Why is Ghostbusters II considered to be some watered-down...

IMDB Trivia:

"Because the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters (1986) was so popular among children, Ivan Reitman, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis made a conscious effort to tone down the adult innuendo and behaviors from Ghostbusters (1984). All of the Ghostbusters gave up smoking (except for a few scenes where Ray has a cigar or pipe in his hand or in his mouth), and the ghosts took on appearances closer to those in the animated series rather than the more frightening effects of the first film. Brian Doyle Murray smokes a cigarette in the asylum interview scene."

Yeah, I have never fully understood the complaints.

What holds the movie back for me is that the ending is just a lazy retread of the first movie, though I do love the Statue of Liberty scene. The final confrontation is just a bore. I like the idea of the villain, but it doesn't do much with him.

The movie does have a lot of good about it though, such as Bill Murray's further involvement with Sigourney Weaver and her kid and Peter MacNicol is both creepy and hilarious. The stuff in the sewer is great too and so is the stuff with them testing the slime.

Overall it is a bit too disjointed for me, but there is fun to be had.

6.5/10

Jack Hardemeyer is just Walter Peck 2.0.

I have no problem with that.

I was a big fan of The Real Ghostbusters when I was a kid and I actually use to prefer Ghostbusters II to the first film. I also saw the sequel before the original.

That might be why I like it more than many people.

I always liked part 2. Haven’t seen it in a while but I liked it as much as 1 when I was younger.

In reality.

What actually happened was, Bill Murray had creative control clause in his contract that stated they couldn’t make another Ghostbusters film without his permission.

They presented him with a script and he said “Okay, I don’t like doing sequels. I’m not a fan, but If we do this exact script. I’ll do it.”

So then, when he shows up to do the table reads and they are in pre production, ready to shoot. He realized only about 1/4 of the script remained in tact. It had been rewritten to incorporate more of the tv cartoon series “The Real Ghostbusters”.

So, that’s where the whole narrative “It’s more kiddie” came from. Because Murray kept telling that story. How he wasn’t happy with it because if people saw what the original plan was, it would have been just as good or better as the original.

That translates (in short hand) to “oh it’s kiddie”. That’s not exactly what he meant, but it was part of it. They changed the river of blood to pink slime, added more slimer etc...

So that’s why he wouldn’t agree to make a Ghostbusters III. Because he was mad about how he was tricked into doing the sequel. Though, he did later say he loved doing the video game and wished he had done a part 3 in hindsight since Ramis died.

One funny story I’d like to add. In the early 2000s, around 2007. Dan Aykroyd sent Bill a script for a comeback “Ghostbusters III” sort of story. Like how Indy IV was an older Indiana Jones. Murray shredded the script, put it in a plastic bag and mailed it back to Aykroyd with a note saying “nobody wants to see a bunch of fat old guys catching ghosts.” Lmao

I am re-watching The Real Ghostbusters right now.

Fun show. Slimer is awesome.

The original movie is very much a kids movie, but it has that rough around the edges grit to it, there's frequent sex jokes, characters smoke, etc. I think the sequel is actually darker than the original storywise, it's subject matter is pretty scary but they really polished it and softened the edges for children. No more smoking, less sex, less subtext, more slime and cartoony. I always assumed by this point they all had families and kids and this was the result.