Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

It wasn't until the door-in-space title sequence that mum realised Phar Lap was showing in the other theatre of our local Twinplex and hurried me, seven or eight years old, across the foyer to the correct theatre, assuring me Dan Aykroyd's car passenger, the one who had just turned into the purple monster, was just the product of Hollywood make-believe and I was really going to enjoy the story of Australia's fastest racehorse "in here," but the damage was done - a glimpse of this four-story horror-fantasy compilation (actually a selection of trite fables that have since bored me, from big name movie men Steven Spielberg, John Landis, George Miller, Joe Dante) piqued my taste for the macabre....I struggle to recall anything about the racehorse!

★★☆☆☆

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Trading Places (1983)

Apparently inspired by Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper and thematically similar to movies like Man With A Million (The Million Pound Note), this prince and pauper story, a huge comedy success in the 80s but fairly ugly now with its gratuitous T and A, N-words, and only glib social commentary, has a pair of unpleasant New York brokers make a bet to see how a 'have' and a 'have-not' fare when their roles in society are reversed; when the 'have' and the 'have-not' learn of the bet, they seek revenge.

★★★☆☆

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Ghostbusters (1984)

It is hard to imagine, despite decades of advances in cinema technology and the various sequels and reboots that started with the Melissa McCarthy one in 2016, that anyone is ever going to improve upon this classic 80s comedy - even rewatching it today, so many years after its initial release in 1984, it impresses with its special effects and comedy, and Bill Murray is in top form as the drily hilarious Dr Peter Venkman who, with his fellow Ghostbusters, takes on New York's growing number of paranormal problems including the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

★★★★★

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Ghostbusters II (1989)

Apparently not even Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, the writers, thought Ghostbusters II was a good idea - it was never going to improve upon the original - but as far as studio-driven money-grabbing sequels go, it is pretty fun: like a Lethal Weapon sequel, the cast has grown and so things are busier - Dana has a baby, for one, and there are several new characters standing between the Ghostbusters and the city mayor, and Louis Tully has been adopted into the Ghostbusters' circle, so his role of goofball demigod conduit is handed over to newcomer Peter MacNichol who plays a very Rick Moranis-ish 'Igor' assistant to the evil Vigo - when their evil plot requires a loan of Sigouney Weaver's baby, the Ghostbusters get their proton packs back on.

★★★☆☆

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