Ghostbusters (1984)
Composite Score: 83.78
Starring: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, William Atherton, and Ernie Hudson
Director: Ivan Reitman
Writers: Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis
Genres: Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror
MPAA Rating: PG
Box Office: $296.58 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Ghostbusters is a 1984 horror/sci-fi/comedy about three professors of the paranormal who start a for-profit ghost-hunting business after they are ousted from their university jobs. The film stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis as the trio of Ghostbusters, joined by Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett, their first client and paranormal skeptic, Rick Moranis as Louis Tully, Dana’s awkward neighbor who unwittingly becomes a paranormal victim as well, Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz, the Ghostbusters’ fiery secretary, and Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore, an addition to the team when their slate becomes just too much for three ‘busters to handle. The film received Oscar nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Original Song (“Ghostbusters”) and remains one of the classics of its genre – blending horror, science fiction, and comedy into a uniquely entertaining picture.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Ghostbusters is one of the most iconic films in cinematic history, but iconic doesn’t always equate with excellence across the board (see 2008’s Twilight for reference). Ghostbusters struggles a bit in the story and thematic departments. Story-wise, it follows the basic origin formula that we have become quite familiar with over the last twenty-some-odd years. In this case, it’s a team origin, featuring a group of guys who have a particular set of skills, work together, and don’t always agree on things. There’s a leader, a funny one, and a nerdy one (they later add the wise/spiritual one in Winston). They struggle through an introductory villain (Slimer) but quickly become famous while an ultimate world-ending threat is building in the background – usually with some connection to a romantic interest (Dana’s haunted refrigerator). They come face-to-face with the ultimate threat after some public backlash and potential break-up of the group and come out on top thanks to some self-sacrificial shenanigans that end up being not quite as permanent as they first seemed. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but I don’t think anyone’s going to win an argument that Ghostbusters is the most original story ever put to screen. There’s also some issues with the film’s choice to make the EPA and their regulation of nuclear power into the “real-life” villains along with the obviously problematic womanizing of Bill Murray’s Venkman.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
At the end of the day, even with its thematic issues and all-too-familiar story, Ghostbusters remains a highly entertaining and memorable watch. It delivers some of the best prop and practical effects work of the 1980s, on par with the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films. It also features some excellent character work from its actors and one of the most replayed theme songs of all time. The practical effects and prop design in Ghostbusters are like few other films – they are simple but unique, inviting copycats and homages for years to come. If you see someone on Halloween in a khaki jumpsuit, carrying a rubber hose, and wearing a black backpack – particularly a group of such costumes – you immediately know they are the Ghostbusters. The Ectomobile, their limo/ambulance hybrid vehicle, is up there with Kit and the DeLorean as unique iconic cars of the 1980s. Even the fictional marshmallow brand mascot – Stay Puft Marshmallow Man – has become synonymous with the franchise, and you can’t see a little white puff wearing a sailor outfit without immediately recalling the film’s climactic moments. Even Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” stands the test of time – still getting unironic play at Halloween parties throughout the month of October nearly forty years later. It’s an incredibly put-together film that brings you back time and again.
Bolstering the film’s excellent visual cues are the actors. Obviously, Murray and Aykroyd deliver their own brands of comedy with equal parts panache and bumbling as Venkman and Ray. Harold Ramis (rest in peace) created the perfect straight man foil in the person of Egon Spengler, delivering his lines with a level of commitment that you can’t help but respect and also chuckle at – excellent execution. Sigourney Weaver starts out as a fairly generic damsel in distress before setting herself apart by getting possessed and becoming the embodiment of Zuul, Gatekeeper of Gozer, in a turn that is equal parts terrifying and hilarious. The true scene-stealer of the film, though, is Rick Moranis as Dana’s neighbor Louis Tully – one of the unluckiest people in the universe who also happens to be the biggest personality of the whole film. His gratingly desperate performance remains the funniest of the film, if only because we all know someone who could be Louis, given the right circumstances.
Iconic characters, songs, props, and effects have made Ghostbusters into one of the lasting films of the 1980s, earning it a spot among the Greatest Films of All Time. All the iconography does enough to help the audience overlook the film’s overplayed story and more questionable undertones and achieve that state of entertainment that only a 1980s film can achieve. It is currently streaming via AMC+ if you have that, or it is available to rent on most other streaming services if you want to give it a watch.
