Ghostbusters franchise has completely run out of magic
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (12A)
JJ
This picks up where 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife left off, with the next-generation Spengler clan now fully fledged Ghostbusters and operating out of New York City (in addition to Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon returns as his mum, Mckenna Grace as his younger sister and Paul Rudd as their mother’s boyfriend Gary).
The demands of fan service mean they’re also living in the fire station that originally served as Ghostbusters HQ.
The ensuing plot is so convoluted as to be almost incomprehensible, but it takes shape mostly around Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe, whose “science girl” character arc has been expanded this time to halfheartedly incorporate a queer identity so chastely encoded that not only is the girl she falls for a ghost (she’s played by Emily Alyn Lind), but she’s denied any contact with her.
Elsewhere original Ghostbusters stars Dan Ackroyd and Ernie Hudson do most of the fan-service heavy lifting, while Bill Murray pops up late on to go through the motions.
General release
Road House (15) JJ
From one 1980s throwback to another. Putting the “boot” into “reboot”, Road House, directed by Doug Liman, sees a ripped Jake Gyllenhaal reviving an early action vehicle for his Donnie Darko co-star Patrick Swayze with this bonecrunching tale of a nightclub bouncer hired to clean up a Florida bar overrun by violent biker gangs. Alas, while there’s
fun to be had in the early scenes of Gyllenhaal’s EX-MMA fighter Dalton arriving in town like a modern day equivalent of Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider, it gets pretty silly pretty quickly. Co-starring real-life MMA star Connor Mcgregor. Streaming on Prime Video
Robot Dreams (PG) JJJJ
In Spanish filmmaker Pablo Berger’s delightful, dialoguefree animation, a lonely New York dog buys a robot whose subconscious takes him on much more vivid nocturnal
adventures when he’s separated from his canine friend on a trip to Coney Island. Forced to leave the Robot rusting in the sand, Dog must endure winter alone, with only memories to get him through. Robot’s own yearning for a reconciliation, meanwhile, takes the form of multiple fantasies in which Berger – adapting Sara Varon’s graphic novel of the same name – interrogates the nature of friendship in increasingly philosophical ways, leading to a joyful and profound finale.
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