Ghostbusters (1984)

Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) are three scientists at Columbia University in New York City. When their grant expires, the guys are fired and they go into business as a ghost extermination company called "Ghostbusters". Their first customer is orchestra cello player Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), who was scared out of her apartment on the 22nd floor of a high rise apartment building on Central Park West. It seems that Dana's neighbor, Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), is also being affected by the strange happenings in the apartment building. Armed with proton guns, the Ghostbusters become wildly popular, and they are joined by Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson), who is looking for a job with good pay. Overzealous Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agent Walter Peck thinks the Ghostbusters are frauds, and he has the Ghostbusters put in jail. When New York City is put under siege by an ancient Sumerian God named Gozer the Gozerian, the mayor has no choice but to let the Ghostbusters out of jail to face him. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: The role of Peter Venkman was originally written for John Belushi. The role of Louis Tully was originally written for John Candy. The role of Winston was originally written for Eddie Murphy. Dana's apartment building actually exists at 55 Central Park West in New York City. The building is actually only 19 stories high. For the film, matte paintings and models were used to make the building look bigger and with more floors. In the middle of the film's initial release, to keep interest going, Ivan Reitman had a trailer run, which was basically the commercial the Ghostbusters' use in the movie, but with the 555 number replaced with a 1-800 number, allowing people to call. They got a recorded message of Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd saying something to the effect of "Hi. We're out catching ghosts right now." They got 1,000 calls per hour, 24 hours a day, for six weeks. The party scene where Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) mingles with his party guests (commenting on the price of the salmon, and so on) is not only taken in one continuous shot, but is almost entirely improvised. Scenes in the montage sequence of the Ghostbusters running around New York (and also driving in the Ecto-mobile) were done on the first day, largely without film permits. In one scene, someone who looks like they might be a security guard begins chasing after them, and Dan Aykroyd can be seen actually driving the Ecto-mobile.

What can I say, this is a clasic 80's comedy. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote it. Bill murray was at his comedic best in this movie and Sigourney Weaver provided the perfect straight man (or woman) for Murray to play off of. Weaver's performance help ground the movie and make it more accessible to watch. Harold Ramis is great as the goofy little neighbor. This is a great movie!