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It may take two or three viewings to warm up to "Beetlejuice". It has a kooky, cockeyed sensibility and a rhythm that is by turns easy, lazy and frenetic. A charming couple in New England die and come back to their beloved home as ghosts, determined to rid the place of the horrendous new tenants. Possibly the most benign and engaging performance ever by Alec Baldwin; Geena Davis, Winona Ryder and Sylvia Sidney are also very appealing. The new couple from New York who take over the house (Jeffrey Jones and Catherine O'Hara) aren't as well written or thought-out as the other characters and some of their bemused, dry-ice comic lines take a few seconds to reach you. Of course, there's Michael Keaton, wildly comic as Betelgeuse. I recall hearing comments back in 1988 that Keaton wasn't around enough to make the picture worthwhile, but that's only if you watch the film for the fast quips and sight-gags. Keaton is truly wonderful, but he's also bombastic, and I felt there was just enough of him to satisfy--it's really not his story anyway, it belongs to Baldwin and Davis; Betelgeuse is used as a horny, vulgar punchline. Director Tim Burton is very careful not to overload the movie with raunch; he is surprisingly careful in setting up this story, and he works magic within a dubious scenario: a comic fantasy about dead folks which ultimately celebrates life. ***1/2 from ****

Considering he's not in the film that much and the film is named after his character he steals the whole show when he appears front and centre. He is so good you're amazed by him I wouldn't be surprised if Jim Carrey didnt use Michael Keaton's performance as Beetlejuice as a template for his fantastical cartoon character Stanley Ipkiss in the The Mask. Love the B Movie special fx and the Shake Senora dance scene. Little peave though was Betelgeuse/Beetlejuice dilemma. Wish they explained it a bit better thought I was having a dyslexic turn kept checking after all these years in was reading the name of the film wrong, kept stopping the film to check the title. The only downfall. All in all funny and out there film. I'd just watch it for Keaton's performance.

This is a great movie to simply watch and enjoy--no need to think or analyze--just enjoy the silliness and cool factor of this nice film.

A young couple living in their dream house (Alec Baldwin and Gina Davis) are accidentally killed and thereafter live as ghosts in the home. Some time later, a family of freaks (Jeffery Jones, Catherine O'Hara) and their disaffected daughter (Winona Ryder) move in--much to the ghosts' chagrin. That's because instead of respecting the lovely home's charms, the parents want to turn it into a pseudo-intellectual freak house. However, Winona somehow is able to see and communicate with the ghosts--but her parents can't believe that they exist or that they're doing anything wrong with the house.

The dead couple try to scare away the family, but their attempts are really lame (and funny) and this only makes the weirdos want to stay even more! So, out of desperation, they seek out the most evil and obnoxious ghost, Beetle Juice (Michael Keaton) to help. The problem is that although Beetle Juice is able to scare anyone, he's also a total maniac and once let out, he's amazingly difficult to stop.

The film abounds with many things you'd expect to see in a Tim Burton directed film--weird special effects, an odd set design (after the weirdos transform the house), fun and a definite "cool factor". The actors do a fine job as well. Additionally, the script is smart and fun. While some might find this too dark a film for young kids, for older kids and adults, it's mighty entertaining and silly. Plus the music is just so darn infectious and fun!

This is one of Tim Burton's best films. His sophomore effort shows the story of a married couple (the Maitlands played with good degree by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) who die accidentally off a bridge and wind up the target for a upper-class family (including a young yet well played Winona Ryder) and a weird yet scary ghost (with the most) named Beetleguise (or Beetlejuice in a scene of laughs) played to immense complexity by Michael Keaton. Sure this plot may sound a little anti-climactic being mainly gags and not really a focused story, but so what? In a film where you see sandworms from saturn, shrimps that attach after calypso and a nut who has seen the exorcist 167 time (insert quote here), why bother with a plot. Great fun every