Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Call me crazy, but I view Ghostbusters as an all time classic American film. It is one of the few films I have obtained on VHS, Laserdisc, DVD and now Blu-ray. I was never happy with the video presentation on any of the previous home video releases of the film and was hoping that the release of the film on Blu-ray will finally do the trick. Does it? Well for that opinion, you will have to keep on reading.

Film

As noted above, Ghostbusters is a classic film that holds up just as well 25 years after its release as it did on its release to theaters in 1984. Has it really been that long? I am sure most of you that will read this review are well aware of the plot.

The film stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis as three parapsychologists who are called to rid New York City of ghosts and demons that are plaguing the city. Dr. Peter Venkman (Murray), Dr. Raymond Stanz (Aykroyd) and Dr. Spengler (Ramis) lose their research grant at Columbia University and are forced to set out on their own and go into hock starting their own ghost removal company, replete with corny TV commercials which hit the NY airwaves. Their timing is fortuitous as New York is about to be besieged by ghosts and demons of all kinds which keeps them very busy.

They are contacted by Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) who has a strange encounter with a demon that appeared to be inhabiting her refrigerator, warning of the coming of Gozer. When Dr. Venkman meets Ms. Barrett at her apartment, he discovers that her body has been possessed by the Gatekeeper who is awaiting the arrival of the Keymaster (Rick Moranis), so they can bond and release The Destroyer who will destroy human civilization as we know it. Meanwhile, the Ghostbusters’ activities come to the attention of the local EPA chief, a Mr. Peck, who obtains a court order and shuts down the Ghostbusters’ electric grid and their ghost storage containment facility which releases all the ghosts and demons that had captured into the city all at once, with very humorous results.

With the City in panic and the Ghostbusters in jail, they are summoned by the Mayor to end the panic and prevent the entry of The Destroyer into this world, setting forth the climatic end of the film at the top of Ms. Barrett’s apartment building battling the Destroyer who appears bent on destroying the City in the guise of a giant Staypuff Marshmellow Man.

It has been a good while since I have seen the film and I found it to be just as funny, engaging and original as I did when I saw it for the first time back in 1984. The film features a very tight script which never falls off the rails and fine comedic performances by the entire cast, with special kudos to Bill Murray as Dr. Venkman, who really carries the film. This is a wonderful film for the entire family to enjoy. If you haven’t seen the film in a long time, by all means do so now and add this film to your Blu-ray collection. Very highly recommended.

Video

I will state out the outset that Ghostbusters has never looked better at home than it does on this release. The video quality here blows away each and every other home video release of the film by a very large margin. I note that there has been some complaints on the web about what some consider to an overly hot and blown out contrast on this release. Given that it appears from all reports that the film’s cinematographer, Laszio Kovacs, approved the final version of the film on this release, I have very little doubt that the film looks just the way it should and as it did upon its initial release back in 1984. Frankly, I have no recollection at all as to how the film looked back then and think no one does. Unless you were involved in the production of the film, how can you claim that the film’s contrast is too hot based on one or more viewing of the film in a theater 25 years ago? What I can say for certain is that I was quite pleased with the look of the film on this release.

Ghostbusters is a rather grainy film and all of the grain seems to be perfectly preserved on this release. I detected no evidence of the use of digital noise reduction to “clean up” the look of the film for today’s digital environment. This release looks just like film, just as it should. I found the color palette to be quite natural looking and pleasing, especially skin tines, which looked very nice. Blacks were deep and solid as well, giving the film a good sense of depth. However, the film, although it appears to be in excellent physical condition, has the look that many films did in the 1980′s.

The film has a level of softness that was characteristic of many of the films of that era. While they level of softness varies a bit during the film, it remains present throughout. As a result, the film lacks the clarity, three dimensionality, detail and depth of today’s better looking films. That isn’t the fault of the encode, it is just the way the film was shot. As noted previously, visible grain in present throughout the film, with exterior daylight shots having less visible grain that darker interior scenes. However, unlike prior home video editions of the film, the high def encode of the film presents the grain naturally so that it looks like grain rather than as video noise as on prior editions of the film. I was not able to detect much in the way of video noise on this release. As far as I can tell, Ghostbusters looks just as the film was intended to look on this Blu-ray release and is by far, the best this film has ever and may ever look in the home.

Audio

As was the case with the video, the audio on this release is the best yet of all the prior home video releases of the film. However, the original sound design of the film as well as the fidelity of the original sound elements are not up to par with more modern films. I am sure that the Dolby True HD encode here sounds about as good as the film can in light of the limitations of the original recording. I have several issues with the sound of the film.
The first has to do with the overall sound quality, which lacks the heft and dynamics of more modern films, sounding a bit soft and hollow and lacking the transparency and imaging that one has come to expect in films of more recent vintage. Another issue is the recording of and presentation of the dialogue track. Again, the fidelity of the dialogue just does not match what we have come to expect today, sounding more muffled and reserved than one would expect.

The volume of the dialogue track is also a bit low at times in relation to the rest of the sound and as a result, can be difficult to hear, especially during the action sequences. In addition, other than a few sequences, such as the opening library scene, the surrounds are not used as aggressively in the first half of the film as they are in the latter half and as a result, the first part of the film is a bit front heavy. However, in the second half of the film, the surrounds kick in quite nicely with both music and sound effects, creating a nice sense of immersion. Bass response during the film is good but far from reference. Despite these limitations, the audio track here was enjoyable and added to and did not detract all that much from one’s enjoyment of the film.

Special Features

As one would expect for such an important film, The Blu-ray release is chock full of many interesting and engaging extras. The extras include a filmmakers’ commentary with Ivan Rettman, Harold Ramis and Joe Medjuck. Also included is an older featurette 1984-The Making of Ghostbusters, featuring interviews with the cast and crew.

Also included is a second featurette featuring interviews with the cast and crew, as well as the featurette SFX Team which includes before and after multi-angle explorations of the special effects in the film. Also included are 10 deleted scenes as well as storyboard comparisons. Most if not all of these extras were included with the last DVD release of the film a handful of years ago. However, there are several new extras included with this release including the best, Slimer Mode, which features a picture-in-picture graphical viewing experience with an examination of the firehouse headquarters, an in-depth exploration of the creatures in Ghostbusters’ mythology, behind the scenes discussions of making the movie with Ivan Reitman, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver and others including new cast, crew and special effects artists. These picture-in-picture interviews and pop-ups run along with the film.

In addition, during the running of this feature, the black bars of the film are replaced with more colorful artistic bars, much like the new side bars which were an option on the recent Blu–Ray release of Pinnochio. Also new is the featurette Ecto-1: Resurrecting the Classic Car and an Ecto-1 photo gallery. Also featured for you video game enthusiasts out there is a feature on the making of the new Ghostbusters video game. The release is BD-Live enabled and features cinechat. However, no digital copy of the film is included.

Final Thoughts

If you are a fan, like me of Ghostbusters, this is a must have release. While not without its faults, Ghostbusters has never looked or sounded better at home than it does on this release. Very highly recommended.