Tuesday, January 12, 2010

best films: #90: GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)

Previously rated and blogged at #54
All right, this one's pretty straightforward. Ghostbusters is hilarious, well-written, expertly casted, and a modern classic. Enough said. Well, it can also be said that it features my all-time favorite Bill Murray performance (yes, I've seen Lost in Translation), one of Sigourney Weaver's most fun leading lady roles, and Dan Aykroyd yelling, "Get her!" From start to finish, it's full of zany antics and one-liners that, 25 years later, remain genius: "Human sacrifice, dogs and cast living together, mass hysteria!," "If someone asks if you are a god, you say 'yes!,'" "Are you the gatekeeper?," and so forth. And who could forget the side characters, namely Alice Drummond as the old librarian (see a profile on Drummond here), Rick Moranis as the inept but lovable loser Louis Tully, and Annie Potts as the nerdy, sassy secretary Janine Melnitz. But I'd be remiss in neglecting to mention the true star of Ghostbusters - the StayPuft Marshallow Man, whose iconic image is cemented in my brain as one of the great movie memories of my childhood.

Standout Performance: It's simply too hard to pick one performance from this cast, so I'll be indecisive and say the ensemble is better than its single parts.

No comments: