Ghostbusters (1984) - re:View

and this episode of review who are you gonna call that's right the ghostbusters today we're talking about the ghostbusters the 1984 comedy film starring Bill Murray dead Aykroyd he'll ramus into Ernie Hudson rich what you're a youtuber but you're not an [ __ ] youtuber oh [ __ ] I got confused yeah I saw a red curtain I thought we were that one prick what's his name uh there's so many pricks I can't remember his [ __ ] well rich we're here today to talk about the 1984 flop film ghostbusters oh wait wait I think it's thinking about Ghostbusters 2016 the flop film Ghostbuster oh my goodness were already into it well I suppose we should talk about the elephant in the room before we discuss ghostbusters I was talking about Melissa McCarthy cuz she's fat see there's too many easy jokes we could make no seriously rich yeah if we're going to talk about the new Ghostbusters film I brought along the barf bag for you okay so you suddenly feel the urge to throw up oh thank you Mike thank you Mike are we being fair are we being fair to ghostbusters 2016 here's the thing at this point we have not seen the new Ghostbusters film we're doing our review episode on I would say probably both of our one of our favorite films of all time it's will say that Ghostbusters is a film that has molded our lives because look where we are now for many many years the rumors were swirling of a Ghostbusters three and we we speculated many times on what this would be and then we talked about how horrible it was going to be we talked about yes and then that's kind of one of the things I want to discuss where there's the problem with remaking Ghostbusters Ghostbusters isn't just a science fiction film about people who capture ghosts with laser beam it's very specifically three great performances by three great comedians and also Ernie Hudson mm-hmm but I mean you can't you can't just recreate that chemistry no it's it's a happy accident on the film because there there are three or four or maybe even five brilliant minds at work who I think all had kind of different idea of how the film would turn out especially dan Aykroyd mainly speaking about Dan Aykroyd and I have a feeling that Bill Murray had no idea what was going on and he's just being sarcastic you can tell by certain interviews that he does he's just like I don't know whatever we're not here just to get a couple of yachts hahaha no he's not worried about and we're not here just to stay off the street we're here to do something very very important and so you have all these different different wonderful talents that have no idea what kind of movie they're making the only one who really did I think was Ivan Reitman maybe Harold Ramis but it's this wonderful wonderful blend of comedy and science because Dan Aykroyd really takes his stuff seriously yes and you're right it's it's about the performances and had I seen ghostbusters 2016 trailer with who I don't know who do we joke that we set up Seth Rogen were joking about being in it at some point like Jack black years ago ten years ago Michael Michael sirrah you know whoever whoever current comedians are god forbid James Franco it could have very easily been a Judd Apatow movie who knows and if it had just as much goofy nonsense that's in this Ghostbusters 2016 I still would have had the same reaction actually to me having an all-female cast is one of the biggest attributes to the movie because you're not women women comedians will have a different perspective a different way of doing the performances then like you can't replace Bill Murray dan Aykroyd and Hale Ramos I just can't so having male counterparts replace them or try to be as funny as them I think would have been more disastrous but about the only thing you can do is a gimmick that's girls it's a gimmick yeah I guess so I think they were doing that to kind of curtail some of the criticisms and come if you put a Seth Rogen in there I don't have anything against Seth Rogen I'm just saying those actors in ghostbusters were very specific like you said and it was perfect my parents left me that house I was born there you're not gonna lose the house everybody has three mortgages nowadays but at 19 percent you didn't even bargain with the guy great for your information the interest rate alone for the first five years comes to $95,000 well I think I think we we speculated that there would be a flying Ghostbusters car Ghostbusters three I speculated because you have the top you have the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and then you have like the the Statue of Liberty I speculated that they were going to have to turn like the Empire State Building into a giant ghost trap like like Dan Aykroyd was going to have some dialogue the architects of this building we're really the earliest ghostbusters and this was designed to stop a ghost invasion in Manhattan and like the the Empire State Building was going to suck in some kind of giant ghost that was like larger than the city yes and there could have been a completely different way that the new Ghostbusters reboot went which is I was I was watching ghostbusters as well I did do some research to see although I was watching it with all the little behind the scenes documentary stuff and I was thinking like proton packs are an equivalent to the lightsaber where they're awesome but only there only awesome with when used sparingly and and according to the story because they don't really fire the proton packs that much in the goes to the first Ghostbusters movie am i right yep so we very well could have had a big dumb stupid kind of michaelbay esque movie where people are firing proton packs all over the