It's all about Mr. Murray.

Rating: 10/10 (10 July 2005)

After watching The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou earlier this week, it made me long for the days when filmmakers knew what made their actors great and how to utilize their talents properly. Ghostbusters is not only a fine film, but perhaps the best showcase ever made for Bill Murray's genius.
Who knows how good John Belushi (whom the part of Dr. Peter Venkman was originally written for) would have been in this film. I'd certainly trade Murray's performance for Belushi's life if it were possible. But since that won't happen all we can do is sit back and enjoy Murray's excellent performance. Here are some of the highlights.
The guys are interviewing a frightened old librarian who has just seen a ghost. The woman is absolutely petrified as she is trying to describe what she has seen, as well as answer some questions about herself. Murray at one point in the interview asks the old woman if she is currently menstruating. Her supervisor understandably objects, seeing no logical connection. Murray simply tells him, "Back off, man. I'm a scientist." We as the audience aren't quite sure why he asked the question. We can only sit back and chuckle at him putting an already terrified woman on the spot.
The scene in which Murray accompanies Sigourney Weaver back to her apartment to check out her initial disturbance is vintage Murray. You get the sense that whether or not his character believes in ghosts is irrelevant. He certainly isn't frightened of them, but he has to at least try to act concerned so this woman might possibly take him seriously as a scientist. He makes a bold point to be the first of them to enter the apartment. He then starts fingering the two highest keys on her piano. "They hate this. I like to torture them," he explains. After some macho posturing, he takes out an obscure device that looks like a combination of a blood pressure cuff and a car battery. He begins squeezing the device, resulting in a swooshing sound. There is a great sense that not only are we the audience baffled as to what the device is for, but Murray himself likely does not know. "Excuse me, but what is that thing you're doing?" Weaver asks. "It's technical. One of our little toys," he tries to explain. Later on, they venture into her kitchen where she had some trouble with her groceries earlier. Murray walks over to the counter where there are fried eggs splattered all over it. "Dana... are these the eggs?" he asks, trying to sound like he truly thinks they might NOT be the eggs she described to them earlier. It is a testament to her professionalism that Ms. Weaver or anyone else for that matter could get through this scene without dying of laughter.
The film is also filled with one-liners, great special effects, and some creepy monsters. This is one of the better comedies to come out of the 1980s. And I think we have Bill Murray to thank for most of it.
10 of 10 stars.
The Hound.