82% (3) Ghostbusters 105 min, PG, [Action, Comedy, Fantasy] [Ivan Reitman] [08 Jun 1984]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 78%, Rotten Tomatoes: 97%, Metacritic: 71%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 6 nominations.
Actors: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver
Writer: Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Website Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz and Egon work at the University where they delve into the paranormal and fiddle with many unethical experiments on the students. As they are kicked out of the University do they really understand their knowledge of the paranormal and go into business for themselves. Under the new snazzy business name of 'Ghostbusters', and living in the old firehouse building they work out of, they are called to rid New York City of paranormal phenomenon at everyone's whim.... for a price. They make national press as the media thinks and pressures everybody the Ghostbusters are the cause of it all. Thrown in jail by the EPA, the mayor takes a chance and calls on them to help save the city. Unbeknownst to all, a long dead Gozer worshiper (Evo Shandor) erected downtown apartment building is the cause of all the paranormal activity. They find out the building could resurrect the ancient Hittite god, Gozer, and bring an end to all of humanity. Who are you gonna call to stop this terrible world-ending menace?
Rotten Tomatoes: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson star as a quartet of Manhattan-based "paranormal investigators". When their government grants run out, the former three go into business as The Ghostbusters, later hiring Hudson on. Armed with electronic paraphernalia, the team is spectacularly successful, ridding The Big Apple of dozens of ghoulies, ghosties and long-legged beasties. Tight-lipped bureaucrat William Atherton regards the Ghostbusters as a bunch of charlatans, but is forced to eat his words when New York is besieged by an army of unfriendly spirits, conjured up by a long-dead Babylonian demon and "channelled" through beautiful cellist Sigourney Weaver and nerdish Rick Moranis. The climax is a glorious sendup of every Godzilla movie ever made-and we daresay it cost more than a year's worth of Japanese monster flicks combined. Who'd ever dream that the chubby, cheery Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man would turn out to be the most malevolent threat ever faced by New York City? When the script for Ghostbusters was forged by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, John Belushi was slated to play the Bill Murray role; Belushi's death in 1982 not only necessitated the hiring of Murray, but also an extensive rewrite. The most expensive comedy made up to 1984, Ghostbusters made money hand over fist, spawning not only a 1989 sequel but also two animated TV series (one of them partially based on an earlier live-action TV weekly, titled The Ghost Busters. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 5]
74% (3) Stripes 106 min, R, [Comedy, War] [Ivan Reitman] [26 Jun 1981]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 69%, Rotten Tomatoes: 86%, Metacritic: 68%, External Reviews
Actors: Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, John Candy, P.J. Soles, Warren Oates
Writer: Len Blum, Daniel Goldberg, Harold Ramis
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Russian, Polish Country: USA
Plot: At the end of a very bad day when he realizes his life has gone and is going nowhere, John Winger is able to convince his best friend, Russell Ziskey, whose life is not much better, to enlist in the army, despite they not being obvious soldier material. In basic training, they are only two of a bunch of misfits that comprise their platoon. However, it is still John that is constantly butting heads with their drill sergeant, Sergeant Hulka. Two of their saving graces are Stella and Louise, two MPs who get them out of one scrape after another. Their entire platoon is in jeopardy of not graduating. But what happens during basic leads to their entire platoon being assigned to an overseas mission in Italy, to test a new urban assault vehicle, the EM-50 project. John and Russell decide to take the EM-50 for an unauthorized test drive to visit Stella and Louise who have been reassigned to West Germany. In the process, the rest of the platoon, Hulka, and Hulka's immediate superior, self-absorbed Captain Stillman, get caught unofficially behind enemy Communist lines in Czechoslovakia. John and Russell, with Stella and Louise's help, will have to show their true mettle as US army soldiers and in the process test the capabilities of the EM-50 to rescue their platoon without the rest of the US army knowing what's going on, and thus without any assistance beyond themselves.
Rotten Tomatoes: A charming, self-elected leader winds up commanding an outfit of misfits.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 5]
62% (3) Baby Boom 110 min, PG, [Comedy, Drama, Romance] [Charles Shyer] [30 Oct 1987]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 62%, Rotten Tomatoes: 73%, Metacritic: 53%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 3 nominations.
