Anyway you slice it...a comedy classic...

Rating: 9/10 (22 December 2005)

GHOSTBUSTERS was a smashing and innovative 1984 comedy that was the perfect blending of clever comedy, eye-popping special effects, and supernatural silliness that was one of the biggest box office smashes of the year and deservedly so. Three professors doing college research on the supernatural lose their funding and decide to go into business for themselves as paranormal investigators. Bill Murray towers over all with his near perfect comic performance as Dr. Peter Venkman, a sort of wise ass guy who doesn't take this ghostbusting stuff seriously until they start making real money. Dan Aykroyd is a charmer as Ray, "the heart of the Ghostbusters" and Harold Ramis, who would gain greater fame as a director, generates real laughs here as Egon ("I collect spores, moles, and fungus.") Sigourney Weaver makes an intelligent and refreshing damsel in distress and Rick Moranis steals every scene he's in as Weaver's nerdy neighbor who also becomes part of the story as we learn the apartment building where Weaver and Moranis live is on top of some ancient burial ground. Annie Potts (DESIGNING WOMEN) also scores as the guys' secretary and William Atherton is funny as an EPA exec out to ruin the Ghostbusters. But it is mostly Murray's beautifully flippant performance laid against some awesome (for 1984) special effects that made this movie work. It even has a very catchy title tune that became a top ten smash for Ray Parker, Jr. An instant comedy classic and deservedly so.