Review of Ghostbusters: Collector`s Edition

Video

For a print dating back to the mid-eighties, this digitally remastered edition is of a very high quality. Admittedly there is the odd speck of dust or scratch every now and again, but these are easily forgiven and certainly do not intrude into whatever is going on at the time. Colours aren`t as bright and vivid as they could have been, but then very little in the film looks like it was intended to be saturated anyway. Contrast is generally very good, although there is the odd place where things seem a bit flat and lost in the shadows, however these moments are often short lived.

To help navigate around the movie, or best-bit-bunny-hopping as you could call it, there are 28 well positioned chapters. The layer change is noticeable, but not in a particularly bad place, still I guess even in the cinema they have to change reels at some time. Naturally with most special editions, this is an anamorphic print, a big plus for the growing number of people owning widescreen TVs.

Considering this film hit the big screen some 15 years ago, very few of the effects have dated badly. Only the stop motion used on the dog-bear-things look terrible, and I suppose you can let those go as it is basically a comedy and they aren`t there for scare factor. Watching this movie does make me miss the obsession with lens flare and weird cloud like effects that many a film from this period contained. The ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark springs immediately to mind here.

Audio

One of the joys of DvD is of course Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks, you often get the chance to see (and in this case hear) stuff which wasn`t previously released using such a high spec system. Everytime a special edition of something old like this turns up, the merest mention of a 5.1 track makes fans of whatever film is getting the treatment drool. This reworking is good, but not what you could call great. Sure, Slimer gets a chance to dance around the rears, and yes there is the odd ambient effect behind you, but the movie on the whole just uses the front three speakers and occasionally the subwoofer when its bored with those.

Lots of releases in this period have excelled in sometimes making dialog hard to understand, and unfortunately there is nothing that can save Ghostbusters from this problem. Some of the quick one liners that are flung into the more heavy dialog moments can get lost, so repeated viewings or subtitles may be necessary to get every last syllable. But this is not the fault of the transfer, it is a symptom of the original master which is hard to rectify even in this day and age.

Features

Extras, where to start! The commentary is great fun to listen to, and apparently (although I couldn`t get it to work) you can even watch Ghostbusters with this turned on and see silhouettes of Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis overlaid on top, somewhat reminiscent of MST3K. The animated menus are just fantastic, you could almost get lost wandering around them there are so many. The deleted scenes are interesting, and leave no doubt as to why they got cut.

The featurettes are actually worth watching for a change, especially the one made this year. And for the really nerdy special FX llama, there are two scenes with multiple angles for before and after the FX were added. Also, there is an additional documentary featuring interviews with the FX team. Add to that trivia, trailers, production notes and the odd other titbit, and you get probably the most feature laden disc of all time.

Conclusion

Like The Blues Brothers, I find it hard to recommend this film to everyone as its sense of humour is mostly character based and often subtly tied up in the performances. But if you don`t need your amusement watered down or wrapped up entirely in fart jokes and accidents, then I think you will be hard pushed not to laugh out loud at least once.

The acting is excellent, everywhere from the sarcastic Murray to the withdrawn Ramis. Sigourney Weaver brings class to the whole affair, and Rick Moranis is excellently thrown in for some slapstick comedy measure. The script is very well crafted, and contains many a disposable one liner alongside some scenes which wouldn`t be out of place in a serious horror movie. This is why I think Ghostbusters works well, it tries to be funny but at the same time presents the haunting elements with a straight face, no matter how silly they look.

If you are a fan of the movie, you just can`t be without this special edition of it, very hard to fault in any way. If you`ve never seen it, then this could be an excellent chance to see an all-time classic in its best form yet.