Road to Ghostbusters: Afterlife - Ghostbusters (1984) Review

 

With Ghostbusters: Afterlife on the way, it's time to start the road to that movie. So let's begin with the classic that started it all.

Ghostbusters is a 1984 supernatural comedy movie. The film was produced by Columbia-Delphi Productions and Black Rhino and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Ghostbusters was written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis and directed by Ivan Reitman.

The story is three scientist named Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler have been fired from their college university, but instead of feeling sorry for themselves they take the opportunity to start their business....a ghost hunting business. Then they get a call that something more sinister than they ever dealt with is coming, now along with new team member Winston, they must put a stop to this threat or all of New York is doomed.

• Negatives

I've got nothing to say. Let's move on.

• Mix

Now for a majority of the film the special effects are spectacular. A good portion of them haven't aged a day, however you do got those ones that aren't good. The biggest one being when the Terror Dogs are running around you can tell it's stop motion. Although, I can't really be too hard on the crew for this. Because they were being experimental, but at the same time if you got through the film's production history, they had a pretty tight schedule, so I guess it only makes sense that some effects are better than others.

• Positives

So now let me tell you the best things about this film. One of those being the music. I'll praise the theme song later, but what I want to give praise to is the score. You don't really hear as much as the songs, but whenever you do it's good. The score really sets the tone for the more scary parts of the film. Now to discuss the theme song......what is there to say? It's the Ghostbusters theme song. That song much like the Jaws theme, it has a life of it's own. I actually meet people who haven't seen the movie yet, but they're fully aware the theme song.

What I also loved about the movie was the pacing. This film goes by a lot quicker than I remember from my last viewings. Yesterday in preparation for this review, I watched the movie at 7:00 on the spot, and then next I know it's over and it's only like 8:47 maybe 8:48, I don't remember the exact time, but my point is that's when you know a movie has great pacing. When you can look at your watch and "Oh wow, didn't know I was watching the movie for this long."

Another aspect of Ghostbusters that makes it an all time classic is the humor. This was probably my 4th viewing of this movie and to this day, I still laugh at all of the jokes. And it's not just that the jokes are funny, but what makes them work is they're subtle and not in your face about it.

The other thing that that people love about this movie was the performances. Bill Murray, Dan Aykrody, and Harold Ramis worked perfectly with each other. Their chemistry with themselves really made this movie. Then you got everyone else, especially Rick Moranis. The guy played the role of Louis so well that's there's no way you can picture anybody else in that role.

The last thing I'll praise the movie for is the likeable characters. My favorite is definitely Venkman. I liked not only his sense of humor, but also how is basically the smart mouth of the group. And of course you'll also like the other characters such as Ray and his almost childlike excitement. So many likeable characters....expect for Walter Peck...nobody likes Peck.

Ghostbusters is one of the many great movies that came out of the 80's. It has great music, great pacing, a perfect sense of humor, even better performances, and has a great set of likeable characters. The only mix bag is the special effects.

My final rating is Great.

So that's going to do it for me. Come back on Saturday, Aug 14th for my review of Free Guy. Really been looking forward to that one. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.