My All Time Favorite Movies: Ghostbusters

I have been toying with the idea of doing a series of posts on my all time favorite movies for a little while now. Working at a movie theater again has started all of these conversations about movies and I always love to hear what people have on their lists of favorite movies. I decided I would take my 20 favorite movies of all time and write a blog entry about each of them. There are no set qualifications for a movie to be on this list. These are simply my 20 favorite movies of all time. They will not be numbered. Do not assume that I am going in order from 20-1. I will probably do that starting at 10, but honestly 11-20 are not numbered. They kind of exist right outside of the top 10. A few things you will realize as the list goes on are how recent so many of them are, and how Americanized the list is. I make no apologies for this. I know most people who are deep into film as I am often have many movies from the pre-1970s on their lists, but you will only find 2 or 3 of those here. I do not dislike "classic" movies in any way, but they have never stuck with me as much. I respect the craft, but I am rarely left feeling like they are my favorite movies. I cannot really explain it further than that. I am not xenophobic, but when it comes to cinema, I just prefer the American Aesthetic. I have roughly 10 foreign films that I love, but they do not make it into this list. Again, it is just my personal taste. Each post will be labeled as "favorite ever" so you can easily find them as I go on. As always, I love to hear feedback, if not on my choices, on your choices for some of your favorite movies of all time. Okay, onto this week's post. Oh and there will probably be spoilers about each title on the list.



Ghostbusters is on a list of movies that I do not understand someone not liking. There are probably 10 movies on this list that includes The Princess Bride, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and a few others. If you actively do not like Ghostbusters, I am not sure how I could possibly relate to you on a human level. It is so full of pure joy and entertainment. There is nothing to not like about it and if you tell me you do not like it, chances are, I do not like you. Let us begin with the delightful, hilarious cast of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver. it is tough to find a trio as tune with each other as Murray, Ramis and Aykroyd in this film. They create such an awesome chemistry and give us great film characters, and I know people do not like Ernie Hudson's Winston, but I think he adds his own something to the film. Does anyone play a better nerd than Rick Moranis? No, no one does. Aykroyd and Ramis wrote a great script with fun, wacky moments, and a few genuinely scary moments and gave us amazing lines like "Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!" Then you add in Ivan Reitman's perfect direction allowing the film to get wacky and kind of hokey, but not too much so that you stop caring about what happens to the guys and new York City. How can you miss? You cannot!

Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spangler are three scientists at Columbia University, but their grant and run out and they are fired. From there they do what anyone would else would do, they create a ghost extermination business. Soon business is booming and they add Winston Zeddmore and basically become celebrities for taking out the ghosts of New York City. There logo is plastered everywhere, they drive an awesome car and they live it up as rockstars, but of course, someone believes they are frauds and they are jailed. They do not stay long because soon New York City is terrorized by the ancient Sumerian God named Gozer the Gozerian, who has been channeled through the apartment complex occupied by a woman Venkman is seeing.

It is a pretty basic concept, but what they do with it is truly spectacular. The effects are great for the time and they take a concept that could be scary, or could be too goofy and they strike the right balance between them. There are moments that inspire some chills, but mostly the film is played for, and achieves, laughs. Beyond the dialog, you have these great visual gags of our heroes being slimed by the best movie ghost, ever. yes, Slimer is the best one every. He has this vibrant, off-putting personality, and you are actually kind of rooting for him, even though we love our heroes. Bill Murray, who could not be touched in the 1980s for comedy, creates a perfect character in Venkman. He is the playboy of the group, which sounds silly because, well it is Bill Murray, but he makes it work all the way through. Ramis and Aykroyd play the perfect foils for Venkman as the more traditional nerdy types you would expect to be part of a Ghostbusting team. The movie really is all about their chemistry. It is tough to bottle that and give it to any group of people. Whether they were great friends or not, they all appeared to be great friends. it is what gives life to Judd Apatow's movies, as well. There is a sense that you are just watching real people doing their things. It gives the movie something extra.

Of course, you also have the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man as well. If you put a giant smiling, yet menacing Marshmallow, you probably have one of the best movies ever. That is just the way it works. Plus, the Marshmallow man looks amazing for the time. he is big and cuddly, but truly creepy with that smile. I could talk and talk about this movie, but seriously, very few movies use banter as well as this movie does. It is such a great study in comedic timing and how to play off other actors. I could just post the screenplay at the reason why I love this movie, so let me just leave you with this:

Dr. Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Don't cross the streams.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why?
Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.