Why Ghostbusters Works

Rating: Null/10 (17 March 2009)

You take Ivan Reitman's light-hearted directorial style and ground it with Dan Aykroyd's genuine occult obsession, which is shrugged away by Bill Murray's smirky nihilism. Balance...
The movie works as a straight-ahead comedy, as a legitimate creep-out, as a parody of itself, and as an unmistakably New York film. The wonderful special effects still look great and add a reality to the implausible proceedings.
Murray, at the top of his game, sings every punchline and turns even straight lines funny:
"You're never gonna regret this, Ray..." "What about the Twinkie?" "This chick is TOAST!" "Call it luck, call it fate, call it karma..."
The movie works so well, so easily, that you wonder why they all can't be like this. If you haven't seen it, go now.
GRADE: A