place and it got big and epic you know yeah and dumb that very well could have happened it seems that Paul fyg Paul Feig they seem to have gone to the comedy route because Paul Feig did bridesmaids um and other films he did lots of episodes of The Office and he is a comedy guy so the only real problem with Ghostbusters 2016 is that the comedy looks very lowbrow that's stuff one everywhere by the way in every crack very hard to wash off when of course in the original Ghostbusters it's it's the best comedy of her captured in a motion picture which is dry and sarcastic which is why the film is a work of art I think you once described Ghostbusters is a vehicle for Bill Murray to say witty things oh that's low it is yeah yeah how does it go the story and the ghosts and the everything's a backdrop and it's it's it's also a vehicle for Dan Aykroyd's crazy they had to tone that crazy dumb so much yeah they had some behind the scenes stuff where they're like like asking all the main guys you know what what did to show your kids Ghostbusters and eyebright was like oh I showed my kids you know they think it's fun it's daddy it made a great movie and then dan Aykroyd like yeah of course I showed my kids and they asked me of ghosts in the movie are real and I had to tell them the truth that yes it's all real they've asked me you know do I believe in ghosts and are ghosts real and I I can't lie to them and I have to tell them that I do believe and I do believe they're real I guess what's funny is they're wide-eyed response they're expecting me to say well no it's just a movie but I'm not going to say that to them because I respect their intelligence and their perception is as little beings and you know but but that's his that's his passion it's his passion it's like almost his religion and you know what it's fine it's fine he really believes on and you know as you know I'm I am a nut for paranormal all things paranormal I can't say whether or not I believe in ghosts 100% but I find all that stuff fascinating different dimensions you know string theory good paranormal ghosts time echoes however the the Mandela effect have you heard about this I've heard about that yeah just remember things and then they think reality has changed around them rather than they just forgot something oh right yeah yeah um so I find all that stuff interesting so it's it's it's great that that Dan Aykroyd has brought that angle to the to the ghostbusters where he believes that proton packs are real and that you really can catch ghosts because it adds that element that perfect element of believability you know and the movie starts off very very believable and it kind of turns into wonderful chaos in at the end it builds up to the point where you can believe a giant marshmallow man is walking down the streets there's something you don't see every day and a dimensional rift is opened with the Super God windows are from from a couple of guys in a laboratory to that you go from the the simple books floating across in the library to the cities blowing up mm-hmm and marshmallow fluff is raining down from the skies yes yes close lock the system set your entry grid mr. Nyes your feel and light is green rap is plain the Ghostbusters are anti horror and other movies with like a supernatural element you combat the supernatural with the supernatural like once you know the Evil Dead start appearing you have to read from the Necronomicon and have the exact phrasing or you you need to find the mystic dagger to stop the ghost and perform the ritual the Ghostbusters take that and turn it out it's heads like we're gonna use our own damn science to fight these things and I that that makes the the concept interesting to me they don't fight on the monsters terms and in a way they're their little superheroes they have this amazing technology that no one no one else has and it's a joke like the whole movies I see that's where that's where I have this feeling like it was a kind of a happy accident because I think the gag was that there there schlubby blue-collar exterminators that exterminate ghosts and that in itself is kind of like like a comedy concept that's why you know Bill Murray's always like making all these jokes the whole time and it's essentially a comedy but it has that that underpinning that underlayer of of the real the reality to it and that's why I always like the fact that the threat and I've never really like Slimer I've always liked everything else in the movie the fact that the threat is actually like this real dangerous interdimensional threat well the tone is yeah the tone is great because they are the only thing that that's really silly in the movie the Ghostbuster Ghostbuster oh yeah yeah everyone else plays it as played straight except for maybe Rick Moranis but well yeah he's uh yeah he's the threat is real there's that element of it's it's a mixture to between ghosts as we know them which are dead people and some kind of bizarre supernatural occurrence because really they are not fighting a ghost yeah at the end of ghostbusters are trying to seal an interdimensional portal well it's kind of its kind of Lovecraftian Cthulhu the the other dimensional gods who will come someday to destroy us all yeah I mean the first ghost they see though is the ghost of presumably a dead librarian yeah from the 1800s and then they kind of like the only asset the only other human ghost I can recall in the Ghostbuster series is the Central Park jogger yeah yeah another than that they're all like that little monsters couldn't could Schlemmer have been a human the ghosts have to look you let the ghost of George Lucas oh wait sorry the the the so-and-so brothers who died