GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)

GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)

Tagline: Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!

(Action, Comedy) [PG]

Yes, we both have the same problem…you!

Needless to say, GHOSTBUSTERS is by far one of the most famous movies ever made. At the time it came out it was groundbreaking and we haven’t seen anything quite like it since (that wasn’t related to the series). So I am going to take a quick look at this thing and maybe clarify even more, why I have said the things that I have about this movie in the past. 

In this one Peter Venkman (played by the legendary Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (played by Dan Aykroyd) and Egon Spengler (played by the also legendary Harold Ramis) decide that after seeing their first ghost, it’s time to ask their university for more money. The problem is that they are basically junk scientists who are essentially abusing students at the college, using bizarre experiments. The university ends up kicking them out. One thing they are great at is catching ghosts, so they end up selling everything Stanz has, to get a firehouse. The firehouse is used as a base of operation. Now it’s time to advertise and make money, ridding New York of its ghost problem. On top of all that, the world is about to get its 3rd or 4th taste of Gozer (a Hittite god), who is pretty excited to let you pick the form of the destructor of the world. 

Regarding the acting in this, everyone is pretty amazing, but I don’t know if anyone did as good a job as Rick Moranis, who really stood out in every scene he was in. He plays a health nut tax accountant in the movie and he’s just hilariously fantastic. Sigourney Weaver also does an amazing job as Dana Barrett, at least during the time she “is” Dana Barrett. I also loved Ernie Hudson as the 4th Ghostbuster Winston Zeddemore. He plays a character that I wished had been my dad growing up. That is how much I looked up to him as kid. He is the only Ghostbuster that I would leave my own son with. We also get a decent soundtrack overall, with some hits and misses, but the score is solid. Effects wise for its day GHOSTBUSTERS was pretty solid in parts and bad in others. One strong point was the effects on “Slimer” (the most famous green glob ghost in the movie) which still hold up. What doesn’t hold up, is any time those Gozer dogs are running. 

I will say that the comedic timing was good in this movie, but a lot of the writing was mediocre to terrifying bad. There are some creepy lines given to Venkman (who is literally trying to seduce a student in the opening scene). Watching this now, he’s almost exhausting as a character. He is even given a line where he asks an old lady who has seen a ghost if she’s menstruating. What the actual hell, does that have to do with anything? We also get another scene where a ghost has what we can presume to be oral sex with Ray. While this is meant as a dream sequence, it seems that if you were trying to get kids to watch this thing with their parents, that is not a scene you would throw in there. It also serves zero purpose and isn’t remotely funny. 

I saw this thing in the theaters as a kid at the age of 11, and I was blown away by the treasure chest of fantastic effects and surprises. I think I must have seen this thing over 30 times since then and even with its mind-blowing energetic tug at the nostalgic heartstrings, I don’t enjoy it as much as I do GHOSTBUSTERS 2016 when I watch these films now. For the reasons listed, I give this thing a 6 out of 7. It stops short of the “perfection” which could have been. 

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