Quick Thoughts: Ghostbusters

For yesterday's watch along, the featured movie was Ghostbusters (1984) starring Bill Murrary, Dan Aykroyd and Sigourney Weaver, with Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis and Annie Potts in key supporting roles. Now what can one say about Ghostbusters that hasn't already been said, it's a classic, it's a movie that lead to a cartoon that many folks my age grew up watching, toys and comics, video games. Sure it was not aimed at kids but we were drawn to it because it was something unique and special... and I'm really hoping the next film, Ghostbusters: Afterlife which was pushed back to 2021 due to Covid-19, will be able to remind the world of that particular fact while continuing to bury the existence of the 2016 abomination.

Of course while re-watching it yesterday,  there were somethings that obvious stood out to me, and one is the constant reminder of just how tall Sigourney Weaver is, particularly in scenes where she's paired off with Rick Moranis and when she first goes to Ghostbusters HQ and looking down at Annie Potts who is sitting behind the reception desk. Whenever I try to think of another film that unintentionally (or intentionally) draws attention to Weaver's height, I fail to think of one, either because she ends up in movies where everyone she is sharing the screen with is around six-feet tall, or there is a lot of 'Tom Cruise style trick photography' being used to make her co-stars seem taller than they really are.

Now while some of the special effects hasn't aged as well as one would expect for a film that is going to be 40 years old in 2024, there was something that certainly looks increasingly dated and that's the sound stage set for Gozer's temple at the end of the film, where one can actually there is no depth to the surrounding New York skyline which is really noticeable on certain lighting effects. Also when the Ghostbusters are stumbling around when the structure is being shaken, it looks a little more silly than intended because the camera is incredibly still, so the illusion is a bit broken.

It's in regard to the continuity / editing of the film... while the pacing of the original Ghostbusters is fine, one does noticed that the montage that takes place following the Sedwick Hotel segment and some of the following scene don't exactly line up the way one expects if one is paying attention. The real noticable case is when Winston is hired, the film cuts to another scene and then back to Janine telling Peter that Peck from the EPA is in his office, which when you look at it one would assume it would've been continuous scene. I get why it's done, but it does make for a bit awkward timing.