Director: Ivan Reitman
Writers: Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis (uncredited)
Starring: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis
Release Date: June 8th, 1984
Runtime: 1 hr. 45 mins.
MPAA Rating: PG
This last Monday, Harold Ramis passed away from a rare vascular disease at the age of sixty-nine. For a lot of people, this “Harold who?” may seem to have very little impact on their lives; but if you’re a fan of comedy, a fan of anything funny, you’ve likely either encountered Ramis already, or have watched those heavily influenced by his body of work. And if you grew up in the 1980s like I did, you couldn’t avoid him even if you didn’t have a funny bone in your body. He wrote and acted in some of the funniest films of all time: Animal House, Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, and of course, Ghostbusters. If you think this reads like Bill Murray’s resume rather than Harold Ramis’s, you’d be half right: the two worked together, with Murray often being the star (or scene-stealing bit part, such as his groundskeeper in Caddyshack) of the movies Ramis wrote. Ramis never hogged the spotlight, allowing others to shine, but those movies he appeared in would not have been the same without his uncomfortable, dorky-yet-human characterizations. In honor of Ramis’s passing, I’m going to review my favorite of his films today: Ghostbusters.
(more…)
Reviews by Steve 