Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: March 22, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 50 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
29
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Original-CinJohn KirkMar 21, 2024
With the right combination of nostalgia and novelty, it’s spot-on for families looking for fun on movie night. Read full review
80
NMENick LevineMar 28, 2024
Like Afterlife, Frozen Empire ultimately succeeds because it’s so much fun to watch. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 20, 2024
I’m pleased to report that Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire carries the same endearingly goofy, science-nerd spirit of the first film and delivers a delightful balance of slimy ghost stuff, sharp one-liners, terrific VFX and a steady stream of callbacks to various characters, human and otherwise, from the 1984 movie. Read full review
71
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiMar 20, 2024
What it lacks in intelligence it makes up for with good vibes and great casting. Read full review
70
Film ThreatBradley GibsonMar 25, 2024
It is exciting… enough and is carried by the fun cast and design work. Read full review
70
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerMar 21, 2024
It is a fun, serviceable, family-oriented exercise in reprise that counts on nostalgia as it brings history and present day together. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubManuel BetancourtMar 21, 2024
Overall, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire makes for a serviceable entry in this now four-decade-running franchise. No matter that, in tone and in structure, it all but replicates what’s worked in the past. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMar 20, 2024
Yes, even after all these years, ‘busting will still make you feel good. Read full review
67
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerMar 20, 2024
Though the ensemble is too large, Frozen Empire does successfully find a decent balance between the multiple generations featured here, letting the younger cast drive most of the action without leaving the older characters on the sidelines Read full review
63
ObserverEmily ZemlerMar 20, 2024
It’s mostly nostalgia that keeps the movie going, although Grace is very compelling and should have been allowed to properly lead the film. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleMar 20, 2024
If you accept the low-bar aspirations of “Frozen Empire,” you may get a pleasant-enough experience out of it. It’s a movie that feels almost more like a high production-value TV pilot for an appealing sitcom, with Rudd as the stepfather, than it does a big-screen event on par with the original. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittMar 20, 2024
Alongside familiar faces and newcomers, “Frozen Empire” rolls out a new supernatural big bad and more horror than the series has done in the past, yet it still often struggles to find freshness and recapture old magic. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyMar 29, 2024
Frozen Empire is a notable improvement on Afterlife – funny, silly, and a little scary, with its pockets full of hand-built doodahs and the occasional excursion into the realm of pseudo-mythology and parapsychology. Read full review
60
The New York TimesAmy NicholsonMar 21, 2024
“Frozen Empire” is an eclectic, enjoyable barrage of nonsense. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanMar 20, 2024
You might say that “Frozen Empire” has to work even harder to invent a reason for itself to exist. Yet it’s a livelier movie than “Afterlife.” Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckMar 20, 2024
Nonetheless, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire tries hard, very hard, to satisfy the series’ fans with plenty of nostalgic throwbacks and mainly succeeds. Read full review
60
Total FilmJames MottramMar 20, 2024
Too many characters and callbacks plus a formulaic plot means Frozen Empire doesn’t touch the original movies, but it’s a likeable-enough brand extension. Read full review
55
The AtlanticDavid SimsApr 4, 2024
The result is a functional if unspectacular film that makes no outsize effort to speak to cultural conversations around the movie. Read full review
55
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeMar 20, 2024
The new Spenglers have the potential to be as memorable as the original cadre of Ghostbusters, but between the cameos by the 1984 cast (whom the film uses more as goodwill ambassadors than like the talented comic actors they still are) and the callbacks to Slimer and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, they tend to feel like afterthoughts. Read full review
55
The Daily BeastNick SchagerMar 20, 2024
It all resembles a lot of cosplaying, although its central failing is foregrounding cacophonous mayhem and middling melodrama over the drollness that defined the first two Ghostbusters movies. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 25, 2024
As scattershot and uneven as it is unnecessary, it fails to effectively build on the foundation laid in Afterlife while at the same time relegating the “old timers” into oddly-integrated super-cameo appearances. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshMar 22, 2024
Even this cast can’t save the rote machinations of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire as it dutifully delivers morsels of memory. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 21, 2024
Just about everybody on screen in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire lightens the load. But sometime around the eighth or ninth round of expository mumbo jumbo concerning the ectoplasmic nightmare about to happen, the movie starts moving sideways, not forward. Read full review
50
Washington PostTy BurrMar 20, 2024
The new film is professionally made, well-acted, entertaining enough, and possessed of no earthly reason to exist aside from the care and feeding of intellectual property. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireMar 20, 2024
