With the franchise enjoying new life with modern audiences, Screen Rant's Pitch Meeting series is looking back at Ghostbusters. The 1984 sci-fi comedy revolved around a group of parapsychologists who become superstars in New York City through their ghost-catching business, only to find themselves pitted against a world-ending threat. Led by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, the latter of whom also wrote the movie together, Ghostbusters was a critical and commercial hit, becoming the second-highest-grossing movie of its release year and spawning a franchise of sequels, animated shows and a reboot.
Ahead of the franchise's next installment, the latest episode of Screen Rant's own Pitch Meeting series has set its sights on 1984's Ghostbusters. The video humorously mocks some of the problems of the comedy classic, namely its various plot holes and potentially outdated humor. The episode also pokes fun at the seemingly timeless nature of the original that failed to be recaptured with the 2016 female-led reboot.
As the franchise gears up to celebrate its 40th anniversary with the release of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, its fifth theatrical movie, it's impossible to deny the impact Ramis and Aykroyd's idea has had on pop culture. Yearly Halloween celebrations find numerous children and adults dressing up as the titular paranormal investigators, and Ray Parker Jr.'s eponymous song can be heard playing at various parties and shopping centers around the world. Despite this popularity, it's also tough to deny some of the problems mentioned in the above Pitch Meeting episode.
The original Ghostbusters is available to stream on Hulu. With a tight 105-minute runtime, the original movie largely sought to avoid many logical questions by instead focusing on the comedic potential of its leads, who had already enjoyed success with tenures in the world of Saturday Night Live and National Lampoon. Peter Venkman's insistent flirtations with various women could be seen today as problematic, which came back to bite him in a sense in 2021's Afterlife, while the group's quick rise to stardom felt more convenient than organic. Additionally, Ernie Hudson's Winston is less a fully rounded character than an afterthought addition to the group.
Ultimately, though, it is the successful group chemistry between Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis, Hudson, Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver that keeps Ghostbusters a classic. Furthermore, with many effective practical effects used to create the spirits in the 1984 movie, and later installments like Ghostbusters: Afterlife taking steps to rectify some of these issues, including offering a more substantive and meaningful role for Winston, its legacy continues to be a positive one.
Ghostbusters is a 1984 fantasy sci-fi movie from director Ivan Reitman. The movie stars Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson as Raymond Stantz, Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddemore, paranormal investigators who travel New York hunting and capturing ghosts. The movie eventually became one of the most iconic films of the '80s, spawning a multimedia franchise including a sequel, spinoffs, books, and video games.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire continues the story of a new generation of ghost hunters composed of Phoebe, Trevor, and Podcast, who received help from the original team in the previous movie. Paul Rudd returns as Gary Grooberson and franchise co-creator Ivan Reitman returns to write and produce.
