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Ghostbusters 2/Poltergeist 2
Watched the recent blu ray releases of these two over the last few days.
Mild spoilers below.
Ghostbusters 2 - holds up pretty well, though not as good as the first. Good to have all cast back (though William Atherton is sorely missed), plus Peter Nichols as the demented but very entertaining museum curator Janozs.
I liked the concept of the Ghostbusters being largely forgotten and considered a joke, and a lot of fun is had with this...the Ghostbusters reduced to playing kids parties, Murray's dreadful TV show. I liked the idea of the 'river of slime' running through the city and all the 'bad vibes'. Plus there is a great alternative to the giant Stay Puft man from the first movie. The new 4K restoration is very good too.
Poltergeist 2 - Hmmm...this has really not held up well at all. Not that it was much good to start with. A very silly story that tries to mix native American mysticism (for no apparent reason other than to give actor native American Indian Will Sampson a reason to be in the film) with the same supernatural/ghostly goings-on from the first movie
Essentially, the spirits from the first movie have basically followed the family to their new home and are still after Carol Anne. It's a very poorly made film - there are far too many silly monsters, creatures and the shock moments create no tension whatsoever, they just seem to happen with no logic or explanation. You get the impression the movie was probably re edited more than once after filming to try and sort out the mess.
The only saving grace of this movie is the extremely creepy Julian Beck as the Rev Henry Kane, a malevolent spirit intent on capturing Carol Anne. Beck has a very creepy, haunted look and is very menacing...he died not log after the movie was made, and indeed his gaunt, hollow-eyed appearance was perfect for the character.
Sadly the rest of the movie is very poor, there are far too many silly creatures (the first movie wisely left much to the imagination), and the ending where the family actually cross over to the 'other side' is embarassingly bad. Zelda Rubenstein as Tangina also puts in a brief appearance, but really just reprises her role from the first film, to little effect.
Mild spoilers below.
Ghostbusters 2 - holds up pretty well, though not as good as the first. Good to have all cast back (though William Atherton is sorely missed), plus Peter Nichols as the demented but very entertaining museum curator Janozs.
I liked the concept of the Ghostbusters being largely forgotten and considered a joke, and a lot of fun is had with this...the Ghostbusters reduced to playing kids parties, Murray's dreadful TV show. I liked the idea of the 'river of slime' running through the city and all the 'bad vibes'. Plus there is a great alternative to the giant Stay Puft man from the first movie. The new 4K restoration is very good too.
Poltergeist 2 - Hmmm...this has really not held up well at all. Not that it was much good to start with. A very silly story that tries to mix native American mysticism (for no apparent reason other than to give actor native American Indian Will Sampson a reason to be in the film) with the same supernatural/ghostly goings-on from the first movie
Essentially, the spirits from the first movie have basically followed the family to their new home and are still after Carol Anne. It's a very poorly made film - there are far too many silly monsters, creatures and the shock moments create no tension whatsoever, they just seem to happen with no logic or explanation. You get the impression the movie was probably re edited more than once after filming to try and sort out the mess.
The only saving grace of this movie is the extremely creepy Julian Beck as the Rev Henry Kane, a malevolent spirit intent on capturing Carol Anne. Beck has a very creepy, haunted look and is very menacing...he died not log after the movie was made, and indeed his gaunt, hollow-eyed appearance was perfect for the character.
Sadly the rest of the movie is very poor, there are far too many silly creatures (the first movie wisely left much to the imagination), and the ending where the family actually cross over to the 'other side' is embarassingly bad. Zelda Rubenstein as Tangina also puts in a brief appearance, but really just reprises her role from the first film, to little effect.
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Comments
It's been some time since I watched Ghostbusters 2, I did like it though.
Poltergeist 3 is utter crap.
Not surprised to hear there is missing footage from Poltergeist 2...but I have no desire to see it. The problems with this movie are far more serious than missing footage.
However...I still love the original movie and am surprised it has not had the special edition treatment. The blu ray is pretty decent, pic is good and sound is good too...but it would benefit from a remastering. I don't advocate any alteration or tinkering, just enhancement.
Plus I would love to see a retrospective documentary on the making of the movie...there are surely stories to be told about the production, especially Tobe Hoopers issues with the tone of the movie and disagreements with Spielberg, the making of the movie itself and maybe some deleted scenes.