Coming up on Saturday at the Described Movies: Rain Man and Ghostbusters.

From this Saturday at 12am Eastern, that’s 4pm Saturday in NZ, 2pm in Sydney and 5am in the UK, and repeated every four hours throughout the day, it’s the described Movies Rain Man from 1988 and Ghostbusters from 1984.
Rain Man is a 1988 American road comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson, from a screenplay written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass.
It tells the story of abrasive, selfish young wheeler-dealer Charlie Babbitt ( Tom Cruise), who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed virtually all his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond ( Dustin Hoffman),an autistic savant, of whose existence Charlie was unaware.
Charlie is left with only his father's beloved vintage car and rosebushes.
Valeria Golino also stars as Charlie's girlfriend Susanna.
Morrow created the character of Raymond after meeting Kim Peek, a real-life savant; his characterization was based on both Peek and Bill Sackter, a good friend of Morrow who was the subject of Bill (1981), an earlier film that Morrow wrote.
Rain Man premiered at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Bear, the festival's highest prize.
It was theatrically released by MGM/UA Communications Co. in the United States on 16 December 1988, to critical and commercial success, grossing $354.8 million, on a $25 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1988, and received a leading eight nominations at the 61st Academy Awards, winning four (more than any other film nominated); Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (for Hoffman), and Best Original Screenplay.
As of 2022, Rain Man is the first and only film to win both Golden Bear and Academy Award for Best Picture.
It was also the last MGM title to be nominated for Best Picture until Licorice Pizza (2021) 33 years later.
Directed by: Barry Levinson.
Screenplay by: Barry Morrow, and Ronald Bass.
Story by: Barry Morrow.
Produced by: Mark Johnson.
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, and Valeria Golino.
Cinematography: John Seale.
Edited by: Stu Linder.
Music by: Hans Zimmer.
Production companies: United Artists, Guber-Peters Company, and Star Partners II, Ltd.
Distributed by: MGM/UA Communications Co.
Release date: 16 December 1988.
File Length: 134 minutes.
Country: United States.
Language: English.
Budget: $25 million.
Box office: $354.8 million.
Ghostbusters is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed and produced by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis.
It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, three eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City.
It also stars Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis, and features Annie Potts, William Atherton, and Ernie Hudson in supporting roles.
Based on his own fascination with spirituality, Aykroyd conceived Ghostbusters as a project starring himself and John Belushi, in which they would adventure through time and space battling supernatural threats.
Following Belushi's death in 1982, and with Aykroyd's concept deemed financially impractical, Ramis was hired to help rewrite the script to set it in New York City and make it more realistic.
It was the first comedy film to employ expensive special effects, and Columbia Pictures, concerned about its relatively high $25–30 million budget, had little faith in its box office potential.
Filming took place from October 1983 to January 1984, in New York City and Los Angeles.
Due to competition for special effects studios among various films in development at the time, Richard Edlund used part of the budget to find Boss Film Studios, which employed a combination of practical effects, miniatures, and puppets to deliver the ghoulish visuals.
Ghostbusters was released on 8 June 1984, to critical acclaim and became a cultural phenomenon.
It was well received for its blend of comedy, action, and horror, and Murray's performance was often singled out for praise.
It earned $282.2 million during its initial theatrical run, making it the second highest-grossing film of 1984 in the United States and Canada, and the then-highest-grossing comedy ever.
It was the number-one film in theatres for seven consecutive weeks and one of only four films to gross more than $100 million that year.
Further theatrical releases have increased the total gross to around $295.2 million, making it one of the most successful comedy films of the 1980s.
In 2015, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Its theme song, " Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr., was also a number-one hit.
With its effect on popular culture, and a dedicated fan following, the success of Ghostbusters launched a multi-billion-dollar multimedia franchise.
This included the popular animated television series The Real Ghostbusters (1986), its sequel Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), video games, board games, comic books, clothing, music, and haunted attractions.
Ghostbusters was followed in 1989 by Ghostbusters II, which fared less well financially and critically, and attempts to develop a second sequel paused in 2014 following Ramis's death.
After a 2016 reboot received mixed reviews and underperformed financially, a second sequel to the 1984 film, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, was released in November 2021.
Directed by: Ivan Reitman.
Written by: Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis.
Produced by: Ivan Reitman.
Starring: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd , Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis , and Rick Moranis.
Cinematography: László Kovács.
Edited by: David E. Blewitt, and Sheldon Kahn.
Music by: Elmer Bernstein.
Production companies: Columbia-Delphi Productions , and Black Rhino.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures.
Release date: 8 June 1984.
File Length: 105 minutes.
Country: United States.
Language: English.
Budget: $25–30 million.
Box office: $295.2 million
Any questions, comments, or ideas for future described movies: e-mail me: anthony at mushroomfm dot com (e-mail address written that way to cut down on
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Enjoy the movies,