One of the memorable films from my childhood

Rating: 8/10 (2 October 2011)

I remember when this movie first came out. I was in year 7 and I really wanted to go and see it. I liked the symbol of the movie and was so fascinated by it that I wanted a t-shirt and everything. While at one stage I considered this to be a pretty boring movie, when I look back at it it still is a classic with some quite memorable scenes.
The reviewers commented that this movie was the first to mix good special effects and comedy successfully, but I really don't think it makes that much. I personally don't think that special effects make a movie, and looking beyond the special effects of this movie I really find that there is very little there. To our standards the special effects were not that crash hot, but then this movie is early 80's meaning that we can't expect too much. However, for a movie starring some relatively big names (Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd etc) the acting does have a lot to be desired. Personally, I thought that the best actor in this film was Rick Moranis, who plays an accountant (though not necessarily socially inept, more very eccentric in his own, special, unique way).
This movie is about three scientists who are kicked out of university and thus start up a business, Ghostbusters, to exterminate any ghosts in the city. Coincidentally there are lots of ghosts appearing because some Babylonian God is returning to Earth. What I noticed about this film though was the concept of science vs faith. We have the spiritual word of the ancient times trying to break back into our world, and the only thing that is able to stop it is science. Long have ghosts been in the realm of the supernatural, meaning that they have been beyond our power to deal with, but now, as with many of the things in our world, science has come along to solve the problem, and that is what is essentially happening in this film, science is taking its place as our new god.
We see this a lot in the movie, especially at the end as the ghostbusters arrive to cheering crowds. There is nothing special about them beyond their power packs and their knowledge of the supernatural, though they make it known that their knowledge gives them power of the ghosts, something that the normal citizens do not have. However it appears that from the beginning they are stumbling around blindly as well, using untested equipment, and bluffing their way through pretending they know something of which others are ignorant.
My opinion swings regarding this movie, at first I thought it was great, later I thought it was boring, and now I would have to put it in the realm of a classic 80's movie. However, the one thing that brings to mind is the computer game that was released around the time of the film. While the film would not stand up to the likes of some truly classic films, the computer game literally took the world by storm. Many games these days come and go within 6 months, however the Ghostbusters simply seemed to have staying power. It was a relatively easy game, straight forward, and challenging enough to always bring to back to it when you were board. These days, while I may remember the film, it is the computer game that always sticks in my mind.