Ghostbusters

When the advertising began for Ghostbusters I was too young to notice and it wasn't until it was screened on television that I saw, and loved, the film.  The marketing campaign was genius, starting first with posters just of the "No Ghosts" logo and then the picture with "They're coming" as the accompanying caption.  When it was released in 1984 it, and the theme song by Ray Parker Jr., became a phenomenon and, since then, has established itself as a firm fan favourite gathering new followers every generation. 
 
Written by, directed and starring men behind Second City, Saturday Night Live, Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Animal House and Meatballs (to name but a few), this was almost guaranteed comic genius.  It began as an idea of Dan Aykroyd's as his family were strong believers in the supernatural and he read an article on quantum physics and spirits, thinking it would make an interesting premise for a film.  Teaming up with friends Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis, they devised a film where hunting ghosts was something normal, like firefighting, but then changed it to a business development story. 
 

The film begins with the three members of the parapsychology department at Columbia University being dismissed because their work is weird and fails to gain results.  Two of the doctors, Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler are convinced by the garrulous Peter Venkman to go into business as professional Ghost Busters - even talking Stantz into taking out a third mortgage on his house (at horrendous rates) to finance the operation. 
 
When Dana Barrett is unpacking and the eggs on the counter jump from the shelves and begin cooking on the worktop, she is a little freaked, but this is compounded when she looks in the refrigerator and sees a different universe where a voice yells 'Zuul' at her.  Sceptical, but frightened, she calls the Ghost Busters after seeing their amateurish commercial on TV and they begin investigating.  They also start taking calls from all over New York City, trapping ghosts and earning more money than they ever expected.
 
Their investigations into Zuul prove that there is something big afoot in the Big Apple that only they can handle but the authorities are tough to persuade and their efforts are hampered by über-bureaucrat Walter Peck.
 

Though the casting was almost done by default, with Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd filling two of the main roles, the addition of Bill Murray to the trio was an inspired decision - the three represent different parts of the team, with Ramis' nerdy Spengler as the brains, Aykroyd's naïve Stantz as the heart and Murray's cynical and sarcastic Venkman as the mouth.  It is in this sort of role that Murray excels, though his over the top silliness in Caddyshack is wonderfully memorable.  When he is spouting facetious one liners with a straight face that would do Buster Keaton proud, he is a joy to watch and it is Murray that steals the show but, without the other two, his performance wouldn't be half as memorable - they provide the straight men.  In the other smaller but important parts, Sigorney Weaver is marvellous and as far removed from Ripley as she could probably get;  Rick Moranis plays her geeky neighbour in a role that was written for John Candy but Moranis is so brilliant that it's impossible to imagine Candy in that role.  In smaller parts, Annie Potts and Ernie Hudson provide great support to the bigger names, expecially Hudson, whose Zeddmore (the fourth Ghost Buster) is the audience's way in to the jargon as things have to be explained to him and, vicariously, to us. 
 

I've been a fan of Ghostbusters since I first saw it and remember reading one of the comic books based on the animated TV series - the theme song was a staple at school discos throughout the 1980s (and apparently still is). 

The Disc

Extra Features
Flicking through the options, it was immediately clear that what they had done was taken all the features previously released on DVD and supplemented them with some new material to take advantage of Blu-ray.
 
First up you get the original commentary with Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis and Joe Medjuck which is a funny and informative look at the film with plenty of information and amusing anecdotes.  I listened to it once before when I bought Ghostbusters on DVD and enjoyed it as much the second time around as they talk so well and enthusiastically about the film. 
 
You then have several featurettes on the cast and crew, SFX, one from the set in 1984, multi-angle options and storyboard comparisons.  These aren't new either and are of low AV quality but are worth a look. 
 
On to the new stuff, and the first is CineChat which is a BD-Live facility that allows you to talk with other people about the film.  As I was going through the disc, it wasn't commercially available so there didn't seem much point trying this out. 
 
Employing the Slimer Mode puts a frame on the screen with interviews appearing in the bottom right as a P-in-P mode and the bottom left has the green ghost popping up with trivia, information about the cast, ghosts and the car, plus facts about real life hauntings. 
 
The Commentary Blu-Wizard brings up a screen with the featurettes which are chopped up into bits and you can select as many or as few as you want and they will appear during the film - you can decide if you want a prompt or not - and they have a total running time of over 48 minutes. 
 
There's a lovely retrospective on the vehicle, one of the great cinematic cars and a character in the film, Ecto-1: Resurrecting the Classic Car, which shows what a terrible state it was in and the effort that went into repairing it and bringing the car up to date.  There's a great moment where Dan Aykroyd appears and takes it for a spin. 
 
Finally, there are a couple of featurettes on the video game which feel more like promotions.
 

 
The Picture
I was really unsure about what they would've done to this film to make it 'suitable' for release on Blu-ray, expecting far too much DNR and even a little bit of tinkering with the visual effects to bring it up to date.  I needn't have worried as all they've done is polished the picture, enhancing the colours and improving the black levels and overall clarity. 
 
The skin tones and colours are fantastic and the contrast really is amazing considering the film is 25 years old.  The effects still look dodgy - they were great for 1984, before digital effects and were all done in camera, with models, miniatures and optical effects.  These haven't really stood the test of time but just add to the film's charm. 
 
The Sound
Dolby have provided a very impressive TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack with crystal clear dialogue and good use of the surrounds to make a fine soundstage.  It's not the most demanding of soundtracks but sounds really good and I can't fault it for clarity.
 
Ray Parker Jr. will get all the plaudits for his excellent theme song which I'm currently humming as I type but Elmer Bernstein provided a quite superb score which has many different facets and perfectly captures the mood of the film. 
 

Final Thoughts
I was a little sceptical about Ghostbusters on Blu-ray as I thought there would be too much DNR and maybe a little Lucas-ing of the special effects.  I needn't have worried as it looks great just as if they had polished up the original negatives and restored it to its full glory.  In any case, it's not all about the visuals as it's a character driven film, and what great characters they are!  There are lines that live on and apparently William Atherton has people calling him 'dickless' to this day. 
 
Ghostbusters is a great movie, an endearing classic that will live on as every schoolchild sees it and falls in love with it.  The writing is smart so there is plenty for kids to enjoy and lines that go over their heads so they might wonder what the adults are laughing at.  With this gathering together all previously released supplementary material and adding new stuff to the package, if you don't own Ghostbusters already, buy it.  But even if you do, this is a fantastic disc that is worth a 'double dip'.