 Ivan Reitman's sequel to the phenomenally successful Ghostbusters is looser and more self-assured than the original. The film opens with a title reading "Five Years Later" and finds the Ghostbusters living in hard times. A restraining order has forbidden the boys to partake in paranormal pest control, and as a result, all have been forced to seek other lines of work. Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) spend their time performing at childrens' birthday parties, and Egon (Harold Ramis) is busy conducting experiments investigating the effect of human emotions on the environment, leaving ghostbusting behind. Venkman (Bill Murray) and Dana (Sigourney Weaver) have split up; Venkman now hosts a local cable show called "The World of the Psychic," while Dana, now divorced and the mother of a baby named Oscar, works as in art restoration at a major museum -- and this is where the plot kicks in. While Dana is restoring the portrait of a 16th-century tyrant by the name of Vigo the Carpathian, the portrait becomes inhabited by the spirit of the Carpathian. The evil spirit desires a return to the world of the living, an act which can only be accomplished by inhabiting the body of Dana's child. Vigo has enlisted Dana's boss, Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), to compel the hapless woman to cooperate. Soon, rivers of sludge and slime flow through the streets of Manhattan, and the Ghostbusters must reunite to save the city from a funky paranormal evil! |
