The Ghostbusters Appreciation Thread

Stay Puff was cheesy as hell and it worked really well! The ghost in the library, not cheesy and scared the shit out of me when I was younger.

Still the best way to start a comedy, scare the hell out of your audience right off the bat.

"you're right Ray, no human being would stack books this way"

I love that line.

Also the whole sequence with Murray and Weaver outside the symphony practice.

My parents wouldn't let me watch it either, having heard that children might find the scenes of possession disturbing. Meanwhile, all my friends were loving the movie.

I really admire that they successfully pulled off the ridiculous giant marshmallow man concept.

Pretty much the entire reason I'm even posting here.

It was my son's first favorite movie, so for a couple months it was playing everyday. Made me appreciate it even more. The characters are all so good and play off each other perfectly. Some of the best lines in history. It was funny to hear Harold Ramis in the commentary say the scariest thing in the movie was Dr. Peter Venkman.

Pretty much the entire reason I'm even posting here. Again. (sorry for the double post).

Perfection.

No WAY would this ever get a PG today, either. Phantom blowjobs? Not even in PG-13. And those effects were state of the art in 1984 - hardly cheesy in my opinion. This got an Oscar nomination for the visual effects but lost to TEMPLE OF DOOM. That's a debatable call, but we all know the Academy doesn't give comedy any love, so it's hardly surprising. Totally deserving of classic status.

"That is one big twinkie."

and I know "Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!" was a running catch phrase in my house.

"It's true sir....this man has no dick."

Favorite comedy.

I love all of the throw-away occult stuff: "Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor!"

When he enters Dana's apartment: "That's right boys, it's Dr. Venkman!"

"The guy was known for performing a lot of unecessary surgaries."

And Ron Jeremy as one of the people on the street looking up at all the crazy shit going in the building.

"See you on the other side, Ray."
"Nice working with you, Dr. Venkman."

I always loved that little moment.

"It's technical" became my dad's standard answer when he had no idea what he was talking about. Still love that line, thanks to Murray's delivery.

When I first watched it as a kid the scene at the end where they're entering the building with the crowd cheering was about as exhilarated as I've ever felt during a movie. As I grew up I started appreciating its more subtle charms but that first time was phenomenal.

"I was going to say...Eight o' clock."

Love that Slimer is supposed to be a tribute to Belushi.

Can we all agree the sequel really shits on the first one?

I see the sequel as a very poor re-hash of the first film, kind of like a bad re-make.

This partnered with Real Genius and Die Hard is part of the William Atherton Asshole trilogy.

I imagine this movie set back the EPA's rep for decades.

Another reason why the sequel isn't good. I don't support Bill Murray trying to convince Viggo to move to my neck of the woods. The hell man?

There is one thing that genuinely enjoy about the second film that I wish could have been explored a little more. I really like the scene when Ray and Egon (I think) are developing the pictures of Vigo and they see the odd changes in the pictures that weren't in the painting when the pictures were being taken. Then the door to the developing room locks on it's own and all the pictures start to catch on fire. I really loved the tone of this scene. It was like the Ghostbusters had been suddenly thrown into Amityville Horror. They weren't fighting cartoon-looking ghosts anymore, they were facing the "real" kinda ghostly shit you hear about and see on ghost hunting documentaries.

Unfortunately, the scene doesn't fit with the rest of the movie at all.

Instead we get more dancing toasters.

Pure lightning in a bottle, it's a case of the right roles being handed to the right actors. Everyone brought their A game and pulled off a classic.

Up until about 99, this was my easy go-to answer for Favorite Movie (I can no longer answer the question). It's pretty much perfect. I think it works so well because despite seeming like a kid's movie, it's clearly written by adults for adults, and of course, the ghosts are more or less allowed to be frightening and the threat is allowed to be real (a lesson Reitman likely learned after the ending of Stripes). Also, several comic geniuses reaching their creative peak at one time (Murray, Akroyd, Moranis, Ramis, Reitman).

The sequel is terrible. Murray is actually very good in it, and Peter MacNicol, I guess, but the rest is vile, especially the attempts to recapture the dialogue magic of the original and to pander to the kids that embraced the original. Hell, the cartoon series was better. I think the reason I'm okay with a new, likely awful Ghostbuster film is that the second one shit the bed so badly already.

