On Being Afraid of Some Ghosts
Ghostbusters 2 is quite an amazing film. It’s not as good as the 1984 original, but it’s got more than enough laughs and thrills to be a genuinely entertaining hour and a half, even after all these years. It’s acting as the background to this entry, so if I start using double negatives like “I don’t believe in no ghosts” or having a debate over whether my hair should be dark and a bit puffed up or platinum blond with a reality-defying quiff, then you’ll know why.
For a number of years, I actually believed that Peter MacNicol’s accent as crazed curator Janosz in this film was genuine, with my illusions being shattered the minute I finally watched an episode of Ally Mcbeal (Along with any illusion I had that Callista Flockhart was in some way talented). Looking back, I find this hard to believe… But then, I believed Dick Van Dyke was a gen-you-ine Cockerney as well, so I shouldn’t be completely surprised.
Something else with an abundance of ludicrous accents is popular 80s BBC sitcom ‘Allo Allo’ (How’s that for a segue?), and inconsiderately the BBC decided to release Series 6 and 7 on DVD today. Obviously I had to buy it, but that doesn’t mean I’m too happy with the situation. I am, mind, because it’s an excellent sitcom; I don’t know if it should be filed under ‘guilty pleasures’, but you’ve got to respect any sitcom which has the guts to break through the media smokescreen and show World War 2 for the laugh riot it actually was. I also love the fact that it’s so utterly inaccessible to the casual viewer- Sure, there’s a few gags which work without knowing the complex story, but for the most part it’s crammed with references to things that happened sometimes four or five years ago, in viewer terms. And people think Lost is impenetrable…
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