in the electric chair who become big fat cartoon ghosts for no reason at all wells also the scariest ghost and Ghostbusters the cab driver the zombie cab driver but he wasn't really ghosts as much as he was a zombie it was just a skeleton it was an undead skeleton it wasn't glowing or transparent the ghost came into the tailpipe of the cab and I think that turned into the dáil we need to Skype dan Aykroyd right away that's the thing it's like it's like all the rules are off the window it's not like we're you know we're going to hunt this or that who cares it should we call paranormal Buster's it's it's misleading title but the logo is is perfect it's a ghost which is fantastical and paranormal and and and mythical mixed with a very mundane symbol of no smoking know what I mean because that that in the 80s that those are those are probably everywhere everywhere that the no smoking logo yeah don't do this you know no crossing the street the no sign I think it has an official name but I can't recall it right now but that that's the Ghostbusters and then the ghost is the ghosts it's perfect it's perfect no ghost no ghost that's all you need and for some reason I don't know seeing that logo on the new movie just makes me want to throw up it's not as bad as the Ghostbusters 2 logo where he's just doing the peace thing what I think we're going to refrain from talking about yeah Ghostbusters - yeah I did see the Ghostbusters 2 logo in person because I'll bring up this wonderful wonderful moment in my life Jay and I went on a video production shoot to New York City many years ago 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 15 years ago I'm not even sure and it was in Central Park who's in Central Park West and and we walked around because we had set up our gear and we had a couple hours before the shoot started and and then we were like it's not the building from ghostbusters isn't that Louis Tully's apartment building and sure enough it was in fact we made a video about it but we saw the Lewis Tully's apartment building and literally across the street in Central Park is there was the restaurant called Tavern on the Green which is where he problems on the glass and we started finding all these locations and then we said we're going to we got to go to the V location and you know what I'm talking about a library out oh we just go to the New York Public Library - but we we took a cab to the ghostbusters firehouse and then there it was and and you know every every five minutes or every minute there was you know people coming up taking pictures yeah it was like a constant stream very very mild but constant then then when we were there they put up the door the firehouse door and they have inside there on the wall they have the sign from ghostbusters 2 on the wall do they do anything there's just a tourist official a firehouse yeah the the I think we talked about this in our Ghostbusters 2 commentary which is available on Bandcamp but the exteriors were shot in New York and then the interiors were shot in a firehouse in LA yeah so yeah when it opens up it doesn't look like the inside of it they they didn't build a recreation of the exterior of the hotel for when the street gets always up that that is also amazing that's impressive that's impressive good seamless I never had any idea that was a set yeah yeah well I had to crush up the street but yeah they built the exterior that I can't believe someone didn't just say maybe we don't need the street to break up maybe they just walk inside I can't believe like a bean counter didn't say that why do we have to know this multi-million dollar said because it was the 80s man and they knew how to make movies back then now would be a computer graphic effect that looks terrible you like that one with that came from oh my god for cocaine that's right rich smokey yeah we got it yes that's gonna blow up it's maybe a hat right you know I don't know I guess he sound like the guy that runs the cartoon Factory in the Simpsons at Harold Ramis that's a bringing up it's very sad I mean it really takes the punch out of this new movie but it also confirms the fact that I'm okay with them not making one with the original cast I mean you have to be at this point obviously because Harold Ramis has died but I always thought a third Ghostbusters movie with the original cast would have still been wonderful and they're all like we're too old or you know and that's one of my favorite lines from the second one is sucking the guts boys were the Ghostbusters it's because Harold Ramis was was very overweight the end of his life and you know Bill Murray looks like the Crypt Keeper from sales of the Crypt you know and they all look terrible except for Ernie Hudson who somehow looks exactly the same as he did 1984 as they say black don't crack but I would have loved to see all of them looking horribly old and fat and schlubby trying to be ghostbusters again and all the humor you can mine from that yeah Ghostbusters only needs a third film to redeem itself from the second where you just forget about the second why not what happened have happened rich if we said oh my god that Temple of Doom movie and we're done we wouldn't have a last verse eight because they said that oh my god this this actually Temple of Doom though that's one of my favorites but it's the least why are we having this argument because it's at least it's the least popular amongst all them because it was so dark and horrible and racist and miserable look and Ghostbusters to Bill Murray wanted to be doing something else mhm and and the novelty of the ghost catching idea was was done like like like part of the Ghostbusters is that that idea