Customer Reviews
Ghostbusters - By: Book Worm, 13 Jul 2008 
'Ghostbusters' is an ironic, tongue in cheek comedy from the eighties & although the effects look dated, the humour & fun has not. Bill Murray has some great lines & performs them in his usual dead pan way & Rick Moranis is as gawky & geeky as he is in alll his films. The plot is pretty silly, but considering it's not trying to be too serious it's best to suspend disbelief & sit back & enjoy the fun. This film spawned many spin offs, from a cartoon, a sequel & a host of toys (which I loved playing with as a kid!) & you can see why, some of the characters are iconic looking back (The Stay Paft marshmalllow man & slimer to name two). A good, fun film that should keep you watching & entertained & makes you want to watch the slightly darker Ghostbusters 2. Worth a viewing if you haven't seen it before & a trip down memory lane for those of us that have.
HAS DATED BADLY - By: HUNTER, 15 Jan 2008 
Ghostbusters has not stood the test of time. The special effects look pretty ropey now but you could live with that if the script was better. Twenty odd years on & the weakness of the script is clear, it just isn't very funny & some of the acting is dire. Some people are easily amused if they think this is good.
ghostly goings on tingle and amuse somewhat - By: Ben Le Pensive, 24 Jul 2007 A hearty little yarn of a film with plenty of activity to keep the viewer sustained sufficiently for the duration.
I have to admit, as a firm non-believer in ghosts I went to see this movie somewhat reluctantly. Ghostbusters hype was gripping the country & some cinema goers were going dressed in official ghostbusters t-shirts. A few brave ones went as characters from the film. One man turned up as Stay Puft The Marshmalllow man which I found bemusing.
I was not quite so bold, I attended the screening in normal attire, but I did write the words 'who you gonna calll' across my chest to show my support.
I was particularly pleased to see the film starred one of my favourite actors, Harold Ramis, who I had followed for many years on & off screen.
The other ghostbusters are played by Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd & Michael Winslow. But it is Ramis who turns in the best performance & certainly the one which generates alll the laughs.
There is a surprise cameo from Sigourney Weaver (pronounced Sin-Your-Ree Wevver) & she is a pleasure to watch. I particularly enjoyed the scene where she flys on the ghost through the streets of Manhattan.
My only criticism would be that the film doesn't know which genre it fallls into. One minute it's a sci-fi, the next a western & at times I felt uncomforable as it seemed to be veering towards erotic thriller.
Nonetheless, I stayed watching the film until the very last credit came up & applauded loudly when it ended.
Since the film's release I have had a renewed interest in ghosts & the news that Ghostbusters 3 is on the cards keeps me excited for many a day.
WHO ARE YOU GONNA CALL? - By: stuart, 04 Jul 2007 
The first thing that needs to be said is that Ghostbusters (1984) is possibly the funniest film ever. That's quite the bold statement to make but with good cause. This film holds up probably more than any other comedy in existence. You know how there are those movies that you see that are hysterical the first few times you see them? This one just keeps on coming. I remember when I was a kid, I wore our copy of Ghostbusters out. At the time, I watched it constantly never realizing what it truly was. I hadn't yet caught on to a lot of the humor. I noticed that I hadn't seen the film for forever & a day so I bought it & last night I put it in my DVD player & oh my God...I just about died with laughter.
This movie has something for everyone. Director Ivan Reitman said that he found a comedic formula for films...it works as follows: There's the brain, the heart, & the mouth. Ghostbusters scored with alll of them. As the brain of the bunch, Egon Spengler's (Harold Ramis also co-wrote it) use of witty humor is hilarious. If you have the right mind set, almost everything Spengler says is laugh out loud funny. At the heart of the Ghostbusters is Dan Aykroyd's (Who created the idea for the film) lovable fool, Ray Stantz. Ray has a tenacity for saying simple minded things & using very little logic & yet somehow the man got a P.H.D. (Probably through studying habits, despite ignorance.) There's a line that he says involving a smell in the beginning of the movie that I am chuckling at just thinking about it. This of course leaves Bill Murray (He was nominated for a Gloden Globe) as the sarcastic Peter Venkman (The mouth of the beast.) Peter is likely the one that gets the most laughs because he, being the mouth that he is, never stops making fun of everything. It's like Rodney Dangerfield in the party scene in Caddyshack but a whole lot funnier & continues the rest of the movie. The film also produces some laughter out of the minor characters as well. The scatological humor toward the end of the film between Rick Moranis (In a role intended for John Candy) & Sigourney Weaver is quite laughter inducing. Ernie Hudson in one of his first big roles has a few good lines as the other Ghostbuster, Winston Zeddmore (The only one who's not a doctor) & William Atherton of Die Hard fame plays the ultimate annoyance as Walter Peck. Not to be forgotten in the mix is Annie Potts as Janine who has some rather memorable humorous lines, for instance the one I've written to summarize the movie. Numerous other well known faces are seen on screen too, which includes John Belushi (Or rather his continuation of the character Bluto, from Animal House) as the principal image used for the now famous 'Disgusting Blob,' Slimer. Like any good comic will tell you, good comedy is generallly about setting up the other guys around you. Well, it just so happens that the characters alll work well with each other to set the great comedic moments staged in this film.
