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Rating:  - I LOVE THIS FILM!!!
Ghostbusters was one of my favorite movies as a kid, so last week I popped my old VHS into the VCR. Here's a movie that never gets old. It's behavioral comedy at its best: you can love it at any age, you'll never forget it once you've seen it, and even after all these years of familiarity, my head nearly burst I was laughing so hard.
I'm a fan of movies in which normal people interact in a realistic manner. Those are my favorite types of comedy. Sideways, Being John Malkovich, Annie Hall, Clerks, This Is Spinal Tap, and (my personal favorite) Pulp Fiction all fall under this heading. Ghostbusters is one of the best executed of this style. They joke knowing they're joking. There's a spontaneity about the characters as they express their fears and desires through humor.
I don't care what fans of Lost in Translation say. This is Murray's best performance. It works because he's NOT sullen. He's just a regular guy we met one time at a university who went on to be a huge success. At one point, he sings his lines. It's not done in a showtune way. He just expresses that line by singing it. I've done that on rare occasions. Why, you ask? It's fun. The Ghostbusters may be brilliant scientists/bullsh*t artists, but really they just want to enjoy themselves.
The epic sci-fi comedy has been copied many time in recent years. Sometimes it works extremely well, as in the case of the Incredibles. Other times you get the wholly unremarkable Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Reitman Keeps up the energy in a way Jennings could only dream of.
This is a film in which nothing feels scripted. New York is attacked by a marshmellow, but we believe it. After the film ends, the characters shrug off the damage, inspiring Winston: "I LOVE THIS TOWN!!!"
Rating: - I would give it seven stars if I could. Buy It!
`Ghostbusters', produced and directed by Ivan Reitman, is probably the greatest single movie effort attributable to a Saturday Night Live ensemble. The principle perps responsible for this singularly great movie are the director plus writing by SNL alum Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, plus acting by another major comic talent, SNL alum Bill Murray and great performances put out by Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, and Ramis.
Like many other great comedies such as `Some Like It Hot', `Blazing Saddles', and `Animal House', this movie benefits from the excellent premise which posits that ghosts are real and just happen to be making themselves known after a long fallow period. Part of this premise is that a trio of `professional academic parapsychologists' can work out an effective method for trapping these ghosts, spirits, apparitions, and vapors without one wit of testing on a real phastasmic being.
Like `Some Like It Hot', but unlike `Blazing Saddles', writers Aykroyd and Ramis play it straight from those few premises, much like an excellent Science Fiction story by Robert Heinlein or Arthur C. Clarke. They don't play for cheap laughs in the style of Mel Brooks (not to say `Blazing Saddles' is not an immensely funny movie, just that it's writers and directors use different methods to get to the same end).
Much of the humor in the early part of the movie is generated by the struggles of our three heroes, the future Ghostbusters Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis with the real world, beginning with the university (to all who have been in Manhattan, this will be recognized as Columbia, but Columbia allowed the moviemakers to film there if they would NOT identify the campus as Columbia) and continuing with mortgage bankers and real estate agents. At this point, Annie Potts, in a minor role, appears and adds just the right amount of counterbalance to the serious / ethereal role to be played by Sigourney Weaver.
The story does not go into too much detail on how it is an 80 year old building build to act as `spook central' on Central Park East should suddenly come to life, but questions like this don't come to mind until after the third or fourth viewing. And, this is for sure the most important criterion for whether you want to buy a DVD. Does it survive rewatching and offer new things on a second or third viewing? As someone who has seen this flick at least six or seven times, I assure you that I certainly believe it is worth rewatching. I even get the giggles when I see the license plate on the tricked up hearse which takes our heroes to their first gig, but my hearty belly laugh on first viewing is just a fond memory.
Like all great comedies, going back at least as far as Shakespeare (and probably further, but I'm not up on my Aristophanes), the humor is made just a little more powerful by adding an element of danger to the story line. In the totally realistic `Animal House', it was the threat of our frat lads being expelled to the mercies of their draft boards. As the `Ghostbusters' premise is supernatural, the writers, director, and actors need to go just a little further than usual to make the peril believable. My hunch is that on this matter, the principles really hit the ball out of the park.
For starters, the peril is built up slowly with the brief appearance of the ancient spirits in Sigourney Weaver's refrigerator just after the appearance of the first successful ghost capture which establishes the spirits as a genuine danger to corporeal beings. Even after so many viewings, I can still sense the tension when Ghostbuster Murray is reluctant to open the refrigerator where the initial sighting occurred. The visceral high point that still thrills is the psychic kidnapping of Weaver's character by the gatekeeper beast. From that point, the danger expands to grip not only our brave lads, but also all of Manhattan.
