Still one of the most entertaining films of all time

Rating: 9/10 (27 August 2005)

Alright we're talking cultural Phenomenon here...Who Ya Gonna Call? The song, the action figures, the cartoons...this started it all. Does all that make it good?? No. But it was. It was brilliant and funny, and scary, and action packed and made for adults. The eighties was a key time when film makers realized that adults actually wanted comedy for them. John Candy, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, these guys did their best comedy work during this time. Ghostbusters was and still is the most brilliant creation of Dan Akroyd and one of the most entertaining films as well.
Ghostbusters although it seems to have become a childhood type thing was not made for children. Some of the ghost scenes and more scary scenes are easy for adults but could be quite disturbing to children. Plus the numerous sexual situations. The cast of this film couldn't be any more perfect which is funny considering how much the cast changed from who Akroyd wanted and who they got. Bill Murray in one of his best comedic roles becomes almost over used in his portrayal as Dr. Peter Venkman. Murray has to be one of the only comedic actors who can run that borderline between being funny and cute, to being annoying and overused (ie: Will Ferrell) His character runs that line but has some of the best and most memorable scenes. Akroyd's Ray Stanz is excitable and eager and holds the team together along with Harold Ramis' Egon Spengler. Ramis seems to just fit right in which is strange because he doesn't really fit the profile for the rest of the team. Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett, Murray's love interest and the female lead of the film does a great job as well. Her and Murray have some great scenes and she gets to go from Upper class reserved woman to possessed over sexed demon.
Ernie Hudson...well Hudson is a great actor but he is underused and strangely pointless for the cast. There was never a need for a fourth ghost buster and he gets rather left out most of the time. Although he does get to deliver the infamous closing line of the film "I love this town!" Ivan Reitman who is an amazing director when it comes to making films that people love and making them just fun to watch does a great job of keeping everything interesting and keeping the story flowing. His idea of showing us how they got started was brilliant. I don't think a remake of this film could ever exist because you could never get the overall chemistry that came out of this cast which is one of the things that made it great along with their abilities to deliver their lines. The film doesn't just have one featured story but instead we see how they get started, their first ghost capture and all the ghosts in the middle along with the amazing hit theme song. If you haven't seen this original eighties classic...well I'm surprised but even if you have watch it again and again because it's one that'll live forever as one of the most entertaining films in history. 9/10