Yesterday, a reader commented that Elvira and mumblecore are to me what Twilight is to most movie blogs — ie: I’ll shamefully cover anything having to do with either. That commenter was correct! And I also like things having to do with Ghostbusters! The above clip, which reimagines the 1984 film as a circa-1954 comedy featuring a super-group of the decade’s comic stars — Martin & Lewis, Bob Hope, Fred Macmurray — isn’t terribly funny, but it makes just enough sense to be satisfying.

This post was originally published in July 2008, in accordance with the New York and Self-Involvement blogathons. Ghostbusters was recently released on Blu-ray in honor of the 25th anniversary of the film’s premiere.

When I heard that the New York in the Movies Blogathon and the Self-Involvement Blogathon were happening around the same time, I got it into my head that there was one film I could write about that could legitimately fit on the nexus of both. Sure, there are “better” New York films––Manhattan, obvs, or even Metropolitan; there are films that would allow me to more deeply discuss my personal life, as the Culture Snob puts it, as it’s “filtered through movies.” But there’s no movie in any category or canon that allows me to talk about how my relationship to the city I live in has been filtered through movies since long before I lived here, quite like Ghostbusters. A close reading of the film, the way it depicts New York, and what that has to do with me, follows after the jump. The entire film is now available for streaming, but not embedding, on Hulu.

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On June 20, the Nantucket Film Festival will honor Harold Ramis with their Screenwriter’s Tribute, and will host a special 25th anniversary screening of Ghostbusters (there’s ticket info on the Festival’s website). With speculation over the long-awaited Ghostbusters 3 at a fever pitch, I called Ramis and we talked about the status of that project, how he’s been “burned by sequels” and why he made a villain out of the EPA.

Why do you think that people are still so hungry for a new Ghostbusters, twenty years after the last film? Why Ghostbusters, and not, like, Caddyshack?

There was another “Caddyshack,” and it was terrible. That could be one reason.

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For only $2.3 million, you can own a house featured in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s not the title character’s residence, though; it’s the home of “Cameron Frye.” You’ll recall this as the setting of the film’s ending, where Cameron’s dad’s Ferrari is accidentally hurled through the garage window and into a forest ravine.

While any memorable location from a favorite movie would be a treat to own, Cameron’s house from Ferris Bueller is desirable for the opportunity to relive that famous scene — perhaps with a less-valuable vehicle. In fact, we think the person who buys this home should turn it into a museum, a la the house from A Christmas Story, and offer visitors the chance to crash a disposable car into the ravine for whatever it would cost to maintain such an attraction.

The listing for this Highland Park, Illinois, property has inspired us to come up with ten more movie homes we wish we could own, whether as a dwelling or a plaything. What favorite film location would you want to live in?
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I’m always game to devote one of these roundups to Ghostbusters 3 news, but when it relates to a personal favorite list I wrote 7 months ago, I’m especially interested. Maybe you remember I already cast the female version of Ghostbusters with Elizabeth Banks, Anna Faris, Tina Fey, Niecy Nash, Zooey Deschanel and (replacing the original female cast members) Adrian Brody and Jay Baruchel. But I guess Dan Aykroyd’s latest interview spew of G3 hype is worthy of continued casting ideas, because like Bill Murry before him, he’s focusing our attention on the prospects of girl Ghostbusters. Specifically, he’s proposing the names Alyssa Milano and Eliza Dushku as potential costars for him and the elder team.

Are they good choices? Most people are shocked at the bland suggestions. But remember these are just actresses Aykroyd thinks are “amazing.” Let’s see what the rest of the blogosphere thinks, after the jump.

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Between the new Vanity Fair spread starring his comedy troupe (which includes his wife) and official word that he’s producing Ghostbusters 3, Judd Apatow is the talk of the Internet today. Eric D. Snider, in a new post at Cinematical that is apparently unrelated to either bits of news, even discusses Apatow’s potential status as this generation’s John Hughes. Considering some bloggers refer to the stars of the Vanity Fair feature as the “Frat Pack,” despite that term’s origins being with another set of actors (though Apatow’s pals do overlap and have been deemed “Junior Varsity” members), there may be weight to Snider’s claim.

