Ghostbusters: The Best Quotes

In tribute to Harold Ramis, I decided to watch Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 this week.  It's been a few years since I've seen them, so I thought it would be fun to do a blog post with my favorite quotes from the movies.

Ghostbusters

-“Back off, man…I’m a scientist.”-Peter Venkman

-Ray Stantz:  Symmetrical book-stacking, just like the Philadelphia mass turbulence of 1947.

 Peter Venkman:  You’re right.  No human being would stack books like this.

-“You’re not gonna lose the house.  Everyone has three mortgages nowadays.”-Peter Venkman

-Janine Melnitz:  Do you have any hobbies?

 Egon Spengler:  I collect spores, molds, and fungus.

-Dana Barrett:  Well, of course I’m telling the truth.  Who would make up a story like that?

 Peter Venkman:  Some are people who just want attention.  Others are just nutballs who come in off the  street.

-Dana Barrett:  You know, you don’t act like a scientist.

 Peter Venkman:  They’re usually pretty stiff.

 Dana Barrett:  You’re more like a game show host.

-“He slimed me.”-Peter Venkman

-Egon Spengler.:  There’s something very important I forgot to tell you…don’t cross the streams.

 Peter Venkman:  Why?

 Egon Spengler:  It would be bad.

 Peter Venkman:  I’m fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing.  What do you mean, “bad”?

 Egon Spengler:  Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your  body exploding at the speed of light.

-“If there’s a steady paycheck in it, I’ll believe anything you say.”-Winston Zeddemore

-“I don’t have to take this abuse from you.  I got hundreds of people dying to abuse me.”-Peter Venkman

-“She’s not my girlfriend.  I find her interesting because she’s a client and because she sleeps above her    covers.  Four feet above her covers.”-Peter Venkman

-“Ray, when someone asks you if you’re a god, you say yes!”-Winston Zeddemore

-“This chick is toast!”-Peter Venkman

-“Let’s show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown.”-Peter Venkman

-“Nobody steps on a church in my town!”-Peter Venkman

-“We’ve been going about this all wrong…we get this guy laid, we won’t have any trouble.”-Peter Venkman

Ghostbusters 2

-Prosecutor:  Dr. Venkman, would you please tell the court why it is that you and your co-defendants took it  upon yourselves to dig a very big hole in the middle of First Avenue?

 Peter Venkman:  Well, there’s so many holes in First Avenue, we really didn’t think anyone would notice.

-Louis Tully:  My guys are still under a judicial “mis-strangement” order, that blue thing I got from her.  They  could be exposing themselves.

 Peter Venkman:  And you don’t want us exposing ourselves.

-“We’re the best!  We’re the beautiful!  We’re the only…Ghostbusters!”-Peter Venkman

-Peter Venkman:  Dana’s just come over to my place.  Well, actually her-her tub tried to eat her.

 Ray Stantz:  Are you serious?  Oh, that’s great!

-Dana Barrett:  It’s so late, I really ought to put him down.

 Peter Venkman:  May I?

 Dana Barrett:  Yeah, if you want to.

 Peter Venkman:  You’re short, your belly button sticks out too far, and you’re a terrible burden on your  poor mother.

-Dana Barrett:  So what happened with my apartment?

 Peter Venkman:  Well, the guys spent the whole night there. They went through all your things, your  personal stuff.  They tried on some of your clothes, made some long-distance phone calls, cleaned out the  fridge…

-Janine Melnitz:  You’re very good with children.

 Louis Tully:  Thanks, I practiced on my hamster.