It seems as if no movie which involves some civic, political, or financial organization can get to the finish without some nominal ally throwing a monkey wrench into the works and thereby making things worse. I just wonder why the authors picked the Environmental Protection Agency as the inadvertent heavy. I guess it was easiest to use a Federal agency as the dumbbell and leave the New York City government free to be saved with a clear conscience.
Oddly enough, the last `big joke' involving the form taken by the ultimate heavy is less effective than all the business it took to get to the final reel.
For being a pre-DVD era movie, this release has a very nice collection of special features, although the only two that mean much to me are the commentary track by Reitman and Ramis and the wide screen presentation. The commentary virtually doubles the number of times one can watch the flick with pleasure.
I recall that `Ghostbusters' ranked somewhere around 25th in the AFI list of greatest comedies. I would have rated it in the top ten at least.
Rating: - Who Ya Gonna Call?
Ah. The paranormal. Just when you think its safe to write such things off for good, along comes a movie that will make you laugh at them.
Drs. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) work for the parapsychology department at Columbia University in New York. While Dr. Venkman doesn't really believe in the paranormal (he's really only in it for the chicks), the other two do. And just when the three do find proof that ghosts exist, the University revokes their funding and kicks the three off the campus.
Not to be held back, the three open their own business and call it, what else, Ghostbusters. Although business is slow at first, soon the three are up to their knees in ghosts. And before long, our ghostbusters are not only fighting ghosts, but also the EPA.
"Ghostbusters" was an immediate hit when released in the summer of 1984. It eventually went on to gross over $220 million and land at #7 on the all-time box office charts (at the time of this review, it is currently ranked at #40 with over $230 million). In addition, the movie has gone on to gross over $112 million in movie rentals.
There are many reasons why this movie has become a cult favorite with its fans. Some of the funniest lines in the movie were not written, but actually ad-libbed during filming. This is a testament to the comedic genius of Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis. The Oscar Nominated song "Ghostbuster" by Ray Parker, Jr., is still one of the best movie songs of all time. In addition, there is the always eating, green ghost who slimed his past Dr. Venkman and into our televisions sets as Slimer in the 1988 animated cartoon series of the same name. And who can forget the giant Stay Puff Marshmallow Man? Not before or since has there been a movie monster as great as this guy.
The DVD carries the standard extras that have become common over the years. What's missing are some of the outtakes that had to have happen during filming. There is no way you can convince me that these three comedians didn't find ways to crack themselves and each other up.
The best extra on this DVD is the commentary by Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis, and one other person (sorry, I forget who). You have a choice of either listening to the audio commentary during the film or watching the "video" commentary. This "video" commentary is a lot like the old "Mystery Science Theater 3000" series, in which you can see black silhouettes of our three commentators sitting in front of the movie talking about it.
If you have never seen this movie before, you should watch it at least once. Chances are that you will become a fan of it.
Rating: - THE MARSHMALLOW MAN
I haven't eaten or seen a marshmallow since 1984 that didn't remind me of the climax of this classic comedy. GHOSTBUSTERS still holds up twenty years later as a marvelous takeoff on ghost movies and the prime of the SNL's cast therein. Bill Murray is as droll as ever, interpreting his character and delivering his lines as only Murray can. Sigourney Weaver was a comic revelation in a slightly underdeveloped role, but who can forget that sexy demonness? Dan Aykroyd is perfect as the brilliant, if somewhat dotty, paranormal expert. And don't hash on Harold Ramis---his stone faced delivery is a perfect compliment to the other actors. Ernie Hudson is appropriately cast as the new recruit. And let's not forget Rick Moranis as the nerdy neighbor and the delightfully nasty William Atherton as the EPA man, nor the hilarious Annie Potts as the ghostbusters secretary.
The special effects are cheesy, but they are what makes this movie so delightful. And remember, 1984 didn't have CGI effects. All in all, GHOSTBUSTERS remains one of our finest film spoofs and set the trend for more such seriocomic thrillers of the future.
Rating: - The best comedy of all time.
"Ghostbusters" is my favorite movie of all time. I'd also rate it as the best comedy of all time.
There are no negatives here. I've seen it 60+ times, it holds up as well today as it did on that fateful day in May, 1984.
This is also one of the best DVD packages of all time. Well worth the money, even if you already own the VHS version. Check out that extra features list!
If you like comedies, if you like science-fiction, heck, if you like MOVIES, you have to own this one.
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