Another Argument for Why Fantastic Action Isn’t Just About Special Effects
Three laid-off university employees start their own business in the field of ghost hunting. Somewhere on the horizon, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse are already looming.
Besides the undeniable hit song by Ray Parker Jr., explaining who to call if you have an invisible man in your bed, “Ghostbusters” gave the film world Bill Murray in his most characteristic role – an ironic and slightly world-weary melancholic. Murray, however, wasn’t dreaming of action hero fame at the time. And the action movie turned out to be quite conditional: the ghosts lack so much characteristic horror that it seems the vague end-of-the-world storyline was invented solely to have a reason to declare war on these harmless creatures.
In reality, director Ivan Reitman, under the convenient guise of a family film, happily took jabs at everyone he could reach without harming himself or his project: senior researchers, environmentalists, politicians, even – slightly – representatives of religious denominations. As a result, the film can only be called family-friendly with some serious reservations. Between comedies with Schwarzenegger (“Twins” and “Kindergarten Cop”), Reitman managed to gather the entire team for a sequel, and the third part of “Ghostbusters” is coming in the foreseeable future, which in itself is a reason to refresh the first film in memory.
Enduring Appeal Beyond Special Effects
A quarter of a century later, the colorful lightning bolts bursting from the ghostbusters’ hoses might evoke only a tear of tenderness from viewers raised on “The Matrix,” but what do lightning bolts and hoses have to do with it? “Ghostbusters” is a historic meeting of Murray with a snotty green ghost. It’s phrases like “Who does your taxes?” and “Why worry? Each of us has an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on our backs.” It’s Lieutenant Ripley in a silk shirt. Timeless values that transcend time.