Drew Turney
With Ghostbusters fever about to hit the world all over again thanks to Paul Feig’s upcoming reboot, it was just a matter of time before the studio gave fans a tease by reminding us why we loved the Ghostbusters name so much.
The tease is the re-release of the two original films in glittering, razor sharp 4K editions. Restored from the original 35mm film negatives, the picture has four times the digital resolution of high definition. Together with the Dolby Atmos 7.1 sound, it promises a living room-shattering experience.
One slight word of warning however – check your own player and equipment is compatible, as not every DVD or Blu-ray player will be.
But if it’s not, there are still the crisp Blu-ray editions, and if you haven’t seen any of the DVD releases of either film so far (or read last year’s Ghostbusters Visual Guide, which we reviewed), you’ll have as much fun learning about how it all came together as you will from revisiting the movies.
Each film contains roundtable chats with producer/director Ivan Reitman and star/writer Dan Aykroyd from just a couple of years back about their recollection of each production and the films’ legacies. There are features on the making (and later restoration) of the Ectomobile, music videos, deleted scenes and a trippy original featurette shown on TV and later released on the original VHS release back in the mid 80s.
Each movie has a commentary and what’s called ‘Slimer Mode’, where talking heads of those involved appear over the movie to talk about the scene in question.
If you’re a Ghostbusters completist there isn’t a lot of information in each package that you don’t already know from other sources, but the chance to see them in higher definition than we have since the 1980s is going to be tempting for the most dedicated fans.
Ghostbusters I & II 4K releases June 7.
