{"id":6636,"date":"2024-10-23T13:37:23","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T17:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6636"},"modified":"2024-10-23T13:37:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T17:37:23","slug":"ghostbusters-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/23\/ghostbusters-1984\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghostbusters (1984)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ghostbusters <\/strong>(1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, crude references, sexual material, frightening scenes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ivan Reitman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Elmer Bernstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Laszlo Kovacs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 8, 1984 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, William Atherton, David Marguiles, Slavitza Jovan, Alice Drummond, Jennifer Runyon, Steven Tash, Michael Ensign, Jordan Charney, Reginald VelJohnson.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $241.8M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0Who you gonna call? If you know the answer, then you probably grew up in the 80s. In the summer of \u201984, there wasn\u2019t a kid alive that didn\u2019t automatically reply, \u201cGhostbusters!\u201d upon hearing the question.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It comes from the hit comedy film Ghostbusters<\/strong> starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis as a trio of wacky scientists who open a paranormal extermination business after losing their jobs at Columbia University. It\u2019s an exception to the general rule stating that big budget special effects tend to destroy comedies. It\u2019s a tricky proposition putting together such a film. Special effects require a lot of detail-oriented work while comedies require spontaneity. Many times, the two things just don\u2019t mesh. Look at what happened with Steven Spielberg\u2019s 1941 (1979). Personally, I liked it. But it\u2019s definitely flawed. The mayhem and destruction ultimately overpower the movie\u2019s comedic aspects.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That doesn\u2019t happen in Ghostbusters<\/strong>. Director Ivan Reitman (Stripes) blends two distinct genres- special effects-oriented horror and dialogue-oriented comedy- into a seamless whole. He doesn\u2019t skimp on either one either. The effects are fantastic and the comedy hilarious. There\u2019s a very good reason that Ghostbusters <\/strong>spent most of the summer at the top of the box office charts.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Dr. Peter Venkman (Murray in one of his best roles) sees science as something of a hustle while his colleagues, Dr. Ray Stantz (Aykroyd) and Dr. Egon Spengler (Ramis), are obsessed with proving that ghosts exist by capturing one. After they\u2019re tossed out of Columbia for doing nothing of value, they open the aforementioned ghost extermination business. They develop high-tech equipment (basically nuclear accelerators in back-pack form) capable of capturing ghosts which they deposit in special containment units back at home base (an old firehouse).<\/p>\n

\u00a0At first, people think they\u2019re a joke. That changes after they successfully deal with a paranormal situation at a fancy hotel. Paranormal activity increases in New York and their work load becomes so heavy that they hire additional help in the form of Winston Zeddemore (Hudson, The Crow).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Venkman is interested in hooking up with concert cellist Dana Barrett (Weaver, Alien), a client who hires them to investigate strange goings-on in her apartment. It\u2019s connected to the origin of the high-rise building she lives in as is the ongoing paranormal activity in the city. Opposition arises in human form in the shape of arrogant EPA lawyer Walter Peck (Atherton, Die Hard) who insists they shut down their containment system immediately. They refuse. He returns with a court order. The system gets shut down and all hell breaks loose in the Big Apple. It\u2019s up to the Ghostbusters to save the day and the entire city from complete annihilation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the many great things about Ghostbusters<\/strong> is the willingness of the cast to stand back and let Murray steal the show. Rarely has one movie contained so much quotable dialogue. Most of it comes courtesy of Murray. It appears as though Reitman allowed him to ad-lib which just infuses his lines with a greater sense of spontaneity. When a possessed Dana comes on to him, he tells her \u201cI make it a rule never to get involved with possessed people.\u201d When she gets really passionate, he follows up by saying, \u201cActually, it\u2019s more of a guideline than a rule.\u201d There are too many great Murray lines to choose from so here\u2019s my favorite line in the entire movie, one I still use to this day.<\/p>\n

Egon: \u201cI\u2019m terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray may be the center of attention in Ghostbusters<\/strong>, but the rest of the cast have their moments as I just expressed above. A great supporting cast includes Rick Moranis (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids) as an annoying nerdy neighbor who has the hots for Dana. Somehow he knows when she\u2019s walking down the hall. Annie Potts (Pretty in Pink) plays Janine the smart-mouthed, no-nonsense receptionist who claims to have quit better jobs. Weaver is great in her first full-fledged comedic role (no, I\u2019m not counting the miserable Deal of the Century!). She\u2019s kind of the straight woman to the antics of Murray and company. She\u2019s also smoking HOT! It\u2019s an all-too-rare case of a cast in possession of flawless chemistry.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The special effects are phantasmagorical! Some of them are positively mind-blowing. It\u2019s amazing what can be done on a $30M budget. It was a lot of money 40 years ago, but it\u2019s a mere drop in the well these days. Once again, I must point out that Ghostbusters<\/strong> looks infinitely better than the CGI-heavy vehicles that have come to define 21st<\/sup> century moviegoing. The apparitions look very real to me, but in a comical sense. I\u2019m partial to the little transparent green ghost (aka \u201cSlimer\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u00a0The screenplay by Aykroyd and Ramis is both intelligent and well-written. The plot is rather nonsensical, but makes sense in an absurdist sense. By now, we all know what happens in the climax, so I won\u2019t feel bad about discussing the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, a gigantic manifestation of an evil god of destruction. How it comes to be is fascinating albeit silly. The writers don\u2019t feel the need to dumb it down in making it easy to understand. The scientific explanations regarding paranormal phenomena sound plausible because the characters are intelligent. They state dubious facts with such conviction that even non-believers might take pause to rethink their own beliefs in such matters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m glad the makers put so much effort into Ghostbusters<\/strong>. It\u2019s visually impressive and riotously funny. It even has a bouncy theme song by Ray Parker Jr. that\u2019s still fun to listen to. All the hard work put into it paid off in spades. It\u2019s easily one of the best summer movies of the 80s. They just don\u2019t make \u2018em like this anymore. Seriously, they don\u2019t. NONE of the sequels have come close to recapturing the magic of the original.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ghostbusters (1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, crude references, sexual material, frightening scenes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ivan Reitman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Elmer Bernstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Laszlo Kovacs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 8, 1984 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, William Atherton, David Marguiles, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-these-are-some-classic-flicks","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Ghostbusters-1984-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6636"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6917,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6636\/revisions\/6917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}