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Dom Robinson reviews
Columbia TriStar
- Cat.no: CDR 90488
- Cert: PG
- Running time: 101 minutes
- Year: 1984
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 28 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, German (DD2.0 only)
- Subtitles: 15 different languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Theatrical trailer, Audio Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Storyboard split-screen comparison, Still Storyboards, Meet the SFX Team, SFX Before and After, Ghostly Photo Gallery, Behind-the-scenes Featurette and Interviews, Concept Drawings, Ghostbusters 2 Trailer
Director:
- Ivan Reitman
(Dave, Father’s Day, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Junior, Kindergarten Cop, Legal Eagles, Meatballs, Six Days Seven Nights, Stripes, Twins)
Producer:
- Ivan Reitman
Screenplay:
- Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis
Music:
- Elmer Bernstein
Cast:
- Doctor Peter Venkman: Bill Murray (Caddyshack, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Groundhog Day, Kingpin, Little Shop of Horrors, Mad Dog and Glory, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Quick Change, The Rutles: All You Need is Cash, Rushmore, Space Jam, Stripes, Wild Things)
Doctor Raymond Stantz: Dan Aykroyd (1941, The Blues Brothers, Blues Brothers 2000, Caddyshack II, Coneheads, Driving Miss Daisy, Feeling Minnesota, Getting Away with Murder, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, The Great Outdoors, Grosse Pointe Blank, My Fellow Americans, My Girl 1 & 2, My Stepmother is an Alien, Neighbors, Nothing But Trouble, The Rutles: All You Need is Cash, Sgt. Bilko, Sneakers, Spies Like Us, Trading Places)
Dana Barrett: Sigourney Weaver (1492: Conquest of Paradise, Alien 1-4, Copycat, Dave, Death and the Maiden, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Gorillas in the Mist, The Ice Storm, Jeffrey, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, A Woman or Two, Working Girl, The Year of Living Dangerously)
Doctor Egon Spengler: Harold Ramis (Baby Boom, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Stripes)
Louis Tully: Rick Moranis (The Flintstones, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Honey I Blew Up The Baby, Honey We Shrunk Ourselves, Little Giants, Little Shop of Horrors, My Blue Heaven, Parenthood, Spaceballs)
Janine Melnitz: Annie Potts (Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Pretty In Pink)
Walter Peck: William Atherton (Bio-Dome, Broken Trust, Die Hard 1 & 2)
Winston Zeddemore: Ernie Hudson (American Samurai, The Basketball Diaries, Best of the Best 4, Congo, The Crow, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Leviathan, Mr Magoo, No Escape, Operation Delta Force, Speechless, The Substitute, TV: Oz)
Ghostbusters. There can’t be many people in the world who hasn’t heard of this supernatural comedy hit from 1984.
After being booted out of their student digs, three parapsychology professors decide to put their theories to the test about an influx of ghostly goings-on and set up base as professional ghostbusters. They are Doctor Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), ever the optimist, who convinces himself and the others that this is the chance they were waiting for despite having no idea how they are going to fund their activites, Doctor Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), usually the ‘Doubting Thomas’ of the group but still with a few ideas of his own and Doctor Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), the scientific egg-head of the group.
Business is slow at first, with a brief encounter in the library and a fright from a green blob of slime up and down the corridors of a posh hotel, the offender being the appropriately-named Slimer, barely paying the rent. Things pick up when Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), a classical musician, turns up at their door complaining of eggs cooking on a standard kitchen surface and a fridge that’s given way to a spiritual home for God-knows-what that emits a terrifying cry of “Zuul” to all and sundry. While Egon and Ray want to get to the bottom of the matter, Peter just wants to get to the bottom of her pants.
This is just the last of Dana’s problems. She’s got enough to cope from an annoying neighbour in her appartment, Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), but you’ll find out later that they have more in common than they think…
Of the rest of the cast, there’s a kooky receptionist in the form of Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) who has a normal haircut in this film, but a dreadful one in the sequel. If you don’t think that three ghostbusters are enough, then Ernie Hudson applies to be the fourth as Winston Zeddemore. If Hudson’s name doesn’t ring any bells, then he hasn’t starred in too many big films, but at the time of writing he cuts a powerful man as the prison warden Glynn in Channel 4’s Oz (Thursdays, after midnight until late April 2000).
Villain of the peace in Die Hard, roving (and invasive) reporter Richard Thornberg not the mad German, William Atherton, pulls another star turn as city council official Walter Peck. His actions have catastrophic effects on the city of New York and it leads to a hilarious exchange of words in the mayor’s office, but if you’ve only seen the TV version, you’ll have heard the words “dickless” replaced with “twinkie”, which I can only assume was done with a wry sense of humour by the director to take a swipe at those TV bosses who were happy to show a spliced version of his PG-rated comedy.
Finally, there’s the always-gorgeous Jennifer Runyon as the eponymous volunteer for Venkman in the opening ESP scene, Slavitza Jovan as the evil Gozer and director Ivan Reitman gets an uncredited performance as the voice of “Zuul”.