Like Slimer shoving snacks in his ravenous maw, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” tries to cram way too many characters, storylines and iconic images into its two-hour runtime. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonMar 20, 2024
Seeing the Ghostbusters in the Big Apple where they belong put a smile on my face, at least until I realized I was watching a sitcom about wiseass teens and their dopey parents. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJustin ClarkMar 20, 2024
There are protracted moments of humor, fright, and pathos in Frozen Empire, but as it’s all so scattershot and disconnected, the film ends up being defined by its lack of conviction when it comes to exploring its ideas to the fullest. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonMar 20, 2024
The clumsy mixture of nostalgia, scares, set pieces, sincerity and wisecracks never gels. Read full review
50
ColliderRoss BonaimeMar 20, 2024
Frozen Empire attempts to evoke the past with constant callbacks, while trying to make the audience care about a more modern story with characters for a new generation, and ends up failing on both counts. Read full review
50
SlashfilmEthan AndertonMar 20, 2024
A somewhat ambitious but messy and ultimately unsatisfying sequel, despite packing some decent laughs and a couple of genuinely exhilarating sequences. Read full review
50
Screen RantRachel LaBonteMar 20, 2024
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has a lot of potential and a chilling new villain, but too many characters and a slower plot leads to dimmed thrills. Read full review
45
CNNBrian LowryMar 21, 2024
Granted, the cast is too talented not to conjure a few amusing moments, but it’s hard to escape the sense of a movie that’s sleepwalking through the old neighborhood as opposed to playfully strolling down memory lane. Read full review
42
IndieWireKate ErblandMar 20, 2024
This franchise might not be entirely dead just yet, but its latest resurrection doesn’t make nearly enough good arguments to keep pumping life into it. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeMar 25, 2024
It’s not unenjoyable, just deeply unoriginal. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 22, 2024
The jokes are witless, the emotions artless, and the film joyless. At the same time, there’s also little to repel or offend, which, after all the truly idiotic culture-war battles fought over the Ghostbusters franchise, probably counts as a win. Maybe one day we’ll get an actual movie. Read full review
40
EmpireAlex GodfreyMar 20, 2024
There was potential here, but Frozen Empire is an overpopulated mish-mash, with too many heroes to wrangle. What’s left is a bit of a gooey mess. We’ve been slimed. Read full review
40
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsMar 20, 2024
Everything about the film is undercooked and lazy, and one is led to hope that this franchise is put back in the deep freeze for a very long time. Read full review
40
Time OutHelen O'HaraMar 20, 2024
This sequel brings everything back to the original film – even recycling some of the same jokes. But they’re a pale echo of its greatness in an overly stuffed and only occasionally fun spectral adventure. Read full review
40
ScreenCrushMatt SingerMar 20, 2024
The movie around him is a mess at the best of times and a disaster at the worst, but Aykroyd always looks like he’s having fun, even if no one else is. Read full review
40
IGNTom JorgensenMar 20, 2024
Ghostbusters: Frozen Kingdom’s tiresome, bloated plot and expansive roster of characters will leave you out in the cold. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 20, 2024
There are one or two laughs here and an attempt at a queer romance, but no real signs of life. Read full review
38
Paste MagazineTara Bennett Mar 20, 2024
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire doubles down, fully committing to its existence as a cynical nostalgia raid masquerading as a movie. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 20, 2024
The ghost gimmicks, sight-gags and settings — the New York Public Library — as well as the non-supernatural villain (Atherton) are, like Murray’s attempts at his jokey old self, simply recycled from the original films. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithMar 21, 2024
What was once thrilling, inventive and funny is now desiccated and limp. The pertinent question, it turns out, is not “Who you gonna call?” but “Why did they bother?” Read full review
30
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 21, 2024
When continuity and plot logic are AWOL in your movie, who ya gonna call? Not these folks. Read full review
25
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiMar 21, 2024
This franchise really belongs in the rearview mirror. Read full review
23
PolygonAusten GoslinMar 20, 2024
It’s a franchise reduced to nothing more than a parade of hollow, familiar images, lightly repackaged in hopes that we’ll buy another ticket and try to revisit the emotions we felt when we encountered this world for the first time. Read full review
20
We Got This CoveredCharlotte SimmonsMar 25, 2024
We might as well let AI make the soulless nostalgia fare at this point; you'd get roughly the same result as 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,' and that $100 million budget could have been spent on movies worth spending it on. Read full review
20
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeMar 22, 2024
The reverence for the past here does nobody any favours. It is as if a 1984 kids’ film tried to get them interested in the collected lore and backstory of Abbott and Costello. We all need to move on. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMar 20, 2024
There is a noxious undead pong emanating from this latest entry in the 1980s franchise, which is now being necromantically sustained through force of sheer commercial desperation, and nothing else. Read full review
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