is so novel like catching ghosts with with science and the traps and the equipment that was all that was all that's need and then Ghostbusters 2 came out what was it like 5 5 years later it was it was too long to be fresh like maybe if Ghostbusters 2 came out like 2 years later would have been different but five years later it wasn't a fresh yeah I know and and and that's why that's why in that movie like the first half when it's just those characters and their chemistry and they're in different situations why that first half of that movie is so interesting and the minute they get their proton packs back everything just feels routine it's like oh we're the girls where they're gonna ship goes yeah I know it became less special mmm they say made so many missteps where they could have made a third one in like the mid-90s that kind of fixed everything but who knows who knows redeemed it's a little it's too late it's too late now and Annie Potts she was right all along when she said usually very psychic about these things I believe you're gonna die oh I'm not making a joke well as course she was right we're all gonna die like I'm very psychic about these things I think you're gonna die it gives me the willies now when she says that line on the TV screen rich and you know I'm not making a joke I Harold Ramos was wonderful and it's like you know it's like losing 101 John Lennon got shot you know there can never be a Beatles reunion then has the Ghostbusters formula worked outside of Ghostbusters that's a very good question the answer's no I'm trying to think of some of the most uh what was the one with the David Duchovny I think it was also Ivan right it wasn't that evolution or something like that oh yeah oh geez that movie wasn't that basically made to be another ghost it's like those buses but like a whacky supernatural I think the the I think the big key is restraint it's having that restraint to hold back until the very ending of the film which is what Ghostbusters did it's a perfect movie perfectly set up perfectly acted executed everything like like like gremlins like gremlins yeah which came out the same year let's assume what's a week I think really I could be wrong with a man a year that works today before this was don't piss off the ghost really it's no different to me than the Robocop or Total Recall remakes you're taking a film that even though it's 30 years old still works exceedingly well and and you're trying to recreate something you can't recreate with with that chemistry that those actors had maybe they're not trying to recreate it maybe they have the licensing for the name and are slapping a film together to make a whole bunch of money real fast have you considered that option but Mike they're women so feminism okay I don't know if it was a race thing or a lady thing but I'm mad as hell and it's good because they're women women can do anything a man can do especially a fictional job catching ghosts this can't be a cynical cash grab because they're female all right you're right that invalidates your argument well cross the street excuse me a gun you said crossing the streams was bad Ross the streams you're gonna endanger us you're gonna injure our client the nice lady who paid us in advance before she became a dog is don't cross the streams the just kind of the lamest setup for the ending they could have done just one line earlier in the film oh yeah we shouldn't cross the streams then at the end of film we need to cross the streams well he got he got explained the particle physics involvement of it all it was was yes yes on a surface level yes story component-wise this is a big dangerous thing we should do yeah let's do it together as a team we're going to take the risk together we're yeah yeah I was felt fairly weak to me it isn't it is the weakest part of the movie and I've always hated the line she's a dog okay so she's a dog I've always thought that that ruined the emotional intensity of watching scoring Weaver transform into a monster no Bill Murray has been been fawning after the whole film Eddie it's like I how about I say this I just picture Bill Murray on the signal to say this and she's a dog and then it's like oh no that's the only line in the whole film that I don't like I don't know that whole romance always struck me as creepy because I had never got the feeling that Peter Venkman wanted to do anything other than just sleep with her and move on but he had his chance when she was possessed she said I want you inside me and he's like he goes I do it no it's his subconscious talked again and then he's like it seems like there's already a couple people in there you're talking about when when when he showed up to go on the date with her yes yeah the date the date that he brought 350 cc's of Thorazine on you know originally they wanted the part of Peter Venkman to be played by Bill Cosby but in all fairness we must do our best to reserve judgment on Ghostbusters 2016 until we see it yeah it might be it might be fun the only the only real problem is that there is almost 0% chance it's going to be better than the original making the whole endeavor pointless that's when was if they make a bunch of cash and it's also not pointless if it makes me laugh the whole time look if it's a funny movie I love Ghostbuster tech I love the proton packs I love the traps out of the firehouse I love Ghostbusters car I love all that that weird but somewhat realistic technology that exists in the Ghostbusters universe and I love those three characters I will be happy with this movie if it's just funny because I know that the technology in it is going to be over-the-top it's going to be stupid it's not going to