This is going to be a little different "review" than I've done in the past. I have always done reviews of movies I've seen in the movie theater, and although I DID watch this in a theater, being that it is 30 years old, I don't feel the need to explain what this is about or who it is geared to or who will like it.
That being said, I HAD to go see this on the big screen....again. You see, this was one of the first movies I became obsessed with after first gazing my eyes upon it. (Star Wars holds the top spot on that list, which I saw 7 years earlier) The movie came out June 1st 1984, and I spent the next 4 months making my Ghostbusters Halloween costume. I had a pirated VHS copy (and a good, professional copy considering this is in 1984!) that my uncle had gotten me. I had the record...yes, you heard me...an actual vinyl record of the soundtrack. I hung the movie poster on the inside of my bedroom door. I was hooked.
I listened to that record all Summer long, working in the basement of my parents house. I used what I could see from the poster and paused the movie tape over and over to try and get all the details I could. Using mostly cardboard, tape, a water gun rifle, some spray paint and lights from old battery powered toys, I fashioned my own Proton Pack. I recorded the theme song over and over on to an audio tape and put a tape recorder inside it. It was finished off with my Dads coveralls, a Ghostbusters emblem that I painstakingly drew and attached with some duct tape and an electrical tape name tag. It is, to this day, one of the costumes I am most proud of. It's a shame that I have no photo of it.
But the real reason I had to see this on the big screen again was that for the last 30 years, if I am in a conversation about watching a movie at home vs. watching in a theater, Ghostbusters is my go-to example of why it's better in the theater. A point that I am happy to say was reinforced tonight. You see, no matter if it was the pirated VHS tape, the official videotape, DVD or even the collector's edition widescreen DVD....NONE of them has been able to put on a television screen what you get to see on actual aspect ratio. The best example of this is the obligatory montage scene that movies at the time all had. If you remember, this particular montage was the rise of fame of the Ghostbusters in New York City. Various magazine covers were on screen along side shots of the crew capturing ghosts all over the city. Try as they might with clever editing, all the home versions never get the full view of this. This also happens in other parts of the movie as well.
This was a guilty pleasure for me and I enjoyed every minute of it. Does it stand up against the test of time? Well...maybe not as much. For one, all the characters are smoking...indoors....all through the movie. (Something they quickly did away with in Ghostbusters 2. NO ONE is seen smoking in that one.) Also, there are a lot of product placement that when you see the labels of the items, you just know it's from quite a while ago. Lastly, the special FX. Great for it's time, but flaws are accentuated when seen 30 ft. tall. Most notably a scene that is looking down at the street over the shoulder of one of the Demon Dog "statues", and you not only see the lines of the road through the statue image, but cars going by as well can be seen coming through it.
But you know what? I didn't care. I loved sitting there in a darkened theater, with my popcorn, soda and Milk Duds watching Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis and the late, great Harold Ramis utter those now famous lines in surround sound.
Until next time, see you in the center seat.......and maybe I will be wearing my Ghostbusters emblem patch. A step up from the drawn paper one.
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