Did this for Kong: Skull Island in the past, got a decent response.
There's no larger point here, just a series of observations from someone who watched the film as a kid and loved it, and still has some affection for it even now, and recently picked it up on Blu-Ray and watched it again.
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When Ivan Reitman wants to, the man can direct suspense. This is clear in the original film, notably during the scene where Dana's alone in her apartment, and the camera twists to reveal the glowing, buckling door. In this film, there are little tossed-off moments that show his skill. One of my favorites is when Dana arrives at the museum leading up to the final act. It's a one-shot of her exiting a taxi, walking up the stairs, and going inside. Not a big deal on the surface of it, but the production team adds extra oomph by filling the set with newspapers and using wind machines to fly them around like an ominous swarm. The film doesn't need the shot to be this complicated for the beat to function, but the shot works.
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You see another moment like this when Dana closes the door on Janosh, and then Janosh fills the darkness in the hallway with his flashlight-beam eyes.
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And everything with the train sequence. The heads on pikes are surprisingly gruesome for a kids' film (are they Vigo's old victims?), and the long pause followed by "Winstonnnnnn" has a precise timing that still works on me after multiple views.
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On that horror-based note, the film subtly reminds you that Reitman got his start as a producer for David Cronenberg. During the first citywide slime attack, the movie theater people are running from displays posters for "They Came Within" and "Rabid." There's also a poster for "Sssssss."
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The film playing at the theater is "Cannibal Girls." That was Ivan Reitman's second feature film as director, a horror comedy starring SCTV friends Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin.
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Little tossed-off lines often save entire scenes. Surprisingly, many of them come from Egon, not Peter. "Let's see what happens when we take away the puppy." "We had part of a slinky, but I straightened it." "...yo!" When the boys sing "Do..." "Re..." and he pipes in "Egon!" And there's the immortal, "I think they're more interested in my epididymus."
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There's no getting around how much this film is basically the first GHOSTBUSTERS in a different outfit. There are times when the formula recedes into the background, like when the 'busters get to just hang out and banter, but there are other times, like with Kurt Fuller's unfortunate role as Not William Atherton (Fuller's a pro and does what he can). That annoys me much more now than it did as a kid.
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The worst example of this is the whole Statue of Liberty conceit, which completely tracks given the story - but is also so clearly an attempt to replicate the Marshmallow Man, only the jokes aren't as funny this time around. (In truth, there's nothing all that funny about the Statue of Liberty being ambulatory anyway.) It's the most disappointing element of the film, and surprising given that the premise of the story - mood slime that represents New York's id - seems like it could've gone in more interesting directions. And using a cover of "Higher and Higher" instead of the Jackie Wilson original in the finale is unforgivable. You use the Wilson version, or you don't use that song. Good Lord.
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The other really noticeable time when the film strains to replicate formula and loses something in the process is when they edge out Winston for the first third of the film. He's in this movie more than the original film, which is nice to see, but they disinvite him from the initial slime adventure, and they exclude him from the trial outside of two shots. We like Winston! Why lose him for a less-interesting repeat of the original's Slimer outing?
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"But I don't blame them, because one time I turned into a dog and they helped me. Thank you." is wonderful, beaten out seconds later by, "Very good, Louis, short but pointless."
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This movie is amusingly sex-obsessed. "I'd like to run some gynecological tests on the mother." "Who wouldn't?" Egon's comment about his epididymus. Janine getting thirsty for Louis. The great reveal that Ray's been sleeping with the slime (I'm still not sure how that would work). And I have to think there's something to the 'busters creating new phallic guns that shoot what looks semen into the insides of an enormous woman (seriously, that slime is of a very different consistently to the more syrupy slime seen in the rest of the film). In a movie where the villain is someone thriving on bad feeling, what more opposite feeling is there than an orgasm?
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Mostly, I still kinda like the film for two reasons: MacNicol's work as Janosh, and the generally chill "hangout" vibe of the movie. Some of my favorite scenes are just the 'busters spending time together. At Ray's bookstore, in Dana's apartment. I don't think they say anything too funny in the jackhammer scenes, but it's fun to see them riff their way into a "convincing" lie. "Who told you to stop cuttin'?!"
Submitted February 20, 2019 at 10:40AM by deadandmessedup https://ift.tt/2V5OvIj