feel believable because I've already seen scenes where they're like well little playing around with stuff I don't believe that Melissa McCarthy can make a proton pack I believe that you got Spangler clip but if the movie if the movie is funny and not lowbrow and stupid I will be okay with it the the neon library goes spitting up Nickelodeon slime is worrying though oh there's so many worrying things it's it's not going to have that same tone where the monsters were serious everything's gonna be wacky yeah well I guess people you know when people criticize this new Ghostbusters film of not being serious people often complain that the first one it's not being serious and nobody ever [ __ ] said it was but they they point to some of the wacky elements in a Slimer and the scene we haven't talked about the when dan Aykroyd gets a [ __ ] from a ghost while I was a kid I didn't quite understand what was happening I was like what's happening with his belt and then cuts just facing along and then you know it's a thing for adults to laugh at he doesn't it's not like his pants fall down and then you know he starts having sex with her and then he farts and then you know the ghost starts having sex with Egon there's a joke about Egon [ __ ] slime in the second one if you recall yeah it's a holdover from when Harold Ramis and I have arrived and worked on Animal House we've been going about this all wrong this mr. Stay Puft is okay he's a sailor he's in New York we get this guy laid we won't have any trouble the original film is like 90% witty fun dialogue and interesting characters interacting with each other it is is it the most quotable movie of all time it might be it might be yeah there's so many so many quotes and so many moments do that that aren't necessarily quotable but they are just so good like when they when they take the elevator you know and there's I don't manic yeah see you're laughing already just that seemed I'm taking the elevator what are you guys supposed to be cosmonauts no we're exterminators someone saw a roach up on 12 or whatever then they get in there and you know have you tested these it's a nuclear accelerator we're wearing unlicensed nuclear accelerator Jean Rebecca I regret that I have not tested this yet and then and then simpleness he flips it on like that wouldn't make it oh so subtle so funny so perfect the movie still makes me laugh I know what the hell are you doing sorry sorry I'm sorry we thought you were someone else there's an a a line of ADR in the film and Jay and I have gotten two arguments about the scene before where he claims it's not the ADR and it wasn't added after the fact and let me ask you this ray Stantz says [ __ ] over here shut down the power grid everything was mine with our system until the power grid was shut off by [ __ ] here and then the city says that's not true or whatever and Bill Maher says it's true your honor this man has no dick yes it's true this man has no dick then I cut through another shot and then you hear Bill Murray in the background go well that's what I heard all right all right all right well that's what I heard now what do you think about that line do you think in post-production Bill Murray said that kind of sounds like I'm on sexual how would I know if he has no dick you got to add in the line of me saying well that's what I heard all right all right well that's what I heard cuz it really sounds like it's not part of the film and that it's an ad yard line what are your thoughts on this I've never heard him talk about this line on anything no I've never heard anything about this either it's just my personal theory that it was added later that was not in the screenplay well how much the movie was actually in the screenplay I'm sure there was a lot of ad-libbing going on so I can go either way I just wanted to bring that up it might not even have been 80-yard could have been it could have been on the set he thought oh no they're gonna think I'm gay they said it Ben I don't know I just always stuck out to me that line and I also used to think as a kid like that sounds weird what does it sound like he's in the room what does that mean and then I'm and then I was an adult I'm like it's true Your Honor this man has no dick but I'm just continuing on the scene that sounds like the perfect comeback and that it was what I heard yeah I don't know rich I also never knew what Rea yelled when they walked in back into their their science lab was hey gene Yeager possibilities are limitless hey Dean Yeager and I was like what's a Hayden Yeager because I didn't know what a Dean was I was too little it's a college camping campus there's partying going on and see some kind of drink right uh uh II thought they're gonna call I have a party they're gonna have a toga party when the Dean showed up yeah you need to deliver the one hey Dean Yeager but instead he goes hey gene Yeager 80 Yeager it's like part-time like that we need a different take on that hayden Yeager 80 Yeager Hayden Yeager what what does he say uh whatever he's he's dan Aykroyd what do you expect what does that mean I don't he's weird I don't think we will ever have a formal relationship a formal contact with any alien species out there especially after 9/11 when we broke our toys in the sandbox if they were observing that goodbye human race and honestly I don't think they're a mass threat but I do believe they're breaking along serious by 1812 Oh III think every little moment in ghostbusters is somehow act into my brain almost every little moment and that's that's when you know you have a really great film everybody ages it's one for the ages and I can't wait to watch most McCarthy fart ectoplasm

