REVIEW: Ghostbusters

Courtesy Of Columbia Pictures

Ghostbusters celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. I’ll pause for a moment while that sinks in and you come to terms with your mortality… ok, time’s up. In the three decades since the film’s release, it has confidently transitioned from “comedy favorite” to a bona fide, undisputable classic.

The movie cemented Bill Murray’s iconic status, capably integrated hilarious setpieces with (at the time) groundbreaking visual effects and – most importantly, I’d argue – understood that scares were just as crucial as laughs. And, of course, it highlighted the importance of having a killer theme song (even if Ray Parker Jr. did have to shell out a bunch of money to Huey Lewis for ripping off “I Want a New Drug”).

I probably watched the movie dozens of times as a kid, but I’d never had the pleasure of seeing it on the big screen until last weekend. To build anticipation for the film’s upcoming Blu-ray release, which boasts dramatically improved picture and sound quality, Columbia Pictures put Ghostbusters back in theaters for an exclusive one-week engagement.

It's playing through Thursday night at Arbor Place Mall in Douglasville, so you should try to fit in a screening sometime this week. If not, pick up the new Blu-ray on Sept. 16. Either way, it’s definitely worth a revisit. I’m happy to report the flick is just as wonderful as you remember. Charmingly antiquated special effects aside, it holds up remarkably well.

Even those who’ve somehow managed to avoid seeing “Ghostbusters” are still familiar with the plot. Three scientists – Peter Venkman (Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) – are fired from their cushy university jobs and decide to open a ghost removal business. Venkman sees it as a quick way to make money (“The franchise rights alone will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams!”), but the other two guys are true believers.

As they stumble along in their new careers, they gain another employee – everyman Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson) – and the attention of Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), a beautiful cellist who believes her apartment is haunted. Thanks to an ever-escalating conflagration of bad luck, the Ghostbusters must confront a demon who is using Dana’s apartment as its entryway into our world, as well as a power-mad government official (William Atherton) whose boneheaded decisions could bring about the apocalypse.

The world has changed dramatically since Ghostbusters hit theaters in 1984, both in terms of history and pop culture. Back then, the idea that four wise-cracking nerds with tiny nuclear reactors on their backs could prevent demons from destroying the planet – in a comedy! – was practically revolutionary.

Today, filmmakers stand on the shoulders of directors like Ivan Reitman and screenwriters like Aykroyd and Ramis, exponentially upping the stakes without putting in the character work. The result is that saving the world has become passé. We’ve prevented the destruction of Earth a zillion times on film, but no one cares anymore. The people doing the saving are boring, personality-free archetypes. It doesn’t matter if your characters display superhuman strength and courage if they’re not charismatic to begin with.

That’s what Ghostbusters gets right and what so many of its countless imitators don’t understand. Mess up the formula and you get junk like Men in Black 2 or R.I.P.D. Heck, even Reitman stumbled when he went back to the well with Ghostbusters II and Evolution. It’s a tough mixture to get right.

However, the classic has also inspired other filmmakers the way it should. Not as an ill-conceived shortcut to a big payday, but as a blueprint to capture that difficult blend of comedy and scares, while also paying attention to character development and chemistry. Do it right and you get a terrific movie like Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s This is the End, perhaps this generation’s most direct link to Ghostbusters.

I think that’s the way to go, instead of trying to cash in on the original with a halfhearted sequel or slapped-together reboot. (Although the most recent stab at Ghostbusters III – featuring an all-female cast, with Paul Feig writing and directing – is the most intriguing idea I’ve heard in years.)

In the years since Ghostbusters II took another ill-advised bite at the apple, Ramis has passed away, Murray – who has transformed from comedy icon into low-key actor and revered human being – has repeatedly stated he’s not interested, and the world has moved on. Let’s avoid ruining the legacy of Ghostbusters any further. Instead, future filmmakers should take a cue from Rogen and Goldberg: let the classic serve as inspiration to make new stuff instead of running to the well of nostalgia over and over again.

Ghostbusters is rated PG.

Grade: A