-“I used to have a roommate, but my mom moved to Florida.”-Louis Tully

-“If we don’t do something fast, this whole place is gonna blow like a frog on a hot plate.”-Ray Stantz

-Being miserable and treating other people like dirt is every New Yorker’s God-given right.”-The Mayor of  New York

Ghost Adventures: Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

I really enjoyed visiting Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Los Angeles, so when I saw that Ghost Adventures did a 2011 episode at the Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas, I just had to watch it!  The show stars Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Nick Groff and airs on the Travel Channel.  Zak, Aaron, and Nick start out at the David Saxe Theatre (hey, I saw the fake Beatles there!) at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.  David Saxe tells Zak that he used to work at the Sands Casino (which is where the Ventian, where Madame Tussauds is located, now stands), and things used to wrong with his sister’s magic act…things that could hurt or kill her.  They installed security cameras because they thought someone was tampering with her props, but they never caught anyone on camera.  David says that he doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he leaves a ghost light on in his theatre anyway; Zak and David see smoke in the theatre, and David can’t explain where it’s coming from.

The Sands used to be owned by the Mafia, and the team talks to a few people in Vegas about the mob activity that went on before arriving at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.  When they first get to the museum, they talk to Chris Mayes, the show manager at the museum.  Zac wonders if any spirits of dead celebrities are inhabiting their wax likenesses.  Chris gives them some history about Madame Tussaud, saying that during the French Revolution she was forced to find the heads of the deceased and make death masques.  Employee Kurt Mayne tells the team that he has seen ghosts in the maze where the Halloween show takes place.  Another employee, Stephanie Freitas, says that one night at closing, she heard the voice of Elvis Presley, who had performed at the Sands.  Along with another employee, she followed the sound; when they figured out which room it was coming from, they opened the door and felt “a very cold chill…and Elvis was singing louder than ever.”

The crew sets up night vision cameras in the Viva Las Vegas Room and by the staircase.  They begin walking around and hear something laugh at them; this is caught on the camera by the staircase, as well as one of the REM pods lighting up to signify electromagnetic energy.  Zak places a recorder, an EMF detector, and some casino chips on a table, and they soon hear the EMF detector go off.  They crew goes downstairs and try a new device called the Ovilus II that “contains a phonetic generator that spirits can manipulate and choose specific words by using their energy.”  Zak asks if there’s someone in the room, and the word “Noah” shows up in the Ovilus II; the device then shows the words “play,” “corner,” and “tied.” Zak asks the spirit if the Mafia tied him up, and “contract” shows up on the Ovilus II, so the guys deduce that the Mafia put a hit on Noah.  Zak asks what happened after Noah was tied up, and “cave” appears on the Olivus II, so Zak then asks what happened in the cave, and “dig” appears.  Zak asks Noah if he had to dig his own grave, and he answers “throat” through the Ovilus II; he then asks if the Mafia strangled him and Noah answers “lash.”  Zak asks if Noah died then or if the Mafia left him in the cave, and Noah answers “alive.”

The guys decide to split up: Aaron goes to the Scream Maze, Nick goes upstairs, and Zak stays downstairs.  Zak walks around the Spirit of America room with a thermal imaging camera, then heads to the Viva Las Vegas room, but he doesn’t catch anything.  In the Scream Maze, Aaron asks if there’s anyone there who enjoy scaring people and asks if they’ll show their presence…then he feels something go through his body.  Aaron asks the spirit what show it performed in and if it was in a show with three other people…a female voice answers “singing in the rain.”  They wonder if Judy Garland might be the spirit, and Kurt tells Zak that Liza Minnelli’s wax figure is standing right outside of the door to that room.  Upstairs, Nick hears a noise, then takes a picture in which a transparent figure can be seen standing at the bottom of the stairs.

This was a great episode, and watching the Ghost Adventures crew investigate in dark rooms surrounded by wax figures was pretty creepy.

My rating: 8/10

http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/ghost-adventures

Watch the episode here:

And just for fun, here's my favorite photo from my visit to Madame Tussauds in L.A.:

