Just Films & That is a podcast that celebrates underrated and underseen films. And every now and then, we like to take a look at what some would call a “classic” film, and assess why it’s a classic and if it’s deserving of that status. For this episode, Alice chose Ghostbusters as she had never seen it before. And what she had to say might surprise you…
You can listen to all full episodes of Just Films & That now, wherever you get your podcasts!
You can listen to all full episodes of Just Films & That now, wherever you get your podcasts!
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00:00 Ghostbusters.
00:01 Hey, anybody see a ghost?
00:03 They catch the ghost that won't stay dead.
00:05 So every now and then on the podcast, we like to take a look at what some people consider to be
00:11 a classic film and try and figure out why it's a classic and if it's deserving of that status.
00:16 So I chose Ghostbusters from 1984 because I'd actually never seen it before, but it's so
00:22 embedded in pop culture and in the zeitgeist that I thought, oh,
00:26 this is one that I really do have to take a look at.
00:28 So Josh, tell us a bit about the critical reception.
00:31 At the time of recording on IMDb, it gets 7.8 out of 10.
00:35 The audience give it 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and the critics give it a whopping 95% on
00:42 Rotten Tomatoes, which averages out at 87 or 8.7 out of 10.
00:47 So pretty high scores then.
00:50 So I had seen it before, but you hadn't.
00:52 So what did you like about it?
00:53 So I think aesthetically, this film was really impressive in terms of
00:58 some of the visual effects, which I thought were really advanced for the time and actually
01:02 quite striking.
01:03 They were really bold and colourful and quite fun a lot of the times as well.
01:07 And things like some of the props and the set design and the costume,
01:10 it all felt really iconic and familiar, even though I hadn't seen the film.
01:14 But I definitely feel like I've seen it riffed on in other films or TV programmes.
01:18 And I think it's aged pretty well.
01:20 Some bits better than others, but like you say, it still looks pretty good.
01:23 It's really funny.
01:24 I think the four of them work together.
01:25 The four Ghostbusters work together really well.
01:27 They all bring something a little bit different to it.
01:30 It's really well paced.
01:31 It's a really good exercise in things like show, don't tell.
01:34 So they don't go into it too much, you know, where the ghosts came from or what happened,
01:38 or whatever.
01:39 They're just there.
01:40 You know, it's such a well-loved film.
01:41 It's one of the most well-loved films we've done then.
01:43 So no pressure.
01:44 But is there anything you didn't like about Ghostbusters?
01:47 There's only one thing, sadly, but it is quite a big thing.
01:51 And that's about an hour in, I lost interest.
01:54 And I just found that I didn't really care about the characters.
01:57 I didn't really care about the story.
01:59 I don't think there was enough going on in there to really hold my attention and to keep
02:04 me engaged or to have me really invested in the story.
02:08 And I think, like we said on the episode, and you gave a really good assessment of this,
02:12 you sort of had to watch it at the time, I think, or at least be in a certain age bracket
02:17 to really get the full effect of the film.
02:19 I reckon if I'd have seen this for the first time when I was, say, 13 or 14 years old,
02:24 I would have absolutely loved it.
02:26 So I sort of came away from it thinking, what is the big deal?
02:29 I do really like it.
02:31 Do you think it deserves to be a classic?
02:33 I can certainly see why people love this film, but I just do not feel the same way.
02:40 I think it's undoubtedly a classic in the way that the iconography from it, some of
02:44 the characters, the song, some of the quotes, have really reverberated through the decades
02:49 and are still prominent today in pop culture.
02:51 So in that regard, I don't think you can dispute it.
02:54 But for me, it just didn't quite strike that chord with me.
02:58 So I would say I'm unsure as to whether I really think this should be a classic.