For its 15th anniversary, what we demand is an original ratio of 2.35:1, unlike the original widescreen PAL Laserdisc (it never received a widescreen video outing, surprisingly) and a remastered anamorphic transfer which is free of artifacts. Gladly, that’s exactly what we got and it allows the stunning (for 1984) special effects to shine through. Yes, SFX have improved immeasurably since then but these perfectly suited this film. The average bitrate is a middling 4.42Mb/s.
The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 for English, while Germans get vanilla surround sound (did they steal the Columbia TriStar M.D.’s sunbed by the pool?) Thump! Thump! Thump! go the speakers and the wall vibrates more than those in Prisoner: Cell Block H as Ray Parker Jr‘s theme tune bursts into song. From then on, all the audio cues are a joy with plenty of noticeable noise going on in the surround speakers. I just wish I had a DD5.1 amp! It would’ve been even better.
Extras :
Chapters/Trailer : There are 28 chapters, like most Columbia releases, spread throughout the 101 minutes which is fine and the last chapter brings together the finale and the end credits. The original US theatrical trailer is also included, as is a trailer for Ghostbuster 2.
Languages/Subtitles : Dolby Digital 5.1 in English and French, plus subtitles in FIFTEEN languages : English, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Hindi, Hebrew, Russian, Turkish, German, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Greek and Norwegian.
However, in English, I never knew “electric shocks” could translate to “chocks”. “Mmmmmm….chocs”
And there’s more… : Top of the pile comes an audio commentary which is exclusive to DVD and looks rather different than you’d expect. “Looks” he says? Yes. Switch your DVD player into non-anamorphic mode and you’ll get three heads appearing at the bottom of the screen – director Ivan Reitman, writer/actor Harold Ramis and associate producer Joe Medjuck. They’ll shuffle about while they talk about the film, pointing up at the screen, but I haven’t watched it all the way through, so if they nip out for a Cornetto don’t be too surprised…
Ten Deleted scenes are included in the “Scene Cemetery”, but they’re so brief and don’t add anything to the plot so aren’t much of a loss from the main feature. A ten-minute Behind-the-scenes featurette follows, which plays like an extended trailer and features short snippets of chat from the three guys and Ms. Weaver.
In the “Special Effects” section, Meet the SFX Team is an intriguing 16-minute featurette with all those involved chatting to camera, describing how various scenes were put together including the Marshmallow Man, levitation and some explosions. Special Effects: Before and After is an excellent little addition in which three major SFX scenes, “Spook Central Exploding”, “She’s a Dog” and “Crossing the Streams” can be seen, as it says, before and after, via the use of the DVD’s multi-angle feature. Well worth a look and cool to show off to your friends. This section concludes with Concept Drawings for the library ghost, the dog, the sets and Ghostbusters logos and our old friends, Slimer and Stay-Puft.
The Storyboards scene is another boon. While the stills section offers seven scenes in sketch form, including two not included in the final film, this section excels with the Split Screen Comparison. Take your choice of “Slimer” in the hotel corridors, “Gozer” (nearly) bumping off our heroes and Sigourney Weaver “Becoming The Gatekeeper”, each scene sits within the 4:3 TV window with the widescreen image at the bottom – showing the scene in question – and the relevant storyboards in the top half of the screen.
Want some pics? Take a look at the Ghostly Gallery where images of Slimer, the “Dog”, Mr. Stay-Puft, the library ghost, the levitation scene from Ray’s dream and the “Spook Central” building housing Dana’s apartment, can be found in the form of film clips and work-in-progress.
Subtitles are available for some of these extras, but, bizarrely, only in German.
Menu : The main menu and next-level sub-menus are animated and have sound, the main menu appearing the best with ghostly images whizzing about, cars driving on the road, Mr. Stay-Puft wandering about in the background and clouds up above, all accompanied by Ray Parker Jr.‘s signature tune.
When you click on an option to go to a sub-menu, such as language selection, audio commentary, scene selection or the other extras, rounded up in a “Spook Central” section, the camera above the city appears to pan around and zoom in – very classy.
Overall, I’ve loved Ghostbusters ever since I saw it for the first time and it’s only now that we’ve had the chance to see it in its exact original ratio – and with a cracking anamorphic transfer to boot. It’s rare to get a film with excellent comedic timing and even rarer for director Reitman, as his films can be hit or miss. For every Twins there’s a Junior, for every Ghostbusters there’s a Ghostbusters 2 and for every Stripes there’s a Six Days Seven Nights.
Now the crunch time. How does it compare to the region 1 disc? Very well, but not perfect. I’ve given this disc 4/5 for extras, although it has many more than most discs would ever dream of, but it is missing a 1999 update on the original featurette which gets the original cast and crew back together again, “Tricks and Trivia” – descriptive subtitles and an audio commentary for the deaf (try and piece that one together), DVD-ROM content for biographies and filmographies, links to the official Ghostbusters website and trailers for Reitman’s Stripes, Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day, Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day and Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day. (ahem!)
Of course, this PAL disc will have better picture quality over the Region 1 DVD so if you don’t mind missing out on a few extras then this disc makes a worthy purchase. If every Columbia DVD was like this, they’d all take hours to write a single review 🙂 FILM : ***** PICTURE QUALITY: ***** SOUND QUALITY: ***** EXTRAS: **** ——————————- OVERALL: *****
You can find my review of Ghostbusters 2 online too.
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.
Millennium Dome’s safety controller.
(if only!)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.