Ghostbusters... does NOT live up.

We'll call you for the sequel.

We've always liked the Ghostbusters. They're zany outcasts. They dash around the city fighting ghost crimes (sorta). They have a fire pole in their office. Busting Ghosts is every kid's dream job!

Unfortunately, we were surprised by how much the first Ghostbusters didn't match our memories. From underdeveloped characters to too many discussions about accounting, the film felt slow. The first Ghostbusters did not Live Up. We realized it was the 1989 sequel, Ghostbusters 2, and the kid's cartoon show that formed our warm and fuzzy memories of the Ghostbusters.

Still, we can appreciate how the 1984 Ghostbusters film was groundbreaking. Dan Aykroyd came up with a completely novel script that paved the way for big-budget, comedic, sci fi summer blockbusters. Jurassic Park, Independence Day, and Men In Black owe this film big time.

Ghostbusters also pushed the boundaries of cinematography and special effects. Today's films would almost certainly use computer-generated effects to show humans battling ghosts. It's cheaper, but an overused solution... and one that rarely excites me as a viewer (so many Marvel & DC fighting sequences blur together in my mind. Green screens, spinning cameras, computerized explosions. Big who cares...)

Making action sequences in 1984 required a lot more creativity. Let's consider how they made the end sequence of Ghostbusters:

Step 1. Film the actors on a set of the roof, proton packs ready. They're looking out at the blue screen where the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man will appear. 

Step 2. Use a Matte to create a middle layer of the shot. For Ghostbusters, they intricately painted the adjacent building. This ties together the shot of the actors with the shot of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. 

Step 3. Film the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man's rampage, which is an actor inside a suit walking through a replica set of New York street, complete with miniature cars, street lights, and trees.

Step 4. Combine the shots from Steps 1-3 to create a perfectly lit, arguably realistic-looking face off between the Ghostbusters and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. 

For me, practical effects like these hold up and live up better than computerized effects (which are numbing at best, and quickly dated and klumnky-looking at worst). Kudos to Ghostbusters for their creativity.

Listen to our review of the original Ghostbusters here, or on your favorite streaming platform:

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