Though it's doubtful he'll be be accorded the reverence reserved for "major" directors, he was an unbelievably-gifted filmmaker -- and a highly influential one as well. Ghostbusters is and will always be iconic, a classic comedy which made an indelible mark on our cultural lexicon.

As a film music fan, I also appreciate that Reitman drew some of the most-inspired work from Elmer Bernstein -- Heavy Metal and Ghostbusters namely, while Meatballs and Legal Eagles have and infectious exuberance and appeal.

The list is long -- MEATBALLS and STRIPES, plus ANIMAL HOUSE which he produced before it, then GHOSTBUSTERS, and later three movies (two hits) with Schwarzenegger -- Reitman was an auteur when it came to big-screen comedy. His passing is doubly sad because that cinematic genre is as close to being extinct as any in this humorless, social media-outraged pop culture we have today. But back when people wanted to laugh, he had a firm pulse on packaging a polished product in the '80s. He's also someone who seemed to know where his comfort zone was -- LEGAL EAGLES being a high priced letdown aside, he never strayed off the path to "find himself" in some other genre.

Like so many of his generation Reitman's output waned -- you could convincingly make a case that his midas touch came to an abrupt end when JUNIOR failed to rekindle the Schwarzenegger box-office chemistry in '94. And after flops like SIX DAYS SEVEN NIGHTS (Harrison Ford and Anne Heche -- remember that one? lol) and FATHER'S DAY (misfired Billy Crystal/Robin Williams vehicle), his directorial output diminished with less than a handful of movies thereafter.

But that core group of films was mostly all gold with just a couple of disappointments, like the 2nd GHOSTBUSTERS and LEGAL EAGLES, through the '80s and early '90s.

I finally saw Ghostbusters Afterlife last night and I liked it. Fun and a bit bittersweet. It's a shame that over the years the cast didn't do more movies. Apparently, the big stickler was Bill Murray not wanting to do it. That's too bad. I was definitely a fan of Ivan Reitman's.