Actors: Diane Keaton, Harold Ramis, Kristina Kennedy, Sam Shepard
Writer: Nancy Meyers, Charles Shyer
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: J.C. Wiatt is a successful New York business woman known around town as the "tiger lady." She gets news of an inheritance from a relative from another country and off the bat she suspects it's money. Well it's not money, it's a baby girl. At first she doesn't accept until the lady that gives the baby to her has to catch her flight. J.C. is now stuck with an annoying baby girl. Her boyfriend doesn't like the idea of a baby living with them and he leaves her. J.C. has enough of it and takes her to meet a family ready to adopt her. She leaves but hears the baby cry while walking away and has to go back. The baby is too attached to her now and won't let her go. Later, her baby gets into mischief which causes her to get fired. Now, she sets her eyes on an old two story cottage in Vermont to get out of the New York life. When she arrives, the house needs more help than originally thought. She gets bored one snowy day and decides to make apple sauce. Her baby loves it and she decides to sell it. Pretty soon everyone wants some of the baby apple sauce. J.C. hits it big and falls in love with a local veterinarian. Was this fate or destiny?
Rotten Tomatoes: When a professional woman with a high-profile job "inherits" a 14-month-old baby girl from recently deceased relatives, she intends to put her up for adoption, but she discovers that she likes the kid and motherhood. So life begins to go through some massive changes.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 5]
58% (3) Ghostbusters II 108 min, PG, [Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Sci-Fi] [Ivan Reitman] [16 Jun 1989]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 65%, Rotten Tomatoes: 53%, Metacritic: 56%, External Reviews
Awards: 2 wins & 1 nomination.
Actors: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver
Writer: Dan Aykroyd (characters), Harold Ramis (characters), Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Five years after the events of the first film, the Ghostbusters have been plagued by lawsuits and court orders, and their once-lucrative business is bankrupt. But when Dana has ghost problems again, the boys come out of retirement and are promptly arrested. The Ghostbusters discover that New York is once again headed for supernatural doom, with a river of ectoplasmic slime bubbling beneath the city and an ancient sorcerer attempting to possess Dana's baby and be reborn. Can the Ghostbusters quell the negative emotions feeding the otherworldly threat and stop the world from being slimed?
Rotten Tomatoes: Ivan Reitman's sequel to the phenomenally successful Ghostbusters is looser and more self-assured than the original. The film opens with a title reading "Five Years Later" and finds the ghostbusters living in hard times. A restraining order has forbidden the boys to partake in paranormal warfare, and as a result they have had to seek other lines of work. Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) spend their time performing at children's' birthday parties, and Egon (Harold Ramis) is busy conducting experiments investigating the effect of human emotions on the environment, leaving ghostbusting behind. Venkman (Bill Murray) and Dana (Sigourney Weaver) have split up. Venkman now hosts a local cable show called "The World of the Psychic." Dana, now divorced and the mother of a little baby named Oscar, works as an art restorer in a museum -- and this is where the plot kicks in. While Dana is restoring a portrait of a 16th-century tyrant by the name of Vigo the Carpathian, the portrait becomes hexed. The evil Vigo wants to return to life by taking over the body of Dana's little child. Vigo has enlisted Dana's boss, Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), to compel Dana to cooperate. Soon dirty sludge and slime flow through the streets of Manhattan, and the ghostbusters have to reunite to save the city from a funky paranormal evil. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 5]
44% (2) Stealing Home 98 min, PG-13, [Drama, Romance, Sport] [Steven Kampmann, William Porter] [26 Aug 1988]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 68%, Rotten Tomatoes: 20%, External Reviews
Actors: Blair Brown, Harold Ramis, Jodie Foster, Jonathan Silverman, Mark Harmon
Writer: Steven Kampmann, William Porter
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Mark Harmon is a washed-up baseball player who is called back home to handle the ashes of his childhood sweetheart/ first love who had committed suicide. As he searches for what to do with them, he remembers the past and the relationship they had. In doing so he finds himself again.
Rotten Tomatoes: The storytelling device of the flashback gets an intense workout in this tragic coming-of-age drama. Mark Harmon stars as washed-up baseball player Billy Wyatt, who is shocked when he receives news that his childhood sweetheart and friend Katie Chandler (Jodie Foster) has committed suicide and left the disposal of her ashes to his judgment. Although Billy and Katie have not kept in touch through the years, he has always carried a torch for her, his first love. On his way home, Billy recalls his past associations with the free-spirited Katie: their first meeting, the time they made love, and conversations they had, mostly during summers at the New Jersey shore. Billy also remembers the adolescent mischief he got into with his best friend, Alan Appleby (played by Jonathan Silverman in the flashbacks, Harold Ramis in the present-day), like when each of them ended up sleeping with other's prom date. Billy finally decides to cast Katie's ashes to the wind in the place where they were happiest, by the seashore. Stealing Home was reportedly based on the real-life experiences of its writers, former Second City troupe members and WKRP in Cincinnati writers Steven Kampmann and Will Aldis.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 5]