Search - Ghostbusters on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG Content Advisory: Mild Violence, Adult Language, Watch With Your Kids, Slapstick Violence, Suitable for Teens Movie Release: 1984 DVD Release: 06/29/1999 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Edition: Dual Layered,Restored/Remastered,Special Collection Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 47 mins Studio: Columbia TriStar Members Wishing: 8 Genres: Comedy, Fantasy, Fantasy Comedy, Sci-Fi Comedy See Also: Ghostbusters [Widescreen], Ghostbusters [UMD for PSP], Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters [DVD/UMD], Ghostbusters [Blu-ray]

Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson star as a quartet of Manhattan-based "paranormal investigators". When their government grants run out, the former three go into business as The Ghostbusters, later hiring Hudson on. Armed with electronic paraphernalia, the team is spectacularly successful, ridding The Big Apple of dozens of ghoulies, ghosties and long-legged beasties. Tight-lipped bureaucrat William Atherton regards the Ghostbusters as a bunch of charlatans, but is forced to eat his words when New York is besieged by an army of unfriendly spirits, conjured up by a long-dead Babylonian demon and "channelled" through beautiful cellist Sigourney Weaver and nerdish Rick Moranis. The climax is a glorious sendup of every Godzilla movie ever made-and we daresay it cost more than a year's worth of Japanese monster flicks combined. Who'd ever dream that the chubby, cheery Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man would turn out to be the most malevolent threat ever faced by New York City? When the script for Ghostbusters was forged by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, John Belushi was slated to play the Bill Murray role; Belushi's death in 1982 not only necessitated the hiring of Murray, but also an extensive rewrite. The most expensive comedy made up to 1984, Ghostbusters made money hand over fist, spawning not only a 1989 sequel but also two animated TV series (one of them partially based on an earlier live-action TV weekly, titled The Ghost Busters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bill Murray - Peter Venkman
Dan Aykroyd - Raymond Stantz
Sigourney Weaver - Dana Barrett
Harold Ramis - Egon Spengler
Ernie Hudson - Winston Zeddmore
Rick Moranis - Louis Tully/The Key Master
Annie Potts - Janine Melnitz

Who you gonna call? Columbia Pictures. Its widescreen, 5.1 Audio DVD release of Ghostbusters isn't as feature-packed as some overweight sci-fi discs, but almost every extra helps illuminate the movie's mix of comedy, special effects, and spook. One highlight is the chatty commentary of producer/director Ivan Reitman, writer/actor Harold Ramis, and associate producer Joe Medjuck, complete with MST3K-style screen shadows. Since the comments are "live" -- not recorded separately and edited together as on many other discs -- it's like having the three insiders in the same room, dissing Bill Murray and explaining which of the movie's "t-shirt lines" were ad-libbed. A short but refreshingly non-promotional 1999 featurette (a nice counterpoint to the original "making of" puff piece) gives a surprisingly thoughtful Dan Aykroyd his say on parapsychology and physics. Storyboards, conceptual drawings, and subtitle-format production notes provide a solid history of the film's loosely interpreted script, while deleted scenes reveal some amusing but unnecessary moments. The 1984 film's then-revolutionary special effects get their due, including an angle-switching feature that compares three scenes' effect-free rough cuts to the final product. An unabridged, printable screenplay will please completists with DVD-ready computers. ~ Jen Muehlbauer, All Movie Guide