One of the perennial classics of my childhood, a movie I’ve seen over a hundred times and continue to enjoy, is Ghostbusters. For those uncultured enough to who have never seen this opus, it chronicles the misadventures of four men who set out to make a living off the dead. More accurately, removing the dead from places they are unwanted. This group of hero entrepreneurs consists of 3 scientists, and a 4th, oft-forgotten member with no real background in science, but who offers a touch of faith. These 4 men (or 3 white dudes if you look at any poster for the film) embark on a marathon session cleaning up New York and ridding it of paranormal activity.

All is well and good till through an act that can only be described as “Maliciously Bureaucratic”, their containment unit, where they store all the captured ghosts, is opened and the city is flooded with ghosts.  Their romp through NYC ends with the guys facing off against a giant marshmallow  monster and then doing a victory lap through the streets, becoming heroes.

These once disgraced scientists warm the hearts of all New Yorkers, and they manage to do it much less annoyingly than in the first Spiderman movie…

So in June of 1984 the Ghostbusters took America by storm, and they’ve since grossed over $238 million in the domestic box office, spawned a sequel, a #1 Billboard hit, a cartoon, comic books, video games, toys, and they are now in line to return for a third movie almost 30 years later.

The movie still holds up today, even though I’ve heard the younger generation complain about the effects, as one of the most entertaining movies about Ghost Hunters ever made. Is that too much of a qualifier?

As a kid, even more so than SNL or Caddyshack, Ghostbusters made Bill Murray a star in my eyes. And no matter how many fruity Wes Anderson movies he does, to me, he will always be Dr. Peter Venkman.

Another bonus for people like me who grew up watching Family Matters on TGIF, and have seen Die Hard more times than they can count, is that Ghostbusters can be added to the list of things in which Carl Winslow appears as a cop…

<—— See.

I give this movie an obvious 5/5 as it is my favorite movie on our whole countdown.

If you missed any of the Countdown, you can check it out here.