AFIs Top 100 in 100 Years

If you happen to live around the L.A. area, particularly within spitting distance to Hollywood, then you should be familiar with the Arclight Theaters. Arguably the best bang for your movie-going buck. Reserved seating, real butter on the popcorn and enough leg room to park a mini-cooper. Every year, they partner with the American Film Institute to resurrect and reshow that year’s top 100 all time films befitting a particular theme.

This year’s is a celebration of 100 years of motion picture history. Where possible they’ve been taking the best of the best from each of their varied lists and picking a representative for that year. Tonight was 1984 and rated #28 of 100 on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Laughs list. That movie was Ghostbusters and it’s as funny today as it was a quarter century ago. If you have a chance to see any of these AFI screenings, you’ll be in perfect company, since anyone willing to pay 11 bucks to see a 20 year old movie must be the kind of fan you are.

There really is nothing like watching a film with 300 people that laugh in all the right places, can’t help but quote the best lines and sing along with the title track as the end credits roll. Since hitting DVD, Ghostbusters has been cleaned up considerably, but this was an original print with all the bad green screen, obvious matte painting and slightly choppy stop-motion effects that most of us stood in awe of in elementary school. I’m not one to complain though. It’s a rarity to experience a modern classic on the big screen once again and I can’t recommend the experience enough.

Next week is 1985’s signature classic. Which begs only a single, simple question: “You made a time machine… out of a DeLorean?!?!”