Ghostbusters II

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Comedy/Horror	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1 - 1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	Yes, 1 - Dolby Digital City
Year Released	1989	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	103:57 minutes	Other Extras	Biographies - Cast and Crew
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region	2,4	Director	Ivan Reitman
Studio Distributor	Columbia TriStar	Starring	Bill Murray Dan Aykroyd Sigourney Weaver Harold Ramis Rick Moranis Ernie Hudson Annie Potts
RRP	$34.95	Music	Randy Edelman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	No	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s) French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s) German (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s) Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s) Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	No
Subtitles	English French German Italian Spanish Dutch Arabic Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish Turkish	Annoying Product Placement	No
Subtitles		Action In or After Credits	Yes, in credits

Plot Synopsis

One of the great problems with sequels is that they rarely live up to the reason why the original film was sufficiently successful enough to warrant the sequel in the first place. Indeed, most sequels tend to be such poor imitations of the original films that they ultimately denigrate the value of the original film. Ghostbusters was such a hugely successful film that a sequel was fairly inevitable, and whilst there is no doubt that it is not as good as the original, Ghostbusters II actually is not a bad film in its own right. What helped this film was the fact that all the original cast returned and the script was not a complete rehash of the first film.

Torn apart by the ramifications of their exploits in Ghostbusters, the members have gone their slightly separate ways. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) is the host of a hokey television show "World of the Psychic"; Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) is undertaking some quasi serious scientific research; Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) runs "Ray's Occult Books" and does children's parties as "The Ghostbusters" with Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) as a sideline; and Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) is now a single mother earning a crust as an art restorer whilst trying to get back into an orchestra. But this is New York and even for that town, weird things start to happen again to Dana, so naturally she calls her old friends to explain things. As they begin to investigate, they start to uncover all sorts of ghoulish delights under the streets of Manhattan, mostly connected to the attempts of Vigo the Carpathian to return to this mortal coil after being trapped in some hinterland of ghosts since his demise, in multiple ways, in 1610 - his current form being in a painting being restored at the museum where Dana works.

Ivan Reitman has distinguished Ghostbusters II from the original Ghostbusters by emphasizing a single ghoulish entity with a few minor helpers rather than having multiple ghostly entities, and to a large extent that is why the film works quite well. The material however is not quite as good as the original, giving less for the main cast to work with. Nonetheless, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and Sigourney Weaver do a pretty good job with what is on offer. Because of the fundamental difference in the film, there are less special effects to drool over than in the original film, but what is on offer comes over in a very believable way (inasmuch as anything is believable in the film!), indicating the quality of the effects work.

Transfer Quality

Video

In its tenth anniversary year, it has to said that Columbia TriStar have done a seriously good job on restoring the print and I doubt that this has ever looked so good, even in its theatrical release. All memories of some very poor VHS transfers that I had when first starting up the film soon disappeared completely.

The video transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it is 16x9 enhanced.

The transfer is very sharp and clear throughout, with some nice definition; frankly the clarity on offer here leaves a lot of recent films for dead. Indeed, this transfer gives the impression of this being a much more recent film than it is and really highlights the superb job that Columbia TriStar are in general doing with their transfers. Shadow detail could not quite compete with the very best of recent films, but is never less than good.

Colours are very well rendered, and are very vibrant in their way. Whilst the colours generally are not flashy or gaudy, they are not oversaturated and have a very nice look to them, that comes across in a very believable manner.

There were no MPEG artefacts seen and if there were any video artefacts, then I missed them. With a ten year old film I was sort of expecting a bundle of film artefacts, and am pleased to report their almost total absence - and even those that were present were not especially noticeable and at no time a distraction to the film.

Audio

Added to the great video restoration is a very good audio transfer, and this film has definitely never sounded so good.

There are five soundtracks on the DVD. The default track is English Dolby Digital 5.1 with the balance being Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded tracks in French, German, Italian and Spanish. I listened to the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

Dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times.

There did not seem to be any audio sync problems at all with the transfer.

The music score to the film comes from Randy Edelman, and whilst being rather derivative from the original film, is not too bad and contributes as much as it needs to the film.

The remastered 5.1 soundtrack is especially noticed in the surround channel detail, although I have to say that I felt that the surround channels, most noticeably the rear channels, have been mixed just a little on the quiet side. Not a big issue, and they certainly do not lack detail at all. The resultant soundscape however is just a little more frontal than I would have liked or expected. At one point around the 71:10 mark it did sound as if the 5.1 soundtrack dropped out to a 2.0 soundtrack, but this is again not an especially big issue as it came during a dialogue sequence.

The subwoofer gets some good workout here, although even in my newly recalibrated system the bass was just a little overstrong: however, my views on bass differ to most peoples, and therefore most will probably not have any sort of problem with the mix at all.

Extras

I suppose after the veritable feast lavished on the original film, anything given to this film was going to pale in comparison - and it does.

Theatrical trailer

Biographies/filmographies - cast and crew

Methinks that these are getting slightly better too, but more detail would be nicer still.

R4 vs R1

The Region 4 release misses out on:

Pan and scan version of the film
theatrical trailers of Ghostbusters and other films

All in all there would be just enough to tip the scales in favour of the Region 1 release, especially if you really need to have a pan and scan version of the film - and judging by some people I have spoken to recently this may be very important. Me? I am more than happy with the Region 4 release thank you very much, as I have (or will have) all the missing trailers on other discs.
[Ed: I disagree - I would call them much of a muchness myself.]

Summary

Overall, a wonderful restoration of one of the better sequels around. Well worth adding to your collection, especially as a twosome with the original film.

A wonderfully remastered video transfer.

A very good quality audio transfer.

A not too inspiring collection of extras, but since I (and presumably Columbia TriStar) suspect that most will buy this in conjunction with Ghostbusters, can be lived with thanks to the great transfer.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment

DVD	Pioneer DV-515; S-video output
Display	Sony Trinitron Wega 84cm
Audio Decoder	Built in
Amplification	Yamaha RXV-795
Speakers	Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL