Ghostbusters 1984

Back in the early 1980s I had the perfect job, I worked in a record store at the mall. I watched trends happen on a daily basis. I witnessed the Michael Jackson phenomenon firsthand, Madonna, Prince, Boy George, Duran Duran, the birth of Motley Crue, and the popification of Bruce Springsteen - I saw it all, including the summer of Ghostbusters.

From out of a sea of "Lucky Star" outfits and "Thriller" jackets they appeared, the Ghostbusters t-shirts, just as the trailers began. Not just the logo, there were some that said "who you gonna call" and "I ain't afraid of no ghost" to the rarer "I've been slimed" and "back off, man, I'm a scientist." We knew this was going to be a big movie even before Ray Parker Jr. saturated Hot Hits radio with its theme song.

I remember the Friday night that the movie opened, for all the wrong reasons. I broke up with a girlfriend and asked a friend to see the flick with me instead, who became my new girlfriend. Soap opera aside, that June night launched the blockbuster horror/scifi/comedy that definitely lived up to the hype, and a summer of quoting lines and re-seeing the film began.

Toy lines, a hit animated series, and the emblem were everywhere, and the thing was - it's a great film and deserved it all, watchable even today. Like I said in my review of the new movie, it's not the 1984 Ghostbusters, but very few movies are. I wouldn't say I'm a Ghosthead, but yeah, I love this film.

Three scientists, two serious and one not so serious, enter the paranormal investigation game and discover a way to capture ghosts. They learn that the increased paranormal activity is the result of an extra-dimensional entity trying to break through, and stop it, thereby saving New York. That's about it, and that last bit is very important, as the movie is very New York, almost a love letter to the city. A line from the climactic battle, "Let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown" says it all.

Despite it being written with John Belushi in mind, I think it's Bill Murray's funniest movie. Dan Aykroyd (who co-wrote with Ivan Reitman), Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson, and even Annie Potts and Rick Moranis are perfect supporting. Harold Ramis is wonderful with his deadpan dialogue and facial expressions, giving Kate McKinnon the perfect template for the new movie. Everyone is on mark and at their best.

When it comes right down to it, what can be said about the original Ghostbusters? It stands up after over three decades, it's one of the funniest films ever made and it's not even technically a comedy, and I watch it whenever I find it on television, and still laugh. And it's been on television a lot with the new version currently on DVD and Blu-Ray. This is probably one of the most iconic films of its generation, and thus the aggravation over the remake, but it stands as one of the best. If you haven't seen it, do so, and if you have, do it again.

Nothing Lasts Forever

Nothing Lasts Forever ~ You may or may not have heard of this obscure 1984 film with Bill Murray. Shot in black and white and shelved by MGM, it was never officially released in theaters or to video retail. Directed by fellow "Saturday Night Live" alum Tom Schiller (remember the brilliant Schiller's Reel?), it has remained unseen for decades but is now, possibly only temporarily available on YouTube.

Ostensibly a Bill Murray vehicle, it stars the immediately post-Gremlins Zach Galligan as a young man, Adam, who returns to New York from Europe with dreams of becoming an artist. The trouble is that America has been through hard times and some things have changed. A transit strike has put the Port Authority in control of New York City in an almost fascist state. Artists are frowned upon and Adam is put to work at the Holland Tunnel for a wacky boss played by Dan Aykroyd.

With me so far? 'Cause it's about to get weird, and yes, weirder than it already is. After Adam is kind to a beggar, the kindness is returned when the man reveals that there is a secret underground of bums that really control the world. After a truly disturbing purification process, during which we go from black and white temporarily to pseudo sepia colorization color, the masters of the world give Adam a mission - to bring art to the moon where he will meet his soulmate.

Adam goes back up to black and white NYC where no one believes him. And then he gets on a bus to the moon, where a young, pre-arrogant, and not-as-grumpy Bill Murray is his possibly sinister sky host. Look quick or you'll miss Larry 'Bud' Melman. Once on the moon, we're in pseudo-color again. But even on the moon things are not as they seem.

This New York City is like a cross between Fellini Paris and Hell here, and in that way, the black and white is used to good effect, very German Expressionist, with just a touch of Val Lewton and David Lynch. The tour of the NY art scene is both surreal and far too real, imagine Andy Warhol in 1920s Germany, bizarre. There are many bits lifted from old movies that may have had something to do with its non-release, rights problems, perhaps?

