Ghostbusters (1984)
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The Review Fantasy/Comedy/Adventure with our team capturing
ghosts and saving Producer/Director Ivan Reitman's
"Ghostbusters" is a wildly entertaining off beat comic effort. The fun cast includes Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, Annie
Potts, Ernie Hudson, William Atherton, and Slavitza
Jovan. |
The story involves a group of parapsychologists who
are kicked out of a university for their offbeat research, and unscientific
practices, as shown in the Bill Murray scene with the young co-ed in the esp experiment, at the beginning of the film. After
gathering physical data from a scary Spector they met
in the basement of the New York City Public Library, they are able to set up a
private company designed to rid people of pesky ghosts, through the use of
unique nuclear proton/neutron guns, with wild results.
Bill Murray gives one of his most endearing
performances as one of the Ghostbusters, who overcomes his personality faults
to rise to the occasion of defeating demonic entities to save Dana Barrett
(Weaver), and Louis Tully (Moranis), as well as the
city of
Rick Moranis is particularly
good as a nerd, with no savior faire, who besides
being an exercise and vitamin nut, hosts parties where he invites only his
clients, so he can write off the expense. He has a big-time crush on Weaver,
but he doesn't generate any reciprocal feelings from Weaver until both of them
are possessed by demons.
Who can forget that great theme song, by Ray Parker, Jr. It's almost
impossible to not like, unless you're already dead and a ghost yourself.
Ghost Buster's imaginative, creative, hilarious script
was written by the very talented Dan Aykroyd and
Harold Ramis. Some of the premises about ghosts in
this movie are the result of a very creative imagination, which ads up to to a very entertaining movie. Real apparitions don't leave
a trail of gooey, slimy ectoplasm, that can be
collected, & analyzed. Some have been photographed, filmed, and ghosts hunters do use instruments to detect such things as
temperature changes. Ghosts can't be caught, or contained, but most ghosts can
be made to leave by exorcism, or by help from a medium
and /or parapsychologist. (See WA: Monaghan Hall; NY: Morris-Jumel Mansion; KS: Fort Leavenworth; MI: Grand Rapids)
While many apparitions, like the one of the elderly
lady in the basement of the library, reading, at the beginning of the movie,
are clearly seen in detail, and do indeed float above the floor, they usually
don't turn into such a scary form that chased the trio of soon-to-be ghost
busters out of the library. (See SC: Legare Street House,
The film has many ghostly FX. The Visual Effects are
courtesy of Richard Edlund. Toward the end of the
movie, after the grid is shut down by the EPA, many ghostly apparitions, vapors, mists, etc. invade the city. A cloudy mist goes up
the tailpipe of a taxi, and a goul is seen driving
the taxi, crashing into the side of the street, with a passenger in the back.
The coming of Gozer, the demon dogs, the activity in
Dana's kitchen and refrigerator are brought to life with a scary reality.
Favorite Scenes: The "green spud" flying around the ritzy hotel,
eating and drinking other's meals, and the battle scene in the main ball room
between this green spud, and the Ghost Busters is most realistic and
entertaining. The script also spoofs war movies, that
have scenes of untried, rookie soldiers trying to cope before, during and after
their first major battle, and how they learn to fight as a team to be
victorious. The actual possession of Sigorney Weaver
was pretty convincing and scary, and she is totally convincing as a woman
possessed by a demon dog in the scene with Bill Murray, but the scariness was
kept in check with Bill's funny lines, and reactions, creating a fun balance
appropriate for a comedy. Also, the script also spoofs war movies,
that have scenes of untried, rookie soldiers trying to cope before,
during and after their first major battle. The grand battle at the end and the
ending is also most enjoyable, scary, adventuresome, and funny at the same
time.