It’s hard to believe that a whole 25 years have passed by since Ghostbusters first hit the multiplexes way back in 1984, blending mild scares and big comedy to great effect. Making its debut on Blu-ray for the first time to celebrate the anniversary and perhaps to a lesser extent the release of the videogame, the movie is every bit as entertaining and fun as it always has been. And to this day, it’s still the central cast that make the film, with impeccably timed, pitch perfect comic performances that still make this a bona-fide classic in our eyes.
When a team of scientists are thrown off their campus thanks to Dr. Venkman’s (Bill Murray) dubious scientific procedures, the group resolve to form the Ghostbusters, a band of paranormal pest controllers. Business starts out slow but soon snowballs when Dana Barrett stumbles upon an inter-dimensional gateway in her refrigerator, marking the coming of Gozer, an uber-demon with an 80s flattop. So, wearing unlicensed nuclear accelerators on their backs, the Ghostbusters set about ridding New York of an impending supernatural event that threatens to bring about the end of the world.
Watching the movie again today, it’s not hard to see why Ghostbusters is still widely regarded as one of the finest comedy movies of the 80s. There’re simply no weak links here whatsoever, with an ensemble cast that comprises the cream of comedy talent at the time. Even the supporting cast is fantastic. Just take a look at Rick Moranis’ rubber-faced turn as the hilariously uptight Louis Tully or a possessed Sigourney Weaver in sultry mode or William Atherton as unctuous EPA crusader Walter Peck.
Despite such a stellar supporting cast however, most of the credit still has to go to the core cast of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson, whose brilliantly natural on-screen chemistry lights up the comic moments like a crackling Proton stream in full force. Murray almost steals the movie away from his co-stars, playing Peter Venkman as deliciously cynical, amusingly acerbic and dryly witty, snatching up most of the laughs in the process. But that’s not to say that the rest of the cast don’t have their own moments of infinitely quotable, memorable and funny lines, because they do. And suffice to say, the laughs are as fresh and robust today as they ever were.
Incredibly the movie’s pyrotechnics haven’t dated too badly either, although this crisp Blu-ray version does highlight a couple of instances of ever so slightly rickety special effects work that might leave you cringing just a tad. These instances are very rare but noticeable nonetheless – the slight opacity of a superimposed gargoyle and the white line around Gozer’s demon dogs springing to mind, for example. Still, the combination of energetic, effects-laden action and freewheeling comedy makes Ghostbusters impossible to resist. Even the obvious presence of grain during the darker moments in the movie failed to dampen our enthusiasm for the movie. And generally speaking, this 1080p, 2.40:1 hi-definition transfer looks gorgeous despite the aforementioned speckled noise. Blacks are rich and deep and the lines are clean and well defined, which gives the picture the high picture quality you’ve come to expect from Blu-ray. The graininess simply brings an added warmth that perfectly complements the nostalgic feel of the movie in our humble opinion. The slime glistens and gleams, the luminous, spectral apparitions look striking and - well, we have to mention him don’t we? - Stay Puft just looks delectably, sugary-sweet in HD.
While Ghostbusters’ video quality is superb for the most part, the audio is a TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack that isn’t quite up to the standards sets by certain other Blu-ray releases that make good use of a surround sound set-up. Nevertheless, the quality of the audio trumps the previous DVD release by a country mile creating lovely, deep surround sound that will please any long-standing fan of the movie whenever a Proton pack clicks and whirrs into action. Dialogue too is clearly audible at all times, even during the sequences where ghosts are whizzing around and Proton streams are sparking all over the place, which is very important.
Last but not least, the extras actually add more to what accompanied the original DVD release, with a generous array of supplemental material for your delectation, which is nice. So for your hard-earned, you get a great picture-in-picture mode with a pop-up trivia track endearingly titled ‘Slimer Mode’, a featurette on Ecto-1, a bunch of deleted scenes, an original making-of featurette from back in the day, a pretty decent commentary from director Ivan Reitman, writer/star Harold Ramis and associate producer Joe Medjuck and the predictable torrent of videogame promotional material thrown in for good measure. And there’s much more besides, making this the absolute, definitive version of the movie that’s worth investing in even if you’re already the proud owner of a DVD copy. Here’s hoping the sequel gets the same treatment in due course.
So, supposing this Blu-ray release were a Twinkie, it would be a Twinkie thirty-five feet long, weighing approximately six hundred pounds. That’s a big Twinkie, right?
Extras:
* Slimer Mode: Picture-in-Picture and Pop-Up Trivia Track (BD Exclusive)
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Cinechat
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Ecto-1: Resurrecting the Classic Car
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Making of Ghostbusters - The Video Game
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Ghostbusters Garage: Ecto-1 Gallery
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Ghostbusters: The Video Game - Preview
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Commentary w/ Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis & Joe Medjuck
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Deleted Scenes
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1984 Making-Of Featurette
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Cast and Crew Featurette
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SFX Team Documentary
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SFX Before & After (Multi Angles)
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Storyboard, Split-Screen Compare
Film: 9/10
Disc: 8/10
