters” look - cartoony. I liked her cynicism in the first, too over the gooey, goofy nerd.
- OH THE MUSIC JUST SUCKED.
- Too much Slimer, including the Slimer/Louis thing…whatever it was. - I know there was supposed to be some kind of a chase in the firehouse. It should have been cut entirely.
- The SLIME stuff. “Good” slime vs. “Bad” slime.
- Slimer throwers instead of proton gliders…blah.
- The PORTRAIT…how patronizing.

I say GB1 is the better of the two. Simply put, you can`t like a sequel better than the original. GB1 also had reasons for backing up its greatness. When I was but a young buster, I didn`t really look at any GB movie as a comedy. I took it more seriously and was scared of ghosts such as the librarian, the taxi driver, and the demon dogs. GB2 only had one thing I found slightly scary, the big ghost/monster that is in France. GB1 has Mr. Stay Puft and GB2 had some loser guy in a painting that took them 30 seconds to dispose of. GB1 4 life!

So wait… you guys are willing to accept a 40-foot tall marshmallow man and not a walking Statue of Liberty? It's not a mammoth leap, folks.

I definitely thought Janine's character was altered WAY too much since the last movie. I had no problem with her relationship with Louis and flaky new attitude, but the look was going overboard. It was too much of a nod to the cartoon. She couldn't have plausibly changed that much over five years. Give me the neurotic, overworked, underpaid, long-suffering drudge from the first movie over the transplanted new Janine any day.

The music did bite though, it just didn't set the atmosphere as well as Bernstein's score combined with the 80's pop tunes. The rap songs were so out of place - they never really found a home in the movie, except for the Run DMC cover of the original theme song. Bobby Brown's song was cool-sounding when I was a kid, but it just sounds goofy now. Just listen to those non-sensical lyrics.

Dr. Eggman (goo goo ga joob)

I think the difference between Sta-Puft and Liberty is just that Sta-Puft was a GREAT, GREAT punch line. Destroyed by a 40-foot marshmallow man conjured by the passing thought of a well-intentioned ghostbuster. Hilarious.

Liberty, otoh, was just an afterthought. Another big thing walking up a Manhattan street, but without the sense of irony. Never mind the fact that the statue HAS NO LEGS TO WALK. It would have had to shamble in its skirts.

Well, if it's any consolation…

It's only a movie.

DocEgg -

Touche. (big grin)

GB2 is an excellent film. I watch it all the time. It's simply the whole Vigo thing and Bill Murray's somewhat-cheese acting that turns me to GB1 more than the second one. Don't get me wrong, but there are just some parts that make me cringe. Whereas in GB1, the whole damn thing is enjoyable.