Well, Ghostbusters has made its way onto Blu-ray in its 25th Anniversary, which means that it has a lot of popularity (yeah, even a cult-following, some might say. And, yes, I may have a Ghostbusters costume that's been hanging in my closet since the late 1980s, but I don't see how that has any relevance here). This popularity has not only survived 25 years, but, in addition to the Blu-ray release, there is an upcoming videogame and even mention of a Ghostbusters III on IMDb, slated for 2012... time will tell.
As for the quality, most of Ghostbusters looks great on Blu-ray. As is the case with many special effect-heavy movies, however, some of the effects look a bit less realistic; while a blurry DVD or a projected film image forgives slight differences in color and contrast between image and computer graphics, high definition makes these subtle discrepancies easier to see. I never found this problematic in Ghostbusters, however. It was noticeable in places, but not really distracting.
Ghostbusters was everything I'd remembered - a story of three science professors whose academic careers were going nowhere. Ray Stanz (Dan Aykroyd) is the most child-like of the three, and has a knack for details. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) is a womanizer who uses science as a way to pick up chicks. The nerdiest of the three, Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), is part paranormal research physicist, part engineer and all inventor and believes that he has found a way to capture and contain spirits, essentially "un-haunting" a house. So, when they get kicked out for failure to achieve any results, the three decide to go into business for themselves, performing, "paranormal investigations and eliminations."
After a slow start, the Ghostbusters begin to get calls. While they never manage to get the whole "discretion" thing down, their clients generally agree that it's better to pay their fees and be done with the paranormal activities. Soon, however, it becomes clear that our boys are unnaturally busy; something is increasing the amount of supernatural phenomenons occurring in New York.
In what seems to be fate (or foreshadowing), a cellist named Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) was their first client and, it turns out later, is being targeted by a supernatural being who is using her apartment building as a conduit to gather enough supernatural energy to open a portal into our dimension and claim Earth and all its inhabitants as slaves, but not until the demon that posesses Dana Barrett's body lays with the demon that is inhabiting her nerdy accountant neighbor, Louis Tully (Rick Moranis)... rituals, you know... no getting around it.
This all spells trouble for Dana, the Ghostbusters, New York and, quite frankly, the world. Luckily the Ghostbusters are there to save the day, even if it means having the world's largest marshmallow roast.
Okay, okay, I get it... it's a comedy. And it had me rolling with laughter in certain places. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Rick Moranis are all top-rate comic actors, and they play their parts excellently.
Of the various special features (and there's a pretty good handful of them), my favorites had to be the features that were about Ecto-1 (the Ectomobile): Ecto-1: Resurrecting the Classic Car Featurette and Ghostbusters Garage: Ecto-1 Photo Gallery. In Resurrecting the Classic Car, we get to see Ecto-1 go from a neglected, all-but-forgotten piece of movie nostalgia through an exciting - and extensive - rebuilding process, to a shiny, good-as-new lean, mean machine made for ghost-bustin'. Possibly the best part was after the build, when Dan Aykroyd came to visit and check out the car. You could see how passionate about the car he is. This was a really neat feature for people who (like me) are nuts about movie-cars. The Ecto-1 Photo Gallery has some cool images, but is actually more of a slide show than a gallery... and it includes some video, as well. It seems like a mix of gallery and outtakes from the Ecto-1 Resurrecting the Classic Car featurette.
The features about the upcoming videogame were also pretty cool. After seeing the preview, I'm excited about playing it, since the story for the game was written by the same writers and all of the essential cast are reprising their roles as voice actors and their likenesses are in the game.
I enjoyed watching Ghostbusters again, and I really hope that Ghostbusters III actually gets made. I think the world is ready to be reminded who they're going to call. In the meantime, use your time wisely; pick up Ghostbusters on Blu-ray and watch it again to get ready for the next one.
