Last night, my wife took me on a date to see my favorite movie of all time on the big screen. I was only six when Ghostbusters first arrived in theaters, and so I missed out, although I did see it on VHS when I was seven and I’ve been hooked ever since. I also must say that I missed some of the best jokes when I was a kid, so every time I watch, it is a revelation. It gets better every time!
Now, I’m not sure why Ghostbusters was back in the theater (other than Halloween coming up, but Halloweens have come and gone for almost 30 years without a revival), but I was thrilled. When we arrived at the theater, there were themed decorations and a table full of Slimers and Stay-Puft Marshmallow Men to raffle off to the audience. I didn’t win any of them, but it was still exciting.
Obviously I was wearing my Ghostbusters t-shirt and my Ghostbusters belt buckle, but I did enter the theater concerned that perhaps that was a little too nerdy of me. I mean, you never wear a shirt featuring the band that you are going to see, right? That’s lame. You wear a shirt from a past concert of a similar band that proves you are too cool to geek out over the band you are currently seeing. So I questioned my shirt choice, and wondered if I should have instead worn my Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark shirt, or at least one of my other superhero t-shirts. I needn’t have worried.
No one paid any mind to my boring old Ghostbusters shirt when there were people walking around in full Ghostbusters uniforms, complete with what appeared to be working proton packs, P.K.E. meters, goggles, and all manner of goodies. I wouldn’t have been noticed at all unless I was wearing an unlicensed nuclear accelerator strapped to my back. There were little marshmallow men, ghosts, and other fun outfits, and suddenly I wished I were a little more nerdy.
All of this “getting into it” was fun and fine, except for in one case. Sitting directly in front of us were two guys who were just wearing bizarre costumes, unrelated to the movie. They weren’t really ghosts, more like post-apocalyptic mutant bandits or something. The point is, one of them had covered himself in glow sticks. I’m not going to lie, it made the costume look cool, but guess what was not cool: sitting in a darkened theater behind a guy wearing a dozen glow sticks. The thing about glow sticks is, you can’t turn them off. It was very hard to watch the movie when my eyes kept being drawn to the shoulders of the guy in front of me, which seemed to glow as brightly as the screen.
I still had a great time. I still found new things in the movie to laugh at, and it was awesome to see it in a crowded theater full of people who obviously loved the film. But please, whoever is reading this, never wear glow sticks to a movie. I don’t care how cool you think it makes you look. It just makes people want to bust you. And next time, I will.