Wow...this movie is sheer b-movie genius. I just watched it for the first time in roughly 7 months (because I've been on a Ghostbusters binge {EGB cartoon, looking at my old toys, playing the Sega Geneses game, visiting websites}), and...damn.
If there was one mainstream b-movie I'm surprised isn't on this site (aside from Star Wars), it'd be Ghostbusters.
Maybe I need to write a review...mwahaha...
Ghostbusters isn't a b-movie. it's an A class comedy. Big name stars, big budget, top notch all the way. I've actually had some small irritation when b movie sites decide to review A movies. I know Nathan of Cold Fusion views this BBS so I'll be gental, but LOTR isn't a B movie so why review it in that context? I've seen a number of specifically b-movie sites take on A class movies and it mildly irks me. Citizen Cane, Casablanca or even Psycho regardless of how you personally feel about them are not b movies they have no place in that catagory. IMHO
I truly think Ghostbusters is a b-movie, but just a successful one. Aykroyd wrote the original script while remembering the old ghost movies of his youth, and it's more of a b-movie in the same sense that Tremors is: a more "A-Class" ode to b-movies. If f**king TITANIC can be considered a b-movie, I don't see why a cheesy movie like Ghostbusters can't be.
Oh, and for the record, I'm more than willing to duke it out over whether or not Ghostbusters is the greatest movie ever made, because I love it so much.
Who said "Titanic" is a b-movie?
No, "Ghostbusters" is not a b-movie. B movies don't have hit song videos that stay on MTV for months :) It may have been in some ways a 'tip of the hat' to certain B movies, but like "Tremors" and "Mars Attacks" it was an A movie in it's own right.
Now "Spaced Invaders" was a B movie homage to B movies :)
Can an A picture be a B-movie in effect? Just because it has a big budget, don't protect it from the curse of the worst in B land. It could be a good B story, with a better budget. Any think by Bruckhimer, anyone?
And that line of thinking, Flange, is how I arrived at my decision.
So then you view the Indiana Jones movies as b-movies?
B-movies did start out as the "undercard" to the main feature. I would view them as something less than Hollywood's best (not necessarily good, though) Ghostbusters has a big name cast, (not just, oh, Michael Caine or George Kennedy) and lots of state of the art special effects. To me, it isn't just the story being told (psycho killer terrorizing teens) but the quality of the production; how polished the actors are, how good the script is-or should be.
Sure some big budget Hollywood movies flop spectacularly, like Ishtar or Heaven's Gate, but they are spectacular flops because we expect more from Universal Studios than Troma or Full Moon.
Anyway, these are my random thoughts.
I say it just barely hinges on being a B-film.
It had a big budget and major stars in it. That's the A-side of it.
On the other hand it had that kinda cheesy b-movie feel that stays with it all the way through.
Knowutimean?
Yes, I know exactly what you mean.
But, let's face it. If it had Fred Ward and Bruce Campbell in it instead of Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray, it'd be a b-movie. Might have been a little less successful, but we'd all embrace it as a b-movie.
If it had Fred Ward and Bruce Campbell in it...
..to have had that cast would've meant a lot of other things would've been different and thus it pobably would've been a true B movie
>playing the Sega Geneses game
Ugh! I just looked it up on the net and it looks like a typical Sega/NES game with big-headed characters running around. Give me the C64 version any day!
Actually, many Ghostheads consider the Genesis game to be one of the best GB games.
I also want GameBoy Advance just for the Extreme Ghostbusters game (which has gotten pretty good reviews) and Fire Pro Wreslting A.
>Actually, many Ghostheads consider the Genesis game to be one of the best
>GB games.
I haven't played a lot of Sega or Nintendo games, but I kind of got sick of seeing all the cutesy games where characters with big heads ran around and ocasionally stopped to talk to other characters via talk bubbles at the top of the screen. I always liked the C64 version's style of play. I never liked any of the versions of The Real Ghostbusters either.
Well, if you have a Genesis (or the Nomad, which was sheer genius in a case with buttons), look for the Genesis GB game. It's pretty damn fun, and pretty damn hard.
