Stay-Puft, Sigourney, and the "Ghostbusters"

This is Nathaniel's entry into this week's Hit Me With Your Best Shot topic, Ghostbusters (1984). Tonight, we'll see what others chose!

This may shock readers of a certain (young) age but would be blockbusters used to open directly against each other rather than giving each other wide berths to accumulate loot. No really, they did! Ghostbusters and Gremlins, courting the same demographic, opened simultaneously on my birthday weekend in 1984. I chose Gremlins (which little me loved) and caught Ghostbusters a few days later with school friends. Ghostbusters emerged as the clear champ with the public but little me thought Gremlins ran circles around the supernatural comedy: scarier, funnier, cuter monsters, better-paced... only faililng in its lack of SigWeavieness. They were both big hits, of course, but Ghostbusters was HUGE -- Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man walking amongst skyscrapers huge. And it stayed ahead in pop culture, too, netting Oscar nominations (Original Song & Visual FX) and endless sequel or revival talk thereafter.

Cut to 2016: With the gender reversed reboot on the way, it was a topical choice for Hit Me With Your Best Shot. Plus I figured I'd finally see what charms eluded me way back then...

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How to play
1. Watch the movie*
2. Pick its best shot
3. Post it somewhere online with why you chose it on March 8th
4. Let us know you did so and we link up that Tuesday night!

More March titles TBA soon.

*Ghostbusters (1984) is now available to stream free via Amazon Prime on March 1st. It's also available to rent at iTunes & Netflix. Join us this Tuesday by selecting your best shot.

YNMS: Ghostbusters

As promised weeks ago, the trailer for the female-led Ghostbusters arrived yesterday.! Twitter immediately erupted with a wide range of responses from unbridled enthusiasm to outright disdain. Of course there were plenty of "problematic" call-outs, which can be expected like clockwork these days to almost any property seeking broad appeal.

One of the more delightful elements of the trailer is its instant gif-ability. As if we didn't already get new comedy gold from star Kate McKinnon this past weekend at the Indie Spirit Awards - including the delightful Carol spoof - she emerged as the clear audience favorite already. How many times did everyone see this flawless moment today?:

Speaking of best shots, don't forget Hit Me With Your Best Shot returns next week with the original Ghostbusters! You can stream it now for free on Amazon Prime and it's also available on iTunes and Netflix rental. Make sure to send us a link so that we can include you in the fun!

We'll break down the  Yes No Maybe So of it all, with the trailer after the jump...

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National Film Registry: A Sirk, Some Ghostbusters, and Zorro

Nooooo. I almost forgot to share the National Film Registries new titles. Each year they add 25 pictures  that are deemed historically, culturally or aesthetically important. Each year I suggest that we should watch all the titles together. Well, the ones we can find at least. Perhaps we'll actually do that for 2016 -- you never know! Getting a spot on the National Film Registry is more symbolic than active. It does not guarantee preservation or restorations but it does suggest that these films should all be preserved and/or restored.

The 2015 additions are:

• Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894) - watch it now. it's six seconds long... the earliest surviving copyrighted film
• Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906) -watch it now. (7 minutes) from a short Winsor McCay comic strip
• A Fool There Was (1915) -watch it now. (66 minutes) Theda Bara tempts a married man! It's always the woman's fault, don't you know 
• Humoresque (1920) - not the Joan Crawford film inspired by this story!
• The Mark of Zorro (1920) -watch it now (88 minutes) the Douglas Fairbanks version
• Black and Tan (1929) -watch it now -(15 minutes) short jazz film with Duke Ellington
• Dracula (1931) - the Spanish language version
• Our Daily Bread (1934) - King Vidor's socialist drama
• The Old Mill (1937) - animated short Oscar winner
• Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) - Preston Sturges comedy
• The Story of Menstruation (1946) - documentary short
• John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946) - animated short Oscar nominee
• Winchester '73 (1950) -western with Jimmy Stewart and Shelley Winters
• Imitation of Life (1959) - Douglas Sirk's awesome melodrama
• Seconds (1966) -thriller starring Rock Hudson
• Portrait of Jason (1967) - LGBT documentary
• Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968) - a documentary about filmmaking
• The Inner World of Aphasia (1968) -documentary about aphasics
• Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1975) - a biographical doc
• Being There (1979) - the Hal Ashby dramedy with Peter Sellers
• Ghostbusters (1984) - the comic blockbuster currently undergoing a gender flip
• Top Gun (1986) -you feel the need. the need for speed
• Sink or Swim (1990) - documentary about formative childhood
• The Shawshank Redemption (1994) - that insanely beloved prison drama
• LA Confidential (1997) - the awesome neo noir

Big thanks to Matthew Rettenmund of Boy Culture for pointing out this insanely cool bit of trivia about the list:

Of special note: Mother and daughter Lupita Tovar (the world's oldest living actress at age 105) and Susan Kohner were in the Spanish-language Dracula (1931) and Imitation of Life (1959), respectively.

You may recall that Mexican actress Lupita Tovar recently took up the throne or oldest living screen star after the death of Luise Rainer. The super cool thing to know about Lupita Tovar is that she is the grandmother of Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, both filmmakers (Paul wrote and directed Grandma this year) so her cinematic legacy lives on.

Though the titles are selected by the National Film Preservation Board and Library staff, the public can nominate titles here if you wanna get a jump start on their 2016 list. The movies have to be at least 10 years old so no "OMG THE FORCE AWAKENS WAS AMAZING!" because they will shut that right down. 

Thoughts I Had... Whilst Looking at Chris Hemsworth in "Ghostbusters" Uniform

In the order they arrived...

• This would not qualify as a 'Cool Rider' by Stephanie Zinone's standards. No hell in his eyes. No skintight leather.

•mmmmskintightleatheronaHemsworth

• When are jumpsuits coming back in style? They look so comfy.

• He's playing the Annie Potts receptionist role but this is the new Ghostbusters uniform so even when genders are reversed, male privilege guarantees a slice of the action!

• For his next trick: "Mary Jo" in the gender reversed Designing Women reboot. How is this not a new gay network sitcom already? Get me a pitch meeting.

SOURCE

• Hopefully this is a windblown rather than a hairsprayed look since he needs his bangs for Hair Acting (see: Thor, Blackhat, Rush) 

• Is this hunky guy still Chris's go-to stunt double?

• The Avengers all seem to be getting a little slaphappy lately what with press rounds and comic cameos and dubsmashes and what not. Chris is clearly in the mood for comic larks.

• <-- See also: Vacation Dong. Whose job is it to provide actors with fake cocks lately (see also: The Overnight) and exactly how profitable is this niche? 

• Whatever happens in this movie it is bound to make more sense than whatever was going on with Thor in Avengers: Age of Ultron. I just saw that for the third time -- it was my inflight movie over the weekend -- and everything Thor-related, yikes. Not his fault but cut his key scenes and the whole movie plays better. In Related Unpopular Note: I have also come to the opinion that it's a much better movie than people give it credit for... but it is ungainly and it's a miracle that Joss Whedon pulled it off, given the clear presence of a dozen plus agendas outside of Tell This Story.

• If we must have remakes then a Lady Ghostbusters is the best possible outcome on paper. But I hope not to be sick of the movie before it arrives 332 days from now which is always a threat when internet interest is high.