Whatever Apatow’s group is called (Vanity Fair simply yet prematurely labels them “Comedy’s New Legends”), their leader is certainly ruling over a large part of Hollywood these days, enough that he’s sure to appropriate more than just the Frat Pack name before he’s done with his reign as King of Comedy. Now that he’s borrowed the talent of Adam Sandler (for this summer’s Funny People) and is about to take charge of even older SNL alum (for the next Ghostbusters flick), what could stop him from hiring Anthony Michael Hall or Shirley Maclaine in order to align himself with even the “Brat Pack” and “Rat Pack,” respectively?

We’ll just have to wait to see how much Apatow will ultimately conquer. So, for the time being, let’s take a look at what the blogosphere is saying about him and his crew today:

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The highly anticipated new Ghostbusters game has finally been given a release date: June 2009. That may not be specific enough for you, especially since it was originally supposed to come out this fall, but as Karina previously reported, Atari has decided to coincide its release with the original film’s 25th anniversary. To ease your impatience, though, there’s an awesome new trailer for the video game (view it on YouTube), in which you can hear some of the new vocal performances from Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis.

I can’t stand video games, but even I’m looking forward to playing this thing. Then again, I’m such a fan of Ghostbusters that I’d be just as excited if the new game was as simple as the old Activision Ghostbusters game for the Commodore 64, a demonstration of which I’m sharing as today’s clip. Oh, I hope you didn’t think by the headline that I’d found a demo of the new game. Sorry about that, if you did. I didn’t mean to trick you. Don’t worry, you’ll enjoy the video anyway. Check it out after the jump.

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A number of our blogging friends have picked up the Alphabetical Favorites meme. The idea is that you list 26 favorite movies, one for each letter of the alphabet. Some people are adding comments, but I think it’s more interesting to just toss the titles out there, to see how they fit together within a single list and how they match up to other lists. Also, it’s been a hell of a week and I’m exhausted. I will say this: after not being able to think of a single movie beginning with the letter “J” that I enjoy more than Joe Versus the Volcano, I noticed that several commenters at the House Next Door had slotted the same film in the same face. So much for Todd McCarthy’s contention in his Doubt review that John Patrick Shanley’s first directorial effort was “misguided.”

So! My list is after the jump.

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• When Activision was bought by Vivendi a couple of months back, the conglomerate declined to release the highly-anticipated Ghostbusters video game written by Dan Ackroyd and featuring vocal contributions from Bill Murray and the rest of the main cast of the film franchise, which was said to pick up narratively where Ghostbusters 2 led off. Now Atari has taken the game off Vivendi’s hands, with speculative plans to release it next year in concert with the first film’s 25th anniversary.
• Sam Mendes has been hired to direct a cinematic adaptation of Preacher, Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s graphic novel about a religulous man fighting evil post-apocalypse.
• Dylan McDermott, Zoe Saldana, Lake Bell, Nick Stahl, Paz Vega and Shannen Doherty will star in Burning Palms, a satire of Los Angeles stereotypes from writer/director Christopher Landon, which producer Oren Segal says is “kind of like a John Waters version of Short Cuts.”

In a new interview with MTV, City of Ember star Bill Murray has called for the makers of Ghostbusters 3 to introduce a female Ghostbuster. My first thought was that hottie who models the sexy Ghostbusters Halloween costume, but seriously it is a great idea. As long as the concept is to pass on the proton packs to a new generation, there really should be an actress in the bunch. And I’m not talking just a hot young flavor of the month who Hollywood thinks will get the teen boys in the audience (it’s Ghostbusters 3; they’re already sold). I agree with Murray that the main requirement should be a funny female.

However, instead of merely picking out one comedienne to appear in the sequel, SpoutBlog has decided to imagine a remake of Ghostbusters in which the entire team is made of women. So, here are some casting choices for a gender-reversed version:

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In the 1980s it seemed like Hollywood hated everything that was going to compete with it: television, video games, books, comics, you name it. If it wasn’t being used as an ancillary product for a movie, then it was the enemy. Why would an executive want to embrace something like Spider-Man or Space Invaders and try turning it into a movie? Which, granted might be why so many movies from the 1980s were classic. Where’s our next John Hughes, already? If there was a video game announced tomorrow based on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or Weird Science, I would retire this column for eternity. Unless the game sucked.

