The 1980s were a decade full of memorabilia that’s easily recognized to this day. One piece of memorabilia from this decade is the 1984 successful comedy “Ghostbusters”. The movie is mostly remembered for its special effects and characters. But people often forget about the story and how good of a movie it is. And after all these years, the film is still quite enjoyable. “Ghostbusters” is a great film that’s not bad, but it could have been expanded with the actual ghosts.
The main plot surrounds a group of three scientists, Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis). This trio studies the paranormal activity and the goings around New York City. After getting kicked out of the local college, the group decides to start a business by catching ghosts. And after one successful night, the trio, now known as the Ghostbusters, becomes very popular around the city. The team even hires a fourth member named Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson) who proves himself very helpful. The four men soon have to deal with an ancient demigod that’s hell-bent on destroying the world, and only the Ghostbusters have to stop it from happening.
“Ghostbusters” is a great film that excels in several areas. First off, the writing is amazing. The humor is perfect, the dialogue is witty and you are really compelled with the story. This movie does everything right to make a comedy. Next is the acting. All of the actors are brilliant and are very likable that you become attached to them. Finally the special effects in the movie are amazing. They really stand the test of time and even though they could easily be done on a computer, it’s great to see what was pulled off. Even the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man looks cool. But with that being said, the movie does suffer from one major problem.
My biggest problem with the movie is that there could have been more time developed to producing more ghosts on screen. In fact, there are only a few scenes that feature actual ghosts. This includes the debut of Slimer who’s only on screen for a short amount of time. The movie was made on a large budget, but all that money was spent on the visual effects, and not the special effects. Now if that budget had been increased a bit and spent more time developing ghosts, this movie would have been perfect. Luckily there’s a sequel.
Overall, “Ghostbusters” is a great movie, despite having one major flaw, and it’s full of great entertainment. The movie gives a nostalgia factor to anyone who grew up with this film. I highly recommend it, as it definitely is a blast from the past.