Let's not forget the statue of liberty bukkake.

Couple of Points:

Ghostbusters was, is and I suspect always will be my all-time favorite movie. In my humble opinion, the script, improvising (of which there's less than you expect), chemistry, etc. are perfection. It's one of just a few movies that I cannot possibly get tired of.

Cheesy special effects? Really? With the exception of the stop-motion devil dogs, I think the special effects hold up surprisingly well. Hell, there better than most of the supposedly photorealistic CGI we get in this day and age.

The second Ghostbusters is, I believe, nothing more than a live action version of "The Real Ghostbusters" cartoon series. I wrote a fairly lengthy post about it in some time in the past, but the film is quite evidently attempting to draw in the Saturday morning fanbase: Janine's appearance has changed to match her cartoon character, the ghosts look far cartoonier than the original, etc.

Lastly, I'm very excited--and slightly embarrassed that I shelled out the cash--for the Real Ghostbusters DVD collection... but I'm a sucker for all things Ghostbuster. Has anyone read the Legion miniseries, by any chance?

Very much in the same way I feel about Dave.

"Oh come on, Ray, everybody has three mortgages these days!"

Murray just owns in this. It's the perfect distillation of the kind of character he'd been playing for years, yet not simply a rehash of those performances.

As for Ghostbusters II, Peter MacNichol is great, and I kind of dig the film up until the Scolari Brothers scene. It was interesting to see the backlash and to see them down on their luck. Had that continued for the entire film, with the final battle not only seeing them save the day but winning their good name back, it would have been a stronger film. It also doesn't help that Vigo is an incredibly mundane villain after the cosmic grandeur of Gozer.

I do love Venkman's local access show though, especially his sign-off.

http://s87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...ahchapter1.flv

wow..

He's so damn convincing, almost ruins The Sugarland Express for me!

Love Murray's seduction technique with Weaver:

"What's this?"
"That's the bedroom. But nothing ever happpened in there."
"What a ..crime."

Has anyone read the Legion miniseries, by any chance?

Was that the comic book series? if so I'm sad to say that I missed it

I read the comic books of The Real Ghostbusters when I was a kid. They were maybe a touch darker than the show, but whatever, still kids comic books. But they lead me to Ralph Snart, so that was good. I wonder if my Mom still has those in a box.

My God, I had no idea Oprah was such a shitty interviewer. I'm actually glad I've managed to avoid her show all these years.

As for little things in the movie I love:

*The ESP student at the beginning gets every card right, just in the wrong order. Cracks me up everytime.

* "Listen!" *piano twinkle* "You smell something?"

* "Wow! This place is GREAT! When can we move in?! I'm gonna get my stuff! Hey! We should stay here tonight! Sleep here! Y'know, to try it out!"

* "I have a thirty minute workout, but I played the tape back at twice the speed so I got the same workout in half the time."

* Egon oh-so-subtlety giving Venkmen the price for how much they should charge the hotel manager. They were about a nose hair from bankruptcy, so I like to think they charged the guy for everything except the clothes on his back so they can stay open.

I could go on for hours.

Yeah. I picked it up when it first came out. Took a few liberties - takes place after the first film, ignoring the second completely, and it treats the film like it happened in the 2000s.

I thought it was a pretty good story - an old partner of the original 3 wants revenge and dabbles in the dark arts to do so. It certainly wasn't just a rehash of the first film. Carried a darker tone, but still balanced the comedy pretty well. I thought the writer had a good grasp of the characters. I laughed a couple of times at Venkman's dialogue.

And I have also reserved The Real Ghostbusters box set. I'll prolly ignore all the crap that carries the moniker "Slimer and...", but the early stuff written by J Michael was pretty good.

Oh man. I had seen the movie so many times growing up, but I never noticed this part (possibly because I usually was stuck seeing the Pan & Scan version) until one of our local theaters showed this last December.

I was laughing my ass off. Originally, I thought the scene was funny simply for how smarmy Venkman comes off as, totally going into his car salesman mode to throw numbers at the Hotel Manager. But when I saw it last december on the big screen and saw Egon off to the side giving Peter hand signals for the costs? I died.

In fact, there were a lot of little moments I noticed for the first time when I saw it last year - like the fact that Venkman takes his Chinese food with him when they go on their first real case that isn't Dana (the hotel). That scene was suddenly funnier because it kinda emphasizes what he says to Ray after Ray tells him that "This magnificent feast represents the last of the petty cash."

