There’s been a lot of talk lately about the upcoming reboot to the Ghostbusters franchise. Director Paul Feig’s (Bridesmaids) 2016 release is a female-centered take on the story that stars Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy as a pair of old friends who are thrown together again when ghosts invade their beloved New York. It is set to be, by most accounts and by a cursory glance at Feig and Co.’s recent output (not just Bridesmaids but also The Heat and Spy), a fun summer diversion filled with the sorts of gags that are destined to be repeated as one-liner references for summers yet to come.
For some reviewers of a certain age (ahem) that sounds a lot like another movie — the original Ghostbusters, directed by Ivan Reitman and released in 1984 to much success (though you’d be forgiven for forgetting that it was nominated for two — two! — Oscars that season). That earlier film, playing this Friday night and again on Saturday morning at Amherst Cinema, was originally meant to be a vehicle for star Dan Aykroyd and his old Saturday Night Live pal John Belushi, but when Belushi died unexpectedly of a drug overdose, his part went to Bill Murray. Murray’s laconic, wise-cracking delivery was so perfectly suited to the film that it’s hard to imagine, now, anyone else in the role. And as great as Belushi was, I suspect the film has aged far better with Murray at the trigger of the proton pack.
Make no mistake, it’s still a ludicrous story. A send up of both monster movies and sci-fi cheesiness, it features both undead Babylonians and a Manhattan cowed by an enormous marshmallow. But, much like the coming reboot, the film draws so much of its joy from the crackling interplay of the ensemble cast. It’s surely no coincidence that both films’ casts draw so heavily from the likes of Saturday Night Live (the new film features current cast members Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones in addition to the SNL vet Wiig, and McCarthy has hosted multiple times). That sort of chemistry is not assured but earned through a special kind of magic. It’s the same sort of camaraderie you feel when you’re out with friends, catching a classic comedy on a Friday night. This week, make it this one.
Also at Amherst this week are a pair of slightly more traditional fright features, showing in a double feature format on Thursday night. First up is David Cronenberg’s 1983 film Videodrome, a wildly weird tale of a TV honcho (James Woods) who discovers a signal broadcasting the extreme-violence show that gives the film its title. Intrigued, he tries to follow the thread of the broadcast back to its source, sending him on a typically Cronenbergian journey (think body modification, sex, and hallucinations). Showing second is John Carpenter’s 1982 film The Thing, a story of American scientists whose Antarctic research station is besieged by an alien being that can take the shape of anyone it encounters. As it begins killing off the staff one by one, the remaining researchers find themselves fighting not just the invader, but also their own paranoia. Largely dismissed in its day — it was released on the same day as Blade Runner, and about a week before a little alien movie called E.T. — Carpenter’s film has gone on to be one of the most enduringly influential horror films of the era.
Also this week: If you’re looking for something with a more genteel bite, the West Springfield 15 will be hosting a one-night screening of The Importance of Being Earnest, beamed in from London’s West End. Oscar Wilde’s classic stage play, here starring David Suchet (the Hercule Poirot series), is a classic satire of the meeting of the sexes and classes in Victorian England. You might think you remember it from English class, but I can assure you it’s nothing like this.
And finally this week, the 4th Annual Brattleboro Film Festival is getting underway up over the Vermont border, featuring more than 30 films in 10 days, Oct. 30-Nov. 8. More on that fest next week; for earlier details be sure to visit brattleborofilmfestival.org.
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com
