Who are YOU gonna call?!?

Rating: 10/10 (22 October 2006)

There is a reason why "Ghostbusters," the supernatural comedy hit from 1984 that was directed by Ivan Reitman, is a classic today: "Ghostbusters" is a film that easily worked its way into cinema and pop culture, spawning a 1989 sequel, a spin-off animated series, merchandise, songs (by Ray Parker, Jr.), and Slimer!!! It has a top-notch cast, including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis as three parapsychologists who go into business eliminating poltergeists in New York City.
That plot outline sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? Well, OK, it is. "Ghostbusters" has one of those "novelty plots" (trademark), where a seemingly simple, maybe even random idea snowballs and becomes something truly unique altogether. That is what "Ghostbusters" is, and that is what its plot has. I still don't think Reitman, Aykroyd, and Ramis had too many brainstorming sessions where they just sat in a room and tossed around random ideas for three hours.
No. In "Ghostbusters," three unemployed parapsychologists, Dr. Peter Venkman (Murray), Dr. Raymond Stantz (Aykroyd) and Dr. Egon Spengler (Ramis), are thrown out of the university because their studies into the paranormal have failed to yield any positive results. So they get the idea to put their heads together and go into the ghost-busting business. Of course, things are slow at first and people have difficulty taking their ads seriously (save for the opening sequence where a librarian has a creepy encounter with the specter haunting the library).
They then get a break when Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) discovers that a monstrous dog-thing has taken up residence in her refrigerator. (If you think that's bad, just watch out for those eggs that start frying themselves on the kitchen counter.) Oddly enough, none of her neighbors have complained to the super of any supernatural activity in the building, not even her loser neighbor Louis Tulley (Rick Moranis), who I think, obviously, secretly has a crush on her.
So the boys go about investigating Dana's claim, while Venkman initiates some poorly timed moves on her. More calls of ghostly encounters continue, and soon the general public has no choice but to let the Ghostbusters believe them. Cool. Venkman, Stantz and Spengler are eventually joined by a fourth, an Everyman named Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson), who proves to probably be the emotional and spiritual anchor the other three need as they find themselves going up against an otherworldly threat that is far bigger than anything any of them ever expected.
"Ghostbusters" is just as imaginative as it is funny and timeless. The cast members know their roles and fill them out with equal pizazz, including William Atherton as slimy EPA agent Walter Peck and Annie Potts as cynical secretary Janine Melnitz. The real spectacle of course, are the inventive special effects. Of course, it's pretty easy to computer generate ghosts and goblins and film them interacting with live actors. Back in 1984, the filmmakers still had to use lighting and other camera trickery to make such things possible. (So what are you going to do?)
And lastly, who can forget Mr. Stay Puft's classic rampage down through lower Manhattan?
10/10