GHOSTBUSTERS
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 1998
In the late 1980s and early 1990s I watched incredible
multitude of Hollywood movies and that was probably the
period that finally shaped my moviegoing preferences. That
process was anything but painless, and now I feel uneasy
anytime someone mentions phrase "high concept". If such
phrase is accompanied with the words like "comedy by Ivan
Reitman", I shudder. However, despite such Pavlovian
reflexes, I am ready to admit that Reitman occasionally did
rose above the levels of mediocrity. First, in the last two
decades he produced some remarkable films (early works by
David Cronenberg, ANIMAL HOUSE by John Landis), and,
finally, once he did direct a comedy that actually can make
people laugh. Such event happened in 1984 with GHOSTBUSTERS,
one of the biggest commercial hits of that season. The movie
not only produced a successful cartoon franchise (and also
abominably bad 1989 sequel, directed by Reitman), ZX
Spectrum computer game (which the author of this review
liked to play years before he had an opportunity to watch
the movie itself), but it also stood the test of time.
Movie protagonists are three scientists - Doctor Peter
Venkman (Bill Murray), Doctor Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd)
and Doctor Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) - who study the
paranormal phenomena at university. However, their research
isn't appreciated by the university administration and all
three of them are finding themselves on the street. Out of
desperation they decide to cash their field of expertise and
soon they start brand new business of exorcising ghosts,
apparitions and similar beings from the haunted buildings of
New York. Their enterprise coincides with the sudden
increase of paranormal phenomena all over the city, so with
the huge demand for their services, trio of Ghostbusters is
getting famous. One of their clients, beautiful musician
Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) have seen some strange
things in her apartment, but womanising Doctor Venkman seems
to be more interested in her than business. That is about to
change, when the newcomer to the group, layman Winston
Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) warns about possibility of ghosts
being the messengers of the Apocalypse. In the meantime,
both Dana and her nerdy neighbour Louis Tully (Rick Moranis)
are being possessed by evil spirits, who prepare the arrival
of evil Sumerian demigod.
High concept of this film - mixing paranormal with comedy -
doesn't seem too original these days. However, compared with
similar films like FRIGHTENERS, Reitman's fantasy seems to
be incredibly fresh and entertaining. First of all, the cast
is simply superb - the lead trio is played by experienced
comic actors. Bill Murray is excellent as womanising
scientist, with a lot of lines that seem ad-libbed. Dany
Aykroyd is good as his more serious, but also flawed
colleague (his cigarette is nicely drawn character trait).
The only "sterotyped" scientist is well-played by Harold
Ramis, who keeps his serious demeanour even in most
embarrassing situations. Rick Moranis is also good as an
accountant. Even the actors who aren't usually associated
with comedies are good - Sigourney Weaver in one of her
first big non-ALIEN roles (and one of the most erotic in her
career) and William Atherton as pushy Federal bureacrat. All
those roles are spiced with witty, intelligent dialogue and
sometimes really funny jokes.
Unfortunately, those jokes are too few to build a movie
around them and at times the screenplay, written by Ramis
and Aykroyd (obviously interested in paranormal, judging by
his producing of PSI FACTOR television series), brings the
pace of the movie at stall. Luckily, wjen the humour fails,
director tries to compensate it with good special effects.
Those effects, by Richard Englund, are fine and might still
impress people even after more than a decade of constant
improvements in that field. This technique - covering the
lack of plot with visual attractions - is all too common
(and mostly unscuccessful) in today's Hollywood, yet Reitman
in this case managed to pull it off. Production design by
John DeCuir is also fine and adds a lot to the spooky feel
of the movie. Musical soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein Jr. is
disappointing, unlike the title song by Ray Parker Jr.,
which used to be a great hit in its time. All in all,
GHOSTBUSTERS could hardly be called a masterpiece, yet it
remains as one of the more entertaining pieces of cinema of
the previous decade.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
Review written on November 18th 1998
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
Fido: 2:381/100
E-Mail: dragan.antulov@st.tel.hr
dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr
Have I Seen This Movie: Yes
And What Did I Think?: This is a truly fun film to watch. The chemistry between Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis combined with a great story and wonderful special effects made this one of the biggest films of the 80's. I've seen this many times and even just bought the movie again on DVD which makes it a whole new experience from all the wonderful features it has. All the actors here give great performances here including Sigourney Weaver, the funny Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts. Ivan Reitman did a great job directing this and the special effects team really brought this film to life. Where else can you see a giant marshmallow man attack New York City? One thing about the DVD, it shows how all these wonderful special effects were done. After this movie came the cartoon series and Ghostbusters 2 which wasn't quite as good as the original. I've heard rumors of Ghostbuster 3 for a couple of years now, but they are just rumors. If you haven't seen Ghostbusters, go rent it. If you have a DVD player, Ghostbusters is a must have addition to your collection.
I give Ghostbuster 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Review written July 29, 1999