Movie Spotlight: Let Me In

Let Me In is the 2010 remake of Let the Right One In, which is a Swedish movie based on a book by John Ajvide Lindqvist.  The movie stars Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloë Grace Moretz, Elias Koteas, Richard Jenkins, Dylan Minnette, and Cara Buono, and it takes place in Los Alamos, New Mexico in 1983.  Bullied 12-year-old Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) befriends new neighbor Abby (Chloë Grace Moretz), who is also 12, "more or less," and happens to be a vampire.  I enjoyed Let Me In and was impressed with the performances of Chloë Grace Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee...even though Abby kills people, I felt sorry for her because no one wants to be a vampire and be forced to kill people to feed, but she has no choice if she wants to live. My only complaint about the movie is that I would've liked to know more of Abby's back story, specifically how she became a vampire.  I decided early on in the movie that if Kenny the bully (Dylan Minnette) didn't become vampire food (or maybe "drink" would be a more accurate term) by the end of the movie, I would be really disappointed...I hope that real bullies aren't as mean as Kenny and his friends because these kids were willing to do potentially deadly things just to get back at Owen for standing up to them, and to me, that's scarier than any vampire.

My rating: 7.5/10

Grey Ghost Paracon

If you live in or near San Francisco and don't have plans for February 21st and 22nd, check out the Grey Ghost Paracon at the USS Hornet Museum.  The conference's main focus will be UFO sightings and the military, and there will be lectures by paranormal experts and cast members from some shows on the Syfy channel.  You even have the option of participating in a paranormal investigation of the USS Hornet, which sounds pretty cool.  I wish I could go! : )

http://www.greyghostparacon.com/

Book Review: The Demonologist by Gerald Brittle

The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed & Lorraine Warren by Gerald Brittle was a Christmas gift from my brother, and it scared the shit out of me (I guess that's my fault for putting it on my Amazon wish list)!  Vera Farmiga read this book in preparation for her role as Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring and said it scared her so much that she refused to read it in her house.  Ed Warren (who died in 2006) was a demonologist, and Lorraine is a medium and clairvoyant; they founded the New England Society for Psychic Research and are best known for their roles in investigating the cases that inspired The Conjuring and The Amityville Horror.  The Demonologist talks about some of the cases Ed and Lorraine have investigated (including Amityville), and if you don't believe in demons, this book will change your mind.  The Warrens have said that before getting involved in investigating a case, they would often experience odd things happening in their home (phone calls where they only heard growling on the other line, footsteps on the porch or stairway, knocks on the front door, noises in Ed's office, vanishing black cats, etc.)...it's almost as if something were trying to scare them off.

All of the cases in this book creeped me out, but the story of the Beckford family is one of the most terrifying things I've ever read...I won't say too much because I don't want to spoil it for people who might want to read the book, so I'll just say that it's proof that you should never ever use a Ouija board (and if you have one and read this story, you will most likely get rid of it immediately).  Even though this book scared me more than any other book I've read, I really enjoyed it and think the Warrens' work is fascinating (however, I don't want to visit their Occult Museum, which is talked about in the book, because I think I would have a hard time sleeping after seeing the things that are in it).  If you're interested in the paranormal at all, you should definitely read The Demonologist...but don't read it too close to bedtime. ; )

My rating: 10/10

Cool Website of the Week: Area51.org

I recently discovered a website that is advertised as "the secret headquarters for paranormal reports," and I just had to share it...you can find it at Area51.com, and it's full of up-to-date paranormal news stories and links to stories on other websites about UFOs, ghosts, Bigfoot, and other interesting things.  I could spend hours reading all the articles this website links to, so if you check it out, make sure you have a lot of time to spare...I wouldn't want you to be late for work!

http://www.area51.org/

Movie Spotlight: Carrie (2013)

Carrie is a 2013 movie based on Stephen King's novel about a teenage girl who has telekinesis and a religious nutjob mother.  The movie stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore, Judy Greer, Portia Doubleday, Gabriella Wilde, Alex Russell, and Ansel Elgort, and since most people have seen the 1976 version, I'm going to include spoilers (so stop reading if you don't want to know what happens).  I know most people don't agree, but I liked this version of Carrie as much as the 1976 version...I like that they cast an actual teenager in this one and that they made the bullying more up-to-date by having Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubleday) film Carrie's humiliating locker room incident and put it on YouTube.  Chloë Grace Moretz did a great job as Carrie (I was impressed with  her when I saw her in Kick-Ass, which she filmed when she was 11 years old, and she keeps getting better), and so did Julianne Moore as Margaret White, who I still hated even though she was a little more likable than Margaret in the 1976 version.  Someone should've called child services on Carrie's mother a long time ago: she hits Carrie in the face with a Bible, locks her in a "prayer closet" for hours with creepy Jesus paraphernalia, and never teaches her about puberty, so the poor girl thinks she's dying when she has her first period in the locker room at school.