EDIT: I can't type worth a damn today.

This was the series with the boogeyman episode, right? Scared the crap out of me as a kid. That and the halloween ep with Sam Hain.

ETA: Not to divert, but between those two characters and the Grundel (thanks Wikipedia)there were some great villians in that show.

Hey, Don, thanks for the Legion info. Apparently, there's a second series coming out in October: "The Other Side".

my favorite line in GB is a small thing, but when venkman is in dana's apartment using the squeezy thing and she's like, "are you using that thing right?" I love when he looks at it, perplexed, and just goes, "Well, there's no...I THINK so."

GB 2 is bad all around, but i do like 2 small bits. When Ray is looking right at the camera just before he gets possesed, great funny look. and also... "Why am I drippings with goo?" that's about it.

Yep. The same series. In fact, the episodes you mentioned were some of the best ones.

No problem. I heard about the new series. I'll be checking it out as well.

Wanted to give a shout-out for Elmer Bernstein's great score. It ranges from down-on-your-lucky goofy/sardonic to epicly apocalyptic. Flavors every scene perfectly. And I love Richard Edlund and Steve Johnson's visual and makeup FX work on this (same guys on BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA 2 years later).

EDIT: Something semi-curious I noticed. imdb list the first film as GHOST BUSTERS (2 words), but #2 as GHOSTBUSTERS II (1 word). There's also variations on the animated adaptation and in the unrelated version (70's tv series and Filmation cartoon... with the gorilla). Not to mention having to use adjectives as "Real" and "Original" to differentiate the separate cartoon versions.

Wikipedia says: Columbia Pictures had to obtain the rights to the name from Filmation for its film...

The show (Filmation's Ghostbusters) is also known as The Original Ghost Busters because when Columbia Pictures released the film Ghostbusters in 1984 it neglected the fact that Filmation had already produced a live-action comedy series with that same name in 1975. Filmation sued Columbia in 1985, and as part of the out-of-court settlement the cartoon based on the Columbia Pictures property could not simply be called Ghostbusters. Columbia proceeded to name their cartoon show The Real Ghostbusters to directly distinguish it from the Filmation show.

Filmation had even gone as far as to attempt to work with Columbia Pictures and had completed initial design work for a cartoon to be based on the movie. Columbia changed its minds, deciding not to work with Filmation, and the proposed deal fell through (Columbia worked with DiC instead). Filmation's Lou Scheimer later admitted "We should have asked for the animation rights for their (Columbia's) Ghostbusters as part of the settlement."[1] This prompted Filmation to create the cartoon based on its former live-action series.

I've often theorized that if the third one has to happen, the Boogeyman episode would be a good reference on how to tell a compelling story using the Ghostbuster concept and not retread the events of the first one.

Also, how can I forget Venkman's awesome moment of wish fulfillment:

"The flowers are still standing!"

Another of my fav moments: Ramis in the library, listening for sounds, is oblivious to the arrival of Murray. Murray starts moaning and tapping on the table, much to Ramis' astonishment...ending with the final slam on the table.

I haven't seen GB2 in ages, but I recall hating the 'romance' between Moranis and the secretary. The smarmy secretary from the first movie was turned into a nerd...why?

One of my favorite movie lines of all time: "Listen! You smell something?"

The first ever movie that was my "Favorite" It's still in my top 5. And in my opinion it has to be as close to a perfect movie as you can get.

Some of my favorite parts...

**Venkman getting slim on his hands and face while collecting it for Egon in the library "Somebody blows their nose and you want to keep it"

**When Ego flips on Ray's Proton Pack in the elevator then tries to get as far away from it as he can.

**The entire hotel bust, from when she gets the call all the way through the montage.

**Winston's "That's a big Twinkie", "I've sheen shit that would make you turn White" and "I love this town" leading to them cranking up the music.

**Louis running to Tavern on the green and begging for help.

As for GB2 it has it's moments but overall is an utter failure. I loved the Statue of Liberty stuff when I was a kid though.

Because they turned her into a nerd in the cartoon. Her entire 80's fashion explosion look in GB2 was a direct reference to her change in the animated series, just one of many ways the sequel changed the tone from "kid friendly" to "kids only".