But what about movies that came out years ago that still live on through video games? Games have single-handedly managed to keep some franchises flush with cash, long before the currently Hollywood trend of retreading, prequelizing, and refurbishing movie happened. Now, you’re just as likely to have a game coming out day in date with the movie, if not a few weeks before in an effort to hype the buzz. But what about those that came before? Here are a few examples.

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Everyone loves Bill Murray, but only the die hard fans recognize the majority of his work. The rest, unfortunately, concentrate too much on his greatest films, such as Stripes, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation and all of his collaborations with Wes Anderson. Yet while each of these films, and Murray’s roles and performances in them, are certainly deserving of their preferred and predominant praises, Murray is the kind of actor who is so talented and entertaining that he can be enjoyed in even the worst movies on his resume. In fact, he’s probably the only A-lister who could lend his voice to a bastardized CG version of a beloved cartoon character and get away with barely any contempt from his devotees.

This week, Bill Murray makes an appearance in the new kiddie sci-fi flick City of Ember as the selfish mayor of a doomed underground metropolis. And it’s sure to be one of his less-appreciated roles, whether because it’s in a children’s movie, because it’s a supporting part in an ensemble filled with many talented actors, or because it’s not Ghostbusters 3. But those who really love Murray will likely flock to the movie primarily to see him, just as they did and do for the rest of these movies with underrated Murray roles:

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If you took one look at the existence of the new movie Ghost Town and dismissed it on account of its familiarity, you’re ignoring the potential of one of the most valuable plot devices available to fiction. Sure, the employment of ghosts in a narrative may also be evidence of laziness, as the device is just as much a convenience as it is a useful tool for storytellers. Not everyone can be Shakespeare, and of course there is a lot of redundancy and (excuse the pun) lifelessness in the majority of movies involving ghosts.

However, ghosts can also be highly representative and/or serve a film on a deeper level than the surface story. To use another pun, ghost movies are not always so transparent. Like zombies, their plot-device sibling, ghosts have a way of signifying greater ideas, subjects and themes, and aren’t always merely about scares and talking-to-thin-air gags. In a conversation with Cinematical’s Erik Davis, Ghost Town director/co-writer David Koepp had this to say about the significance of ghost stories:

Part of the reason they’re so enduring is because, well, first off all they give hope — because if they are ghosts, then it means we don’t die when we die. But also because they work really well in a number of genres. Ya know, in a drama like Ghost, or a horror movie, suspense or comedy in our case — I just think they offer so many dramatic possibilities; to have someone that’s dead, but still around to talk about it really suggests a lot of great situations.

Okay, so that bit of promotional fluff is actually more about the literal dramatic qualities of the ghost device than the figurative and subtextual, but the quote at least jumpstarted my thinking. Initially I had thought about simply outlining how ghosts have been applied to different film genres, but then I fortunately switched my goal to seek out ten specific ghost films (from the seemingly thousands out there) that utilize the device for more meaningful purpose.

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• Or is it technically Ghostbusters IV? Columbia Pictures has hired writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, both of TV’s The Office, to script a new installment of the Ghostbusters series, which was previously thought to be hitting a final note with an upcoming video game (which Dan Aykroyd led us to believe was pretty much “Ghostbusters III”). The Hollywood Reporter claims that while the new sequel may involve the original cast, the main focus will be with a rookie cast of Ghostbusters.
• Paul Bettany, who played a kind of precursor to Charles Darwin in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, will actually portray the famous evolution theorist in the biopic Creation (formerly titled Origin), scripted by Master and Commander’s John Collee and to be directed by Jon Amiel (The Core). Bettany’s real wife, Jennifer Connelly, will play Darwin’s wife/first cousin, Emma.
• Albert and Allen Hughes will finally follow-up their 2001 period-set From Hell with the post-apocalypse-set Book of Eli, which will star Denzel Washington as a man “who must fight across America to bring society the knowledge that could be the key to its redemption.”
• Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards script is pissing off the Germans.
• According to Variety, as long as male audiences aren’t too busy with the new football season or summer leftovers, Nic Cage and his latest crapfest, Bangkok Dangerous, should top the box office this weekend.