>Well, if you have a Genesis (or the Nomad, which was sheer genius in a case
>with buttons), look for the Genesis GB game. It's pretty damn fun,
I'd rather play it on an emulator where I can (hopefully) use a controller that isn't made for the wrong hand. In case you hadn't guessed, I *HATE* left-handed control pads. Actually, I hate control pads in general. I'd like to find the guy who thought it would be a good idea to make people play games with a left-handed controller and force him to hand-copy War and Peace using his wrong hand.
>and pretty damn hard.
So this would be one of those games where everything takes like 3 hits to kill, but you only have time to hit each creature 1-2 times before it reaches you? Where you're required to walk/jump/drop blindly into new areas where you're guaranteed to get hit by creatures you can't possibly avoid? Where every creature seems to be able to hit you at twice the range you can hit them at? Where stuff appears out of nowhere about 3 pixels ahead of you so you have no time to react to it? Where you need to press bizarre controller combinations to perform moves that are basically required to succeed in the game?
Sorry if I sound bitter, but I've played a ton of NES/Sega/arcade games where you walk along and lines of guys/creatures come at you twice as fast as you can move and every one takes so many hits to kill that there's no way to avoid being hit, and while you're trying to deal with the 3 guys in front of you and the 2 guys behind you, there's a guy on a platform dropping bombs on your head while stuff pops up out of the ground. Games like those I usually turn on unlimited lives and just die my way through it. Kill 3 guys, die. Climb up the ladder, die. Drop down into the pit, die. Kill 4 more creatures, die. etc.
Well, yes and no. In one level, you really can't see anything without a pair of light goggles, and those don't last long. Most baddies take a hit to get rid of, and the bosses (2 per call, at the least) can be annoying sometimes (particularly the Ice Demoness).
What do you have against the controllers? D-pad on left, buttons on right. Takes little time to get used to, regardless of what hand you write with.
>What do you have against the controllers? D-pad on left, buttons on right. Takes
>little time to get used to, regardless of what hand you write with.
I don't like control pads period. With a joystick, you just tilt your hand in the direction you want to move. It's quick and diagonals are easy. With direction buttons, you have to move your finger from one button to another and diagonals are a pain in the neck. Not to mention trying to do some of the moves in a game like Mortal Kombat. As for it being left handed, I'm right handed, which means that my left is my least coordinated hand. Most games require more movement than shooting or jumping, but they give those functions to the less coordinated hand. I did marginally better playing the Atari Lynx when I switched it to have the direction buttons on the right, but I still sucked at using them.
There's a reason arcade machines still use joysticks rather than control pads, even if they have started making them all left handed now too. :(
Unless I'm missing something but I thought a "B" movie is a Budget Movie (which means that things were cut, trimmed, and cheaply added to fit the budget of the movie...)
Ghostbusters isnt a "B" movie... and I wouldnt call the cast high rate actors (just think of the movies that Aykroyd, Murrey, and Ramous (sp?) were in before Ghostbusters... so to make this movie those actors mostliky got peanuts in pay as the movie was being made...
But nothing was cut, trimmed, or even cheapen to make the film (as a normal B movie would be)
"If f**king TITANIC can be considered a b-movie, I don't see why a cheesy movie like Ghostbusters can't be."
Who ever called Titanic a B movie must be on pot... I think many "B" movie Directors could only wish they had such of a budget, as Titanic was.
I don't think all of Fred Alan Ray's budgets add up to $100 million. And throw in Ed Wood to boot.
Of course, they'd have the good taste not to have Celine Dion sing that f'ing annoying song.
B-Movie originally started as a low-budget movie, but the phrase now includes just silly movies. It also appears that most horror and sci-fi, and even most action, movies are considered b-movies these days.
I consider Ghostbusters to be a B-Movie in the sense that, despite the large budget, the plot is directly out of a comic book, or a cheap children's action cartoon, or a sci-fi movie from 1972 that wasn't about space.
Soooo...anybody got any Ghostbusters rip-off's I should check out?