Little Bit of History: The sequel to the original film and again written by Dan Aykroyd & Harold Ramis. Directed by Ivan Reitman, released by Columbia Pictures in 1989. This film only came about as Dan wanted to reunite the original cast in a new film, but couldn’t come up with a good story. So he decided to begin writing a Ghostbusters sequel instead.

Little Bit of Plot/Story: Five years after the events in the first film, The Ghostbusters have split up and sought out new careers after being sued by the city for all the damage they caused previously and have also been barred from investigating supernatural activities, causing the Ghostbusters business to go under. Dana is now working at the Manhattan Museum of Art and preparing for a new exhibit for a sixteenth century tyrant; Vigo the Carpathian. After a strange occurrence involving Dana’s baby boy; Oscar, she seeks out the disbanded Ghostbusters for help. They agree to investigate the incident for their friend and this leads to them illegally excavate First Avenue. The Ghostbusters are arrested and taken to court where two ghosts appear and the Ghostbusters do their thing by capturing the ghosts in return for the dismissal of all charges and them being allowed to reopen their business. Meanwhile, Dana’s colleague at the museum, Dr. Janosz Poha seems to have a rather strange attraction to a painting of Vigo the Carpathian which orders Janosz find a baby to possess so Vigo can return to life.

Little Bit of Character: Pretty much all, the main cast return playing their original roles. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson all reprise their roles as the Ghostbusters. Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis are back as Dana and Louis as is Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz. Joining them in the sequel are Dr. Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), Jack Hardemeyer (Kurt Fuller) and Vigo the Carpathian (Wilhelm von Homburg) dubbed by Max von Sydow.

Little Bit of Influence: Part of the very popular Ghostbusters franchise. Which, by this point was still going strong. The merchandise was still flowing and this film spawned just as much as the previous film. Again, lunchboxes, t-shirts, action figures, video games, books… everything.

Little Bit of Memories: I recall seeing the trailer for this film and being so excited. Ghostbusters was one of my childhood favourites and the anticipation of the sequel was unbearable. I’m pretty sure the first time I got to see the sequel was when my older brother managed to get hold of a none too legal copy on VHS. The quality was terrible and pretty much unwatchable.

Little Bit of Watchability: This sequel is quite notorious for being pretty bad. Its reviews at the time were pretty average and the film is most definitely a major disappointment. It just lacks the quality of jokes, the plot is a little silly (yes even for Ghostbusters) and overall it just seems empty when compared to the first film. I had not watched this film in years (10+) unlike the first film which I have re-watched several times. Then when doing this whole Ghostbusters celebration, I had to re-watch this sequel… and its not as bad as I remember. Admittedly, compared to the first film its lacking so much. But I really enjoyed watching this more then I thought I would. Check it out.

Peter Venkman: “Kitten, I think what I’m saying, is that sometimes, shit happens, someone has to deal with it, and who ya gonna call?”