RIP Ivan Reitman

News has sadly broken that the director and producer Ivan Reitman has passed away at the age of 75. Reitman is noted for his work with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in his directing the first two Ghostbusters films, which remain his most enduring legacy. However, he also directed a whole slew of films widely-regarded now as classics.

Reitman was born in then-Czechoslovakia in 1946. His family emigrated to Canada as refugees when he was four years old. He attended McMaster University, where he developed his fascination for film and directed several short projects. He worked at CITY-TV in Toronto as a producer, but was later fired. He produced Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977) for David Cronenberg before helping produce National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). He leveraged the wild success of that comedy to direct Meatballs (1979), starring Bill Murray and co-written by Harold Ramis. Reitman re-teamed with Murray and Ramis to direct Stripes (1981).

Meanwhile Dan Aykroyd (a fellow Saturday Night Live player and friend of Ramis and Murray), a noted fan of the paranormal, had been writing a script about a group of paranormal investigators and ghost-hunters. He originally developed the script for himself and his friend and Blues Brothers co-star John Belushi to star in, but Belushi's death from a drug overdose in 1982 ruled out that idea. Bill Murray agreed to help Aykroyd out by replacing Belushi. Aykroyd then invited Ivan Reitman to direct. Reitman was initially reluctant, as Aykroyd's initial script was very complex, being set in the future and featuring extensive vfx requirements and a more serious tone. Reitman wryly estimated the cost of Aykroyd's film to be over $200 million. He met with Aykroyd and "gently" broke the news that the film was unmakeable, but could be turned into something great with rewrites, and suggested Harold Ramis join the project. Ramis was impressed by Aykroyd's ideas and helped rewrite the movie into something producible.

Columbia executive Frank Price bought the idea and moved the film into production, but his bosses were alarmed by the budget (three times the cost of Star Wars for a New York comedy seemed recklessly extravagant). Price left Columbia after the film was in production and moved to Universal, where he still exerted influence over the film: Universal owned the name "Ghost Busters" from a 1970s kid's comedy and Price agreed to sell the title to Columbia.

Released in 1984, Ghostbusters was an immediate financial smash and critical success, making just under $230 million at the box office. It was just overtaken by Beverly Hills Cop a few months later, but a 1985 re-release of the movie saw it surpass that film and become the highest-grossing comedy movie of the entire decade.

The wild success of Ghostbusters and Reitman's success in handling the cast and challenging production allowed him to pursue whatever projects he wished. He directed Legal Eagles (1986) and Twins (1988), his first collaboration with Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as Schwarzenegger's first comedy. Twins' massive success and the unusual backend deal on the film saw not only Reitman but also Schwarzenegger and co-star Danny DeVito make more money on that one movie than anything else in their careers.

Reitman pursued the idea of a sequel for Ghostbusters, but was stymied by Murray's reluctance to return. Eventually he was talked into doing the sequel, but scheduling problems delayed the film's release until 1989, by which time the momentum of the original movie had stalled (despite a successful spin-off animated series, The Real Ghostbusters). Despite mixed reviews, the film made a reasonable return.

Working on a third Ghostbusters movie stalled, whilst Reitman's career went from strength to strength: he directed Dave (1993), Six Days, Seven Nights (1998), Evolution (2001), My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), No Strings Attached (2011) and Draft Day (2014), whilst producing films including Beethoven (1992), Space Jam (1996), Private Parts (1997), Old School (2003) and Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (2006).

In 2019, Reitman teamed up with his son Jason Reitman to finally resurrect Ghostbusters, ignoring a 2016 reboot. Jason Reitman directed the well-received Ghostbusters: Afterlife, with his father producing and standing in for his late friend Harold Ramis, using CGI.

Ivan Reitman passed away in his sleep on 12 February. He will be missed for his enduring comic touch and facility with actors.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Thanksgiving, 1991. Two years have passed since the reformed Ghostbusters defeated Vigo the Carpathian. Now licensed contractors under the authority of the city of New York's environmental agency, the Ghostbusters are continuing their job of defeating supernatural dangers to the city. When their propensity for collateral damage resurfaces, they are put under the watchful eye of their old enemy, Walter Peck, at the same time a major new threat to the city arises.

The Ghostbusters franchise always feels like it's been a little under-exposed given the promise of the premise. Two live-action movies in the 1980s have been backed up by comics, but a lot of the more intelligent exploration of the franchise fell on the Real Ghostbusters animated series. One area that has definitely been unexplored is the potential for video games in this setting.