When Carrie gets upset or angry, strange things happen, like mirrors breaking and water dispensers exploding, so she does some research and concludes that she has telekinesis; she checks a few books out from the library and makes them float around her bedroom as her bed levitates.  When Tommy Ross (Ansel Elgort) invites her to the prom at the request of his guilt-ridden girlfriend Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde), Margaret forbids her to go, so Carrie makes her levitate, and the night of the prom, she locks Margaret in the prayer closet using only her mind.  At the prom, Carrie finally begins to feel like she's not a total outcast, but then evil Chris (angry that gym teacher Miss Desjardin (Judy Greer) has banned her from attending the prom after she refused to take the punishment she was dealt for her part in the locker room incident) dumps pig's blood on her, and all hell breaks loose.  When the bucket hits Tommy in the head and kills him, Carrie loses it, and her telekinesis causes fires to break out, killing many of her fellow prom attendees.  Chris and her boyfriend Billy Nolan (Alex Russell) leave the prom before this happens, but Carrie catches up with them and causes their car to crash, so they get what's coming to them (karma's a bitch, and so is-I mean, was-Chris).  Carrie runs home and seeks comfort from Margaret, who stabs her, so Carrie uses her powers to crucify her psycho mother, pinning her to the wall with knives and scissors.  Upset by what she has done, Carrie causes rocks to fall from the sky, eventually causing the house to collapse on top of them.

I really enjoyed Carrie and thought that certain aspects were better than the original movie.  If people want bullying to stop being such a problem, maybe every high school student should be forced to watch Carrie...would you bully someone after watching this movie?

My rating: 8/10

Ghost Files by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson

I've watched a few episodes of Ghost Hunters and have enjoyed the show, so when I saw that the library had Ghost Files: The Collected Cases From Ghost Hunting and Seeking Spirits by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson (with Michael Jan Friedman), I had to read it.  Jason and Grant run The Atlantic Paranormal Society (T.A.P.S.), and this book showcases some of the interesting experiences they've had while investigating the paranormal.  Jason started having paranormal experiences at age 20 when he dated a woman who practiced Reiki, which deals with manipulating life-force energy.  After six months, he started seeing mists, "out of which emanated a dim light, and then out of the light came other things-including see-through animals and full-body human apparitions" (page 6).  Jason soon started the Rhode Island Paranormal Society (R.I.P.S.), and Grant contacted him about improving the R.I.P.S. website; they started talking, and Grant revealed that he had also had paranormal experiences, so they joined forces and founded T.A.P.S.  I enjoyed reading about all of the cases in this book, but these were my favorites:

-"Possessed": When the T.A.P.S. team arrived to help a child in need, "nine-year-old Emily was dragging furniture around her bedroom and swearing like a sailor" (page 46).  Her older sister admitted that she had been using a Ouija board (never a good idea), so the team called in a priest.  After the priest performed an exorcism, Jason and Grant removed the Ouija board from the house, and the demonic activity came to an end.

-"The Stanley Hotel":  This hotel was the inspiration for The Overlook Hotel in The Shining, so it should be no surprise that this place has its share of spooky happenings.  During the investigation, Jason woke up to the sound of the closet door opening, then awoke again to banging sounds in the closet, while in Grant's room, the curtains repeatedly opened by themselves.  In another room, a "table lifted up and slammed down-right along with the chair that was standing beside it" (page 260).  (I don't know about you guys, but if I had seen that, I would've peed my pants.)

If you're a fan of Ghost Hunters, you should definitely read this book, and if you've never watched the show, but you like reading about true paranormal encounters, you'll probably enjoy Ghost Files and might be inspired to start watching Ghost Hunters.

My rating: 8/10