Review of Ghostbusters (1984) by Lincoln A — 12 May 2014

In memory of the late Harold Ramis, I decided to give one of his most famous movies a spin. Before this, Groundhog Day was the only Ramis movie I had seen. And while that movie was not without a flaw or two, Ghostbusters is almost entirely a flaw. I didn't like the movie. At all. Possibly the most disappointing thing about the whole endeavor is that it made me feel absolutely nothing. Satisfied, happy, impressed - nope, nope, and nope. On the flip side, it also didn't make me particularly upset or mad. It just left me utterly and disappointedly indifferently. I should have just re-watched Groundhog Day instead...

After being fired from their jobs at a college, Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz, and Egon Spengler start a paranormal extermination business called the Ghostbusters. They gain popularity. Then when all paranormal hell breaks lose, who's humanity gonna call? The Ghostbusters!

There is a laundry list of flaws in this movie. Starting out with the characters. Well, lets start with the positives: Bill Murray completely saves the movie from being totally insufferable. He's not given the best of lines, but he is at very least likable in the role. Also in the positives, Rick Moranis has the most outlandish and comical lines of the entire movie as a nerdy accountant! And thats where the praise stops. Every character in this movie (including the Murray and Moranis characters) provide for zero emotional attachment. I couldn't have cared less about every single one of them. The supporting cast members like Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis give their characters absolutely nothing to make me care about them. And then there's Sigourney Weaver in the love interest-ish (?) role of Dana. She doesn't have a substantial role in the movie at all. Sure she's sort of the damsel in distress by the end, but even then ... her only purpose seems to be to add some sex-appeal to this otherwise goofy, male-character centric movie.

The story itself never rises above mildly entertaining. I knew what was going on. I could follow the plot just fine. But I just couldn't make myself care one bit. What shocked me the most was how boring this movie turned out to be. The reason why I watched it was because I wanted to watch a fun and enjoyable film that was also considered a classic. But instead, I found myself on the verge of mentally clocking out on numerous occasions. The predictability on display here is rather staggering.

The "special" effects were probably very good for their time. But nowadays, everything in this movie looks entirely archaic and cartoony. I guess it kind of helps the movie, now that I think about it. Archaic and cartoony special effects for an archaic and cartoony movie.

But literally all would have been forgiven on one conduction. If this movie was funny, if it kept me laughing, I would have given it a pass on its flaws. But what do you know, I didn't laugh out loud at all. Not one time. I smiled a couple of times. I think I might have snorted out one or two chuckles. But that's it. I thought this was a comedy classic!? I mean, I could see the moments where they were going for the big laughs, but in most cases, the corners of my mouth didn't turn up in the least.

The musical side of things stays in tone with the rest of the film: dated. I'm sure the theme to this movie is a power anthem for a lot of 80s kids, but nowadays ... ehh.

I can already feel myself forgetting Ghostbusters as I write this review. This one really didn't strike a cord. And honestly, I'm felling pretty generous with that 4. Let me put it this way: If there was a movie called Ghostbusters that was actually good, this feels like the cheap parody of that movie.

"When someone asks you if you're a god, you say yes!" 4/10.