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Ghostbusters

5 of 5 Stars

I went with a friend to watch a screening of Ghostbusters. It really holds up! The jokes are still funny, the story still works, and even the effects hold up pretty well. (The main exception would be the stop-motion version of the terror dogs, which is probably a combination of compositing and lack of motion blur).

One thing I noticed was that the story itself is treated 100% seriously. The humor is in the characters, the dialogue, the attitude. The Stay-Puft Marshmallow man, for instance, is incredibly silly — but because there's a logical in-story reason for it, and the characters treat it as a real threat, it works.

The friend I saw it with was remarking about how tightly the movie is put together. It starts with their breakthrough, goes their first case, and then right onto the main plot, with montages serving to fill in the gaps.

But holy crap, Venkman's an insufferable jerk.

— Kelson Vibber, 2009-07-05