Riffing on that old Thunderdome line because last weekend’s viewing was a new movie on Netflix and two Leaving Soon.
The new arrival was GHOSTBUSTERS: Frozen Empire (2024), the sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The new team relocates to the original’s firehouse in New York to revive the ghostbusting business under the financial sponsorship of Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts. That means they have to deal with the scowling opposition of Mayor Peck (William Atherton) and, of course, a new Big Bad in the form of a combined ice/fear demon (“It’s the chill that creeps up your spine — and the last thing you see is your tear ducts icing over.”). The results weren’t as good as Afterlife but it’s certainly better than Ghostbusters II. “I believe in self-winding clocks and the singing cheeses of Copenhagen.”
MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES (2021) is the whimsical animated film (based on a SNL skit, I gather) in which a writer staying at an AirBnB discovers he’s rooming with the eponymous being (voiced by Jenny Slate), makes a YouTube documentary about him and turns him into a celebrity — but will that help Marcel find his lost family? This was one of those where the dogs distracted me from giving it the attention it deserves. Still, it’s charming. “She’s the harbinger of the vacuum.”
THE WOMAN KING (2022) has the legendary (but historically real) Amazons of Dahomey clashing with the expanding empire of Oyu over the slave trade, the influence of white imperialism and one Dahomey general (Viola Davis) discovering her connection to the Oyu military leader goes back a long way. While I’ve read a little about this era in Dahomey history I’ve no idea how accurate it is (I’m guessing some of the ninja-esque fighting moves are made up). Truth to tell, this is the kind of epic historical adventure where I don’t really care as long as I enjoy myself, and I did. “No-one fears a farmer.”
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