Ghostbusters

I still remember going to see 1984's GHOSTBUSTERS five times that summer.  Couldn't get enough.  It really captured my....something.  Imagination and funny bone?  It was just so damned entertaining.  Even at the age of fifteen I could see that the "slob comedy" genre had finally gone solid gold, had reached its apex.  Director Ivan Reitman, overseer of MEATBALLS and STRIPES, recruited some of his old compadres, got a big budget from Columbia, and went on to make film history.   A multimillion dollar "scare comedy" that raked in millions more, inspired sequels, remakes, video games, and TV series.  What I've always noticed is how solid a job Reitman really did.  Somehow he struck the right balance of laughs, special effects, and even a few shudders.  

The basic plot, for those two or three of you who don't know -  a trio of Columbia University scientists (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis) who investigate paranormal events are ousted when their research is deemed questionable at best, so they go into business for themselves.  Their ads make them appear as hucksters, but after a classical musician named Dana (Sigourney Weaver) discovers a demon in her refrigerator, who she gonna call?  Business eventually booms as more and more ghosts disrupt New York City.  Then the ghostbusters learn that Dana's apartment building is some sort of gateway/stage for an evil cult leader named Gozer who wants to destroy the world.   Things get worse when the EPA orders the shutdown of the containment facility that houses all those captured ghosts.  There's a big finale involving, in part, a very large marshmallow man.

GHOSTBUSTERS is perfectly controlled, yet its funnymen always feel free to improvise.  It's like we're watching a Lemmings or National Lampoon skit that got really ambitious.  That's its genius.  It feels like pure, built from scratch sketch comedy even when we're treated to images of blobby ghosts chugging hot dogs.  The f/x never upstage the actors.  There are actually quiet moments of observational humor and even drama!  Besides our trio, we get wonderful performances from Weaver, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and character actor William Atherton, once again playing an irascible prick, quite reliably.   

It all works so beautifully.  Reitman was building toward this movie, and perhaps peaked with it.  Where was there to go from here? At least with the old style underdog saga.  GHOSTBUSTERS II, released five years later, has its moments but unsurprisingly couldn't recapture the magic.  Part of it was that times had changed.  Comedy, or how it is defined by audiences, tends to be dynamic.  Even when covered in ectoplasmic goo.  I have cautious high hopes for the long delayed (not just because of  Covid) sequel, directed by Ivan's son Jason, due this November.