Have seen so far: 49 - Ghostbusters - A good 80's movie, a few laughs here and there. Not a big fan of the paranormal ghosts stuff.
Have not seen so far: 44
I said, "very few."
Like, probably single digits in terms of percents. The others, you could see the split as being as high as 1/3 easily. And in some cases 50/50 (or in the case of the Lebowski and the entire Coen filmography, I could see it being above 50% - between Arizona, O'Brother, Fargo, other...).
Must've been thirty years or so since the last time I watched Ghostbusters so without a rewatch it wouldn't have made my ballot but it's still one I remember with a level of fondness and it sure ain't no surprise to see it place this high.
I rewatched Ghostbusters a couple years ago because it gad been since I was a kid. I’m 46, so this is supposed to be one of the defining movies for me, but it never was. I found it fine then, I find it fine now. A defining thing, for me, I am discovering going back to these comedies is that I really underrated Moranis. He was my favorite thing about Ghostbusters and Spaceballs. I still liked Martin better, but really enjoyed him more than I remember in My Blue Heaven as well.
The original Ghostbusters (1984) was #20 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1980s, #57 on the MoFo Top 100 Sci-Fi Films, and #36 on the original MoFo Top 100. It also placed at #28 on the AFI's 100 Years, 100 Laughs. It was nominated for two Oscars: Best Visual Effects, losing to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Best Original Song for Ray Parker Jr.'s hit theme, which lost to Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You" from The Woman in Red.
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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
I can't believe Ghostbusters is this high. Is it really hilarious? Is it technically brilliant? It's a nostalgic trip for sure, but top ten of all time?
I watched Ghostbusters not too long ago, and I thought it was fine. It's the kind of film I would've enjoyed more if I watched it at a younger age. Older me found it kind of fun and humorous at times, but nowhere near great. Very surprised to see it in the top 10.
Ghostbusters is the last of the top 10 that I expected to appear that isn't on my list (though there have been some surprises, so we'll see). To be honest, I've been mildly disappointed with it ever since I watched it in the theaters and realized most of the good jokes were in the trailer. To be fair, it's actually probably a bit better than that, and it's status has always been higher than I've personally rated it, so I'm not surprised it's here. The rest of the list should be gold, though.
I revisited Ghostbusters at some point in my life. But that revisit was so long ago. I don't even remember when it was. So probably 20-30 years ago.
I think, outside of the Stay Puft reveal scene, the franchise takes up the most space in my brain via the long running Saturday morning cartoon series (which I was a young kid at the time. Ghostbusters had to have been amongst my earliest movies ever seen then, and was probably on TV as I was too young to be taken to a movie theater then).
I think in that revisit, I discovered there was a lot less comedy than I had expected and people's hair colors weren't exactly what I remembered (thanks cartoons). Which is to say, it was no where close to my ballot.
For the reveal of my ballot, I'll save my last horror-comedy for when Young Frankenstein gets revealed. But in terms of sci-fi parodies...
I'll reveal my #15 which was the John Carpenter's sci-fi... well, I don't know if people would call it a classic (cult classic, student film), but it does have a group of dudes carrying out their job in a ramshackle fashion.
Yup... Dark Star (1974)
A spot that Big Trouble in Little China was in contention and an honorable mention for. But I found Dark Star more the all out and out comedy.
Now imagine if your typical alien pet problem is the size of a beach ball. Or rather, is a beach ball...
ETA: Now that I think about it, I should have saved Dark Star for when Airplane! gets revealed.
Yeah, while Ghostbusters is excellent and very funny, I think of it as a comedy hybrid. The comedy, completely on its own, wasn't enough to make my list, but the distinction there is maybe what we talked about earlier: the best movie that's also to some degree a comedy, versus the best comedies for just comedy. No right answer there, but I went with the latter (for the most part), which is why this one missed my ballot.
If you were too young to have lived it, it may be difficult to understand how massive a hit Ghostbusters was in the summer of 1984. I was fourteen and that thing was a juggernaut that took over the culture for a while. The tone that Ivan Reitman and company hit upon was absolutely pitch-perfect. It took the Sci-Fi/Horror elements seriously, playing that part mostly straight, then inserted the comedy via the way the characters reacted to it, headlined by Bill Murray's sarcastic befuddlement. That tone proved very difficult to recapture, including by its own sequel, but when it is hit upon correctly as in Shaun of the Dead (#15), it truly fuses multiple genres and it all really goes back to Venkman, Stantz, Spengler, Zeddemore, and Dana "Zuul" Barrett there at spook central on the Upper West Side. I already revered Murray as a comedy God thanks to "SNL", Meatballs, and Stripes, but this one put him in the upper pantheon for good. It was fourteenth on my ballot. And like The Blues Brothers before it, not only was it funny but it was cool.
While the paranormal goings on didn't frighten kids anywhere near as much as Gremlins, which BTW was released on the same day, nor was anything in it as gross as the pulling the heart out of the body in Temple of Doom, which was released two weeks beforehand, Ghostbusters was definitely one of the key factors leading to the implementation of the PG-13 MPAA rating later that August (Red Dawn and Dreamscape the first to make it to the screens). Ghostbusters' true legacy is not a rating but an attitude, deadpan sarcasm as an artform. I am not surprised to see it as Top Ten material here.
Holden’s Ballot 3. After Hours (#29) 4. His Girl Friday (#26) 5. Monty Python’s Life of Brian (#20) 6. Singin’ in the Rain (#50) 7. Rushmore (#54) 8. Duck Soup (#8) 9. Bringing Up Baby (#22) 10. The Graduate (#27) 12. Raising Arizona (#23) 13. The Palm Beach Story (DNP) 14. Ghostbusters (#6) 15. One Two Three (#86) 16. The Blues Brothers (#21) 17. Defending Your Life (DNP) 19. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (DNP) 20. Joe versus the Volcano (DNP) 22. This is Spın̈al Tap (#13) 23. L.A. Story (DNP) 24. OSS-117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (DNP)
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