Ghostbusters 30th Anniversary

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.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Peter Quill is a human boy who was abducted by aliens and grows up to be a space outlaw working for a bunch of space pirates called Ravangers. After stealing a mysterious orb, Quill (who refers to himself as "Star Lord") finds himself being hunted down not only by his employers and the law, but by fearsome baddie Ronan the Accuser.  He is thrown together with an unlikely group of characters who, although they start out as rivals, discover they share a common goal. As they work together to achieve this goal, their allegiance to each other gets stronger, and they become "The Guardians of the Galaxy."

Cast

Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord

Zoe Saldana as Gamora

Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer

Vin Diesel as Groot

Bradley Cooper as Rocket

Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser

Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta

Karen Gillan as Nebula

Djimon Hounsou as Korath

John C. Reilly as Corpsman Rhomann Dey

Glenn Close as Nova Prime Irani Rael

Benicio del Toro as Taneleer Tivan / The Collector

Who will like this movie

I see a lot of similarities and parallels to Star Wars: A New Hope and on certain levels: The Usual Suspects. I have heard those say (and I agree with) there is a reminiscence to the TV Show: Farscape. In that regard, I suspect this to be appreciated by a wide range of fans. There are very few curse words and "intense" scenes that very young viewers with over sensitive parents may object to, but this is the perfect just about all ages movie.

Phantom Thoughts

I would like to start out saying that out of all the Marvel movies I have heard about being made, this was the one I was looking forward to LEAST. I had never even HEARD of this comic/graphic novel before and seriously.....a talking raccoon and tree? How good could it possibly be?

Boy, was I wrong.

This was a wonderful blend of action, sci-fi fantasy and comedy. The story moved along well and the characters were fleshed out and congealed at a good pace. Guardians didn't have to talk down to it's audience, but at the same time, you didn't have to over-think it. You just sat back and experienced it along with the main characters.

Now let's talk about those main characters for a moment...and I'll start with the ridiculous ones. Rocket is a raccoon that had been experimented on to become a walking, talking, thinking being. He is extremely intelligent in all things mechanical which is countered with his short fuse and low morals. He is voiced by Bradley Cooper, and if I didn't know that, I would never had guessed. He didn't use a funny or different voice for the role, but rather he gave the Rocket such unique life that he himself is hidden away. Groot is the walking tree-like creature who is the muscle of the duo. That being said, there is a sensitivity, almost a sadness in his demeanor. Vin Diesel says the words: "I am Groot" for the part (because that is just about all Groot says throughout the whole movie), but it's the WAY he says those 3 words at various stages that gives a communication to him. This was the most blatant similarity to Star Wars I felt, as Groot was a parallel of the Wookie Chewbacca.

Zoe Saldana is becoming synonymous with strong, female, alien women. And am I the only one who thinks it's just a little bit ironic that in the original Star Trek series, Kirk banged a green alien. And now the same actress who is Uhura in the NEW Star Trek movies, is playing a green alien in THIS one? Maybe it's just me.

Michael Rooker basically plays his Merle from the Walking Dead character only with blue make up on. Right down to the fact his weapon of choice is a mind controlled space arrow! If we find out he has a space crossbow-yielding brother played by Norman Reedus in the sequel....I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

As for the rest, Chris Pratt did a fantastic job balancing comedy, drama and action in his Peter Quill.

Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close and Benicio del Toro were all great in their roles as well. Even Dave Bautista, who I thought was merely cast for his physic, brought Drax to life impressively. But the one I was most floored with and surprised at was Karen Gillan.  She plays Thanos' daughter Nebula, who is reminiscent to Star Wars Clone Wars Ventress. Let me preface this by saying that I am a HUGE Doctor Who fan. And Gillan played Amy Pond in that series for 5 years. But even I did not recognize that it was HER playing Nebula until the end credits. I knew she had shaved her head for a role, I just didn't know it was THIS one. But it wasn't just the make-up and the bald head that threw me, her jealousness, viciousness and bad-ass/kick-ass portrayal was so infinitely remarkable, she was unrecognizable even to a fan such as myself. Geronimo, Pond!  

I wanted to go see a regular old 2-D showing, but it was sold out. So I was "forced" to see this in 3-D. The 3-D effects were not fantastic, but there were a good amount of "things flying at you" moments that were effective. But where the 3-D really shined was in the scenes in space and  fight scenes.

As you can imagine, a movie with a talking raccoon and tree set in outer space has quite a bit of CGI involved in it. However, unlike the "Oz the Great and Powerful" all the CGI scenes and characters were un-noticeable. By that I mean, it was as if someone pointed a camera at Groot and Chris Pratt on a distant planet surface and yelled: "Action!" It was never distracting or out of place.

I found myself laughing and applauding with the rest of the audience in the theater. To me, this one came out of no where and hit all the right marks. Nicely done, Marvel. Excelsior! Of course, since it is a Marvel movie, I don't have to tell you to watch for the "extra" scene at the very end of the credits. Although there have been many links around the web giving this scene away, I will not play into the spoilers....(my Brother just choked on his Doritos with that statement).

I look forward to this new franchise and my hope is that they can keep the bar as high as they have set it.

Until next time, see you in the center seat!