Some things ARE as good as you remembered them being. Some are even better. This is neither.

Rating: 5/10 (22 January 2001)

Were you roughly as old as I was (eleven; or let's say, no older than sixteen) when "Ghostbusters" first came out? Did you enjoy it then? Has it been a decade or so since you last saw it? If so, time for a revisit: you'll be surprised how bad it is.
Such weak writing! The humour is all in the wisecracks, but not one of them is memorable or (in itself) funny or in any way witty. If we are fooled into thinking otherwise, it's due to Bill Murray. It happens in every film he appears in (that is, those that aren't antecedently funny). His character is cynical in the most innocent way, his delivery is impeccable, we really want his words to be amusing as well - so much so that we're prepared to pretend.
The premise of "Ghostbusters" is cool, too. We want to be transported into a world in which there are ghostbusters of this kind, so much so that we're prepared to overlook the fact that we're watching fumbled comedy rather than successful fantasy. Again, Bill Murray helps. His I'm-game-for-anything character is the only one who seems to belong.
Surprisingly good is Elmer Bernstein's score. Strange how I hadn't noticed the general decline of film scores over the past seventeen years. If it weren't for Bernstein and Murray, I doubt anyone would have taken "Ghostbusters" seriously enough to even mistake it for a comedy.