Monday 13 August 2018

#82 - Ghostbusters 08/13/18

My parents have these yearbooks for me and my brother. Every year in school, they had a page to fill out that listed off our best friends, favourite subjects, etc. One of the questions was, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" And for a couple years when I was a kid, my answer was "a Ghostbuster".

I love the Ghostbusters. When I was little, I watched the first movie almost daily. I honestly don't remember a time in my life without those guys. And even though all I've gotten for new content in the last 20 years is one good video game, one awful movie, and some comic books and board games, I'm still a diehard fan.

The first film is absolutely my favourite comedy of all time. I think it's the perfect movie. I love the characters, the plot, the special effects (I think the proton streams have aged really well!). Stay Puft is an icon. And it spawned arguably the greatest theme song ever; Ray Parker's Ghostbusters. I have about 10 different versions and covers of that song on my iPhone right now. And I enjoy the movie as an adult in an entirely different way than I did as a kid, too. Jokes like the ghost undoing Ray's pants went right over my head when I was little. Walter Peck is the perfect villain. Ahhh....I could spend hours gushing about that movie....

I have this poster proudly displayed in my office. The only issue I have with this movie is that Winston deserved a little more love.

The second movie takes some heat, but I don't think it's that bad. I don't know if that's because I grew up watching it and I have that nostalgic attachment to it, but it's not awful. Of course, it isn't the first film, but what is? We got all the characters back, fun music, some ghostbusting (I think the courthouse scene might be my favourite scene in either movie). People will argue the Statue of Liberty scene is dumb, but is it really much dumber than Stay Puft was? Bill Murray has been pretty vocal about his distain for this movie, and it's a big part of the reason we never got a true Ghostbusters III. If you don't like it, I think you should give it another shot. It takes way more flack than it deserves. 

If anything, the 2016 Ghostbusters movie made Ghostbusters 2 look incredible. Ugh....

There was the Real Ghostbusters cartoon, which I thought was great. I even liked it after Dave Coulier took over the role of Peter. Although admittedly, those episodes aren't nearly as good as I remember them being after rewatching some of them on Netflix. The original episodes with Lorenzo Music voicing the character are great, and they still hold up today.

Peter Venkman is my favourite fictional character of all time. Bill Murray is one of my favourite characters, primarily because of his portrayal of Venkman in the original film. Everything he says cracks me up. "C"mon, let's run some red lights!" "Dogs and cats, living together, mass hysteria!" "It's true, this man has no dick..." Beautiful. The Real Ghostbusters cartoon version of Peter is just as awesome. He's the comic relief of the team, and the coolest character. (Although cartoon Egon is pretty hilarious, too).

I love the Ghostbusters. That logo makes me smile, the song is incredible. Proton Packs and Ghost Traps just look so cool. I'll never not be a Ghostbusters fan. I wish we had gotten a true third movie in the worst way. A fantastic video game came out years ago, that featured all of the original team doing the voices for their characters, and most people say that it's the 3rd movie. With Harold Ramis passing away, I think that's what we'll all have to accept now. Doing a true Ghostbusters III without Egon is impossible.

This wasn't meant to be a blog talking about all the little known facts about the Ghostbusters franchise. I just wanted to gush about something near and dear to my heart this morning. If you haven't seen the first movie in a while, I urge you to put it on one night and just enjoy it. They just don't make 'em like that anymore...

Thanks for reading.

Adam

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