Channel: RedLetterMedia

Views: 1,759,347

Rating: 4.8857832 out of 5

Keywords: Red Letter media, ghostbusters, 1984, re:view, Rich Evans, redlettermedia, red, letter, media, half in the bag, plinkett, best of the worst, mike stoklasa, rich evans, ivan reitman, bill murray, dan aykroyd

Id: 8PS7CgXHxps

Length: 33min 18sec (1998 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 12 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/MattBoySlim]

I feel like the answer to the question near the end is somewhere in between. "Well, that's what I heard!" is clearly ADR. The sound quality is markedly different from everything else going on at that time in the scene. However, you can see that Murray is clearly trying to jump up to toss in some comment. My guess is that his comment got buried under the sound of the ensuing argument and they just had him record the same line again later to make it clearer.

[u/Teroniz]

So after they said Gremlins was also from 84 i wanted to see what else came out that year and holy shit, what a year! Not only Ghostbusters and Gremlins but also;

Berverly Hills Cop

Terminator

A Nightmare on Elm Street

The Karate Kid

Amadeus

Police Academy

Children of the Corn

[u/InternetDegenerate]

Why does it feel that nobody ever analyzes the social commentary of ghostbusters. At its core, the story of ghostbusters is that 3 university professors who in spite of their intelligence, underestimate how easy it would be to take on a blue collar job and start their own business. They take the chance and start their own company which is a commonplace profession (pestcontrol/exterminators) and enhance it using the skills they learned over the years.

Ghostbusters is about glorifying blue collar workers. Showing that even the mundane of jobs can be satisfing, entertaining, and can bring glory.

Ghostbusters is Mike Rowe's wet dream.

[u/omfgforealz]

Has the Ghostbusters formula worked outside of Ghostbusters?

Does Men in Black follow the formula?

[u/imnotlegolas]

visit us at /r/redlettermedia for more of this and nasty pizza rolls

[u/mi-16evil]

I enjoyed this re:view because it's nice to hear a good take on Ghostbusters from a non fanboy perspective. Much like Mike and Rich I always found the first film a pretty surprising accidental hit that could have fucked up in any other direction. In a perfect world it would be it's own standalone thing but damn if all the ghostbusters stuff isn't super marketable. I think in one RLM video Mike said he no longer finds Darth Vader scary because pop culture has ruined him. I feel the same about Ghostbusters' charm. There's no life there for me outside of the original and the sequel and cartoons and toys just feel like products with no real soul to them. So to me a cynical reboot is just the latest dumb thing. I'm not going to the reboot to recapture that magic, it's been dead since Ghostbusters II. I'm going to hopefully have a good comedy that will be strung along by a multi-million dollar branding empire, like The Lego Movie. If it succeeds in that I'll be happy and I'm glad Mike seems to be going into this film without an agenda.

[u/[deleted]]

>Judd Apatow Busters

If a modern director HAD to direct a GB reboot i'd pick Adam McKay

[u/DontDoxMeJoe]

I want that Juicy Shaq Meat.

[u/drifter1717]

Who were the three pricks they were making fun of in the beginning?