Not to be forgotten however in alll the funny one liners & set ups is the overalll film. Ghostbusters was nominated for numerous awards including Oscars for best song (Courtesy of Ray Parker Jr.) & special effects, which are now slightly dated but possibly work even better with the wacky style being consistent with the rest of the movie. Along with Parker, there are numerous other great songs including a song by The Bus Boys that climbed charts & a rather creepy seeming song (But works well) by Mick Smiley. Another thing that should not be forgotten is the horror elements of the film. Though purposely outrageous, the effects do serve as some potential scare moments. Among the most frightening involve stop motion animated puppets callled Terror Dogs. Though the scares are few, they do work fairly well (They had me convinced as a youngster) bringing enough threat to the ghosts that haunt New York City. The story itself is interesting as well, involving some intriguing mythology of Sommeria among other countries.
Where some films tend to only work a few times, Ghostbusters is consistent. Although, I've found movies such as CLUE, Dr. Strangelove or Airplane to be funnier at different times in my life, this one still makes me laugh even after seeing it hundreds of times. From the opening scares to the ending credits, it will almost surely reel you in. I've laughed harder at some moments in other films but it's rare that I find one that's funnier throughout. Even those films lose their edge after you see them a few times...this one just doesn't. If you haven't seen it, do so. You will almost certainly be glad you did. If you have seen it & didn't like it, try watching it again in a few years. It's almost sure to grow on you eventuallly. I dare anyone to sit through this movie & not laugh once, no matter how many times they've seen it. If you don't laugh, you're either trying reallly hard to hold back, have a very odd sense of humour or are dead! It's just that funny.I would easily rate this one a five out of five, placed among the classics. Believe it or not, I think that it belongs alongside Citizen Kane & Lawrence of Arabia. It also spawned an entertaining sequel in 1989. Enjoy!
"Tell him about the Twinkie..." - By: Gail Parnell, 23 May 2007 Ghostbusters - a seminal, feel good film from the eighties which a chart topping theme song, memorable characters & sets & deadpan humour.
I was only four when this film came out, & when I was little the theme song was one of my favaroites to dance to (I was four, so forgive me!) & didn't get round to seeing the movie until I was about thirteen, though I had watched the cartoons which were spawned as a result of this fantastic film.
I have to say that this film is a classic. It is a great saturday night, night in movie, with brilliant performances alll round. Venkman (Bill Murray) is perfectly cast as the womanising Dr. whose mind is on dating the women, rather than conducting his experiments properly. Certainly, he has designs on "studying" them - just not in the scientific sense. (The early scene with the negative reinforcement on ESP ability & the cards is a classic) Venkman's preoccupation with chasing every woman he meets, apparently makes him a poor scientist, so he gets himself & his chums booted off campus. (Alas for Venkman he never gets his date with that hot blonde he was eyeballling at the start of the film!)
Eagon (Harold Ramis) & Stanz (Akroyd) are also typecast wonderfully. Ramis' is an exact opposite to Venkman, in the fact that he does not find women in the least bit interesting. Janelle is obviously flattered with Ramis' good looks, & flirts with him, but Eagon's deadplan reply to the question of "do you have any hobbies?" is "I collect spores, moulds & fungus." I laughed out loud! Akroyd is inspiring too as the sort of child like Ray, whose fascination with the pole at the firestation is his sole reason for wanting to buy the place (well, he did have three morgages on his house) & his gentle manner make him my favaroite character.
The film is also supported by brilliant actors like Signourney Weaver & Rick Moranis.
The story - in case you don't know is three scientists go into business for themselves, trapping ghosts. Their first job at an illustrious hotel is a success, & they emerge victorious & full of enthusiasm.
Then things get strange, & they get busy. Very busy. There's dogs in refrigerators & ghosts on every corner, & our heroes are becomming so busy that sleep is becoming an alll to distant memory & they're hiring a fourth member. The EPA, Walter Peck - played here by a slimy as ever William Atherton (who also played an abnoxious reporter in Die Hard) decide the Ghostbusters must be put out of business & the containment unit shut down. Once the unit is shut down, literatly alll hell breaks loose, & its up to the Ghostbusters to save the day - & the lives of millions of registered voters.
The special effects, though obviously dated now still look very good, especiallly the scene Stay Puft Marshmellow man. This film is vastly superior to its sequal, & is worth owning for its fuzzy, feel good eighties factor. Everyone on this film was obviously having a balll, & though their sequal wouldn't be the best, it was still nice to see those Ghostbusters back.
So, own a piece of eighties nostalgia, settle down, & remember if you hear strange noises in the middle of the night...who you going to calll?
No, not the A-Team - GHOSTBUSTERS!!
