GHOSTBUSTERS
The Reitman Stuff
RELEASED OUT NOW! 1985/1989/2021 | 12 | 4K/blu-ray (dual format)
Directors Ivan Reitman, Jason Reitman
Cast Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson
Let’s whip through this, shall we? The original: a comedy classic, less kid-friendly than you think.
II: the diminishing-returns sequel. Afterlife: the fan service-deluge revival that puts a lump in your throat. Paul Feig’s movie is conspicuously absent.
Extras The main draw of this eye-wateringly pricey eight-disc set is an assembly cut of Ghostbusters (114 minutes), recorded to VHS for the editor’s reference – so expect murky definition and dropout artefacts, although it’s still watchable. Missing music or optical effects, this version was screened to a test audience just a few weeks after the film wrapped. Extra bits and bobs are scattered throughout: the Ecto-1 getting a parking ticket; Venkman musing on the Nobel Prize; Janine finding Spengler asleep over his work. Hardcore fans will find it fascinating. Editor Sheldon Kahn and associate producer Joe Medjuck provide commentary, helpfully pointing out some of the variations and explaining the editing process.
You also get 4:3 ratio TV edits of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, which replace or snip cuss words: so Stantz calls Pecker “Willy Wick” instead of “dickless”. The blow job succubus is still here, though!
Two “Reitman Squared” featurettes (both seven minutes) see father-and-son directors Ivan and Jason giving in-vision commentary on four scenes from the first two films. A very sweet idea – you’ll wish they’d executed it at feature length.
A whopping 91 minutes of Ghostbusters dailies present multiple takes for seven scenes, clapperboards and all; by their nature repetitive, these are hard going, though there’s some value in watching Bill Murray improvising different variations on the odd line.
Audition tapes (66 minutes) show seven actresses reading for the role of Dana, including Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Denise Crosby and Weird Science’s Kelly Lebrock. None bests Sigourney Weaver, though Witness star Kelly Mcgillis nails both the “asking for help” and “sexy Zuul” sides, shedding her top for the latter. Amusingly, no one seems to know how to pronounce “scourge”.
The likes of Ivan Reitman, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson contribute to a 2019 documentary (88 minutes) on the ’85 movie. It’s an adequate summary, though the perma-grinning interviewer, cheesy use of stock video and regular recaps betray its origins on cable network Reelz.
Also new: 19 minutes of deleted scenes from II (generally short trims); commentary on a twominute scene by that film’s composer. A wealth of old bonuses are also carried over. It all comes packaged in a “ghost trap” case, with a scaled-down reproduction of 1985 book Making Ghostbusters.
Other Dana auditionees: thirtysomething’s Melanie Mayson, St Elsewhere’s Cynthia Sike, and Dallas’ Merete Van Kamp.
Paul Feig’s movie is conspicuously absent