Zach Galligan, as in Gremlins, does a great It's a Wonderful Life Jimmy Stewart, perhaps much more naive. Lauren Tom, who this writer knows from voice acting in the DC Comics Animated Universe, is his lovely lunar soulmate. The amazingly named Apollonia Van Ravenstein is also quite good. Also look for Eddie Fisher, Imogene Coco, Sam Jaffe, and Mort Sahl.

Perhaps the reason Nothing Lasts Forever was not released was its pre-Tim Burton oddity or its painfully non-mainstreamness. Maybe the studio didn't know what it was - scifi, drama, comedy, period piece, musical? Even I'm not sure. It certainly is intriguing and worth a look while you can. Check it out.

Yogi Bear 2010

Yogi Bear ~ This is the live action and CGI big screen movie from Christmas 2010 that pretty much bombed at the box office. Much like The Green Hornet a year or so back, I have to wonder if its because the current movie going audience has no point of reference for Yogi Bear any longer.

When I was a wee toddler waaay back in the late sixties, I have great memories of watching classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters like Yogi Bear with my dad. It's a good memory, sitting with my father, seeing the five to eight minute adventures of Huckleberry Hound, Jinx the Cat, Pixie and Dixie, and Jellystone Park's favorite pick-a-nick basket thieves, Yogi and Boo Boo Bear.

Later those good memories of semi-good kids cartoons were ruined by parents groups in the seventies, leading them to join together to fight pollution on "Yogi's Gang," and then later were sidelined as peripheral funny animal characters on "Scooby-Doo's Laff-A-Lympics." After that, except for a handful of forgettable appearances, Yogi was, well, forgotten. Maybe, after the seventies, with good reason. Still, the 1960s cartoon shorts have a warm spot in my heart.

That said, I doubt most of the folks who saw this in theaters even knew who Yogi is, um, was. Those that did, might have been put off as I was. The CGI Yogi and Boo Boo is kinda cool, until you see them next to live action human beings. Then the reality sets in that they are bears because the size ratio is correct and troubling. Bears, even those wearing ties, sometimes tend to eat people. I can see young kids being maybe freaked out by this.

The plot is much too long and complicated for the characters who work best in ten minute increments at most. Similar structure has ruined of films of this genre like Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right and even Looney Tunes and The Simpsons. Honestly, I would have been happy with eight ten-minute vignettes than one eighty-minute movie, but that's me.

Intellectually disturbing (for me at least) is the fact they acknowledge Yogi and Boo Boo are not only bears, but talking, thinking, tie wearing bears. They even acknowledge its rare, but they never explain why. That drives me nuts. Maybe it's just too meta for me to get past, but it bugs the hell outta me.

Then there's also the voice casting of Dan Ackroyd and Justin Timberlake as Yogi and Boo Boo. Timberlake is not bad at all, but Ackroyd, once you know it's him, never sounds like anything but Dan Ackroyd doing a bad Daws Butler as Yogi Bear imitation. Some folks may have enjoyed and praised us, but not me, I couldn't get past it.

All in all, Yogi Bear wasn't bad, fairly harmless actually, and did have the spirit at least of those original sixties cartoons. Anna Faris didn't annoy the hell out of me, and it had Journey music, so it couldn't be all bad. Good for the kiddies even though they might not even know Yogi or Boo Boo.

1941

1941 ~ Infamously known as Steven Spielberg’s only notable box office flop, this movie about the hysteria that strikes California days after the attack on Pearl Harbor is not really as bad as its reputation suggests. It rolls on with a madcap flair similar to that of Animal House and Meatballs and has many of the Spielbergian elements that would reappear in his later more successful films.

The best scene in my opinion is the opening, which is a parody of Spielberg’s own opening of Jaws. In this age of Scary Movies and other movie satires, it’s ironic that Spielberg may have been the first person to throw that spin on his own work.

While pushed initially as a Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi flick, they are barely in it, but what little they do do is entertaining. The real stars here are Slim Pickens and Nancy Allen who are just hilarious. Also good are the performances of Toshiro Mifume and Christopher Lee is surprisingly comedic roles in the Japanese sub lost offshore finding their way with a Crackerjack compass. Good stuff.