Released in 2009 and remastered and re-released in 2019, Ghostbusters: The Video Game tries to redress this. Set two years after Ghostbusters II and featuring almost the entire movie cast returning on vocal duties (yes, even the reluctant Bill Murray, albeit clearly phoning it in), with Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd on writing duties, this game is as close to a Ghostbusters III that is ever likely to exist.

This is a shame, then, because the game is not really great. It's not terrible and it's certainly always playable, but it feels like a pale shadow of what it should have been. The first problem is that the game feels cheap, even for a 2009 game designed for the X-Box 360 and PlayStation 3. The graphics are stodgy and the character designs and animation are stiff and unconvincing. The remastered version doesn't really help, adding more definition but not actually redesigning the character models so they still look pretty basic.

This doesn't matter too much as 90% of the game is spent exploring levels and in combat with ghosts and not looking at people's faces. These parts of the game are acceptable, although again a little basic. There is one route through each level and not much variety in approaches (apart from a couple of more arena-ish areas, usually reserved for boss battles). The combat itself is quite good, matching the setup of the film where you have to first weaken ghosts with the proton pack before sucking them into a trap. Tougher ghosts require new tactics or equipment to deal with them, with Egon doling out new weapons as the game progresses. You can also upgrade equipment using a skill tree system, but this is a fairly basic system and it's easy to max out the tree long before the game ends.

The game is also let down by the writing: the script feels weirdly off-kilter, probably a result of Aykroyd and Ramis writing it as a movie script and not as a video game script. The pacing is all over the place and there's long gaps between exposition where it's unclear what's going on until a character finally brings the player up to speed. It doesn't help that your protagonist - a rookie who's just joined the team - is silent and never gets involved in the story itself.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game (***) whiles away five or six hours well enough and is certainly not unplayable, but it's also lacking in dynamic action or laughs. Acceptable combat, adequate level design and one or two good set-pieces (like an early-game confrontation with Mr. Stay Puft) are let down by indifferent writing and disappointing graphics (even for the time it was released). One for Ghostbusters completionists only.

Trailer drops for GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE

Sony Pictures has released the first trailer for its upcoming film Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

The film is a sequel to Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989), ignoring the events of the Ghostbusters reboot (2016) which was set in a different continuity. The movie picks up thirty years after the events of Ghostbusters II when Egon Spengler's daughter Callie (Carrie Coon) and her children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) move into a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. As they adjust to their new home, supernatural events begin taking place, sparking the interest of Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd), a fan of the original Ghostbusters team. Some of the disturbances seem to be related to a mine belonging to the Shandor Corporation, presumably also the creation of Ivo Shandor (who built the apartment building that proved so troublesome in the first film).

It's been confirmed that original Ghostbusters Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) and Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) will appear, and Egon (the late Harold Ramis) will appear in flashback material using footage from the original films.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be released on 10 July 2020.

THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS hits Netflix

Classic 1980s cartoon The Real Ghostbusters has arrived on Netflix in the USA, UK, Ireland and quite a few other countries.

The cartoon ran for seven seasons from 1986 to 1991. Picking up after the events of the original 1984 movie, the TV show follows the continuing adventures of the Ghostbusters as they battle demons and spirits. Due to events later explained in flashback, they have been joined by Slimer, the first ghost they ever captured, as an ally. The TV show half-ignores Ghostbusters II (whose claim that the Ghostbusters were shut down for five years between the two movies is impossible to reconcile with the series), although multiple characters from the first movie such as Louis Tully, Walter Peck and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man do show up.

The series is noted for its surprisingly dark and occasionally flat-out disturbing tone, especially in the first three seasons. For Seasons 4-7 the show was renamed Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters and became aimed at a younger audience, with an accompanying sub-series expanding on Slimer's adventures in the hotel before the events of the first movie.

The series is also an early showcase for the skills of J. Michael Straczynski, who started his career in animation with this series and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe before going on to write Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, Babylon 5, Crusade, Jeremiah and now Sense8.

Despite being aimed at kids, the cartoon series has quite a few excellent episodes which are comfortably superior to either Ghostbusters II or the 2016 reboot.

Ghostbusters (2016)

Ghosts are rising across New York City, summoned by an unknown force. Four paranormal investigators have to stop them with advanced and unsafe nuclear technology before really bad things happen. You know the drill.

Remakes and reboots are a controversial topic, particularly when it's of a beloved and iconic franchise. Ghostbusters, released in 1984, was groundbreaking in its special effects but what really sold the movie was the improvisational humour of Bill Murray and excellent judgement of tone, in which a generally serious situation (an evil demon prepares to arise in the city, sending two minions to pave the way) was reacted to with what can only be called the sheer apathetic, sarcastic attitude that only New Yorkers can fully employ. Throw in some astonishingly memorable one-liners and a warm-hearted camraderie between its leads (borne from years of working together on sketch shows and other movies) and you have an all-time modern classic.

Then, five years later, the exact same gang got back together and delivered the underwhelming Ghostbusters 2, which, a few solid scenes aside, threw away a lot of the lessons learned from the first film and killed the franchise (which had expanded to an excellent animated series and a pretty solid comic book) stone dead.

Twenty-seven years have passed since then - more time than between the Cuban Missile Crisis and Ghostbusters 2 - so the time is certainly ripe for a remake of the original movie. Normally I'm against remakes if there is a way instead of doing a continuation, even through a soft reboot, but in this case it's justified. If New York had suffered two massive, public invasions of the paranormal, then it'd be harder to sell the tension and scepticism that is a core part of a Ghostbusters movie, not to mention the problematic division of duties between the old castmembers everyone wants to see in action and the new, inevitably younger characters who will have to handle the franchise in the future.

As remakes go, this is a pretty decent one. It learns from the original film that New York is as much of a character as any of the actual Ghostbusters and if it doesn't quite judge the tone as well as the first movie, it makes a pretty decent fist of it. The four actresses deliver solid comic performances, although their dramatic chops are more variable (Melissa McCartney, perhaps unexpectedly, is possibly the best performer in the more serious moments of the film, although Kristen Wiig isn't far off). However, it's Kate McKinnon as eccentric engineer/inventor Jillian Holtzmann who steals every scene she's in and gets the best action moment in the whole movie. More of her in the sequel please.

There's a host of great side-performances from the likes of Andy Garcia, Charles Dance, MK Williams and Matt Walsh (catnip for everyone who's ever written fanfic where Omar from The Wire and Mike from Veep team up against a world-threatening danger...that's just me then?) and, as you'd expect from a film made in 2016, the effects are pretty great, if used to overload in the grand finale. There's also well-judged cameos from the entire primary cast of the original film (the retired Rick Moranis and late Harold Ramis excepted), and I'd like to see more of Sigourney Weaver's new character because 1) she's Sigourney Weaver and 2) she's Holtzmann's mentor. I mean, don't wait for the sequel, just give us a Weaver-and-McKinnon spin-off (kinn-off?). That'd be just fine.

There are negatives: for every two jokes that work there's one that doesn't, the running gag of sexually objectifying Chis Hemsworth to a degree that'd be creepy if it was a female character (and that thus being the point) is amusing for the first half of the film and then runs out of the steam in the second, the villain is pretty much a complete non-entity and there's much less of an attempt to justify how the the hell the Ghostbusters pay for everything (the first film spending so much time on something pedantic resulted in some hilarious gags). There's also that odd thing of establishing that the villain has an amazing power which should win him the movie instantly (he can mind-control an entire crowd of people) but then he forgets to use it on the heroes, allowing them to defeat him. But given how horrendously bad this could have been, it's actually a pretty fun picture.

Ghostbusters (2016) (****) certainly isn't as good a film as the 1984 original, but it's not as far off as you'd expect. There's good chemistry between the leads, most of the jokes work and at under two hours the movie doesn't outstay it's welcome as some recent effects films have. There's also a break-out performance from McKinnon and the establishing of a new paradigm (the Ghostbusters getting secret government backing and funding) that could drive quite a few future installments of the series. The movie is on general release right now worldwide.

RIP Harold Ramis

Actor, writer, director, producer and comedian Harold Ramis has passed away at the age of 69.

Born in Chicago, Ramis is best-known visually for his performance as Egon Spengler on the two Ghostbusters movies, where he starred alongside Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd. He reprised the role for what would prove to be his final acting appearance, as a voice-over for the Ghostbusters video game in 2009. He also co-wrote both films. Previous to that success, he'd appeared on the successful 1981 comedy movie Stripes and on the Canadian sketch show Second City.

However, Ramis will likely be remembered more for his impressive directing resume, which includes Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation, Multiplicity, Analyze This, episodes of the American version of The Office and, of course, the classic Groundhog Day.

Ramis was expected to reprise his role as Egon, possibly just for a cameo, for the long-in-development Ghostbusters III. Following his passing, it is even more doubtful if the project will ever be made (at least with the involvement of any the original cast).

This is sad news. Like anyone else who grew up in the 1980s, Ghostbusters and its sequel were a huge part of my childhood, whilst Groundhog Day remains a classic take on a difficult-to-make-work science fiction premise. He will be missed.

Update: Ghostbusters fans in New York have been leaving tributes at the 8th Hook and Ladder  Firehouse on North More Street, Manhattan. This was where the firehouse exterior scenes for both movies were filmed. Inevitably, the tributes include Twinkies.