Review of Ghostbusters (1984) by Jacob G — 07 Jul 2014

I think Ghostbusters is a "you had to be there" type movie. It hasn't aged well for a first time viewer. All of those warm-fuzzies people seem to have about it were long ago.

And that's fine. They are not wrong.

But as someone who waited until 2014 to watch it, Ghostbusters passes by on the screen with barely a whimper.

To modern eyes it suffers from showing too much in a movie-era where the CGI couldn't support it. Granted, the "ghosts" seem to be largely intended to amuse audiences rather than frighten (this is obviously comedy, not horror), but that doesn't help the CGI feel cripplingly archaic. It's just that dumb era of cinema where the attempts to go more fantastic were noble, but shockingly jarring (the first Terminator movie suffers from the same hilarity).

The script isn't bad, though overly "jokey" without being funny. Compared with other Bill Murray comedies this relies less on "being funny" and more on being visually absurd. And considering the visual problems outlined above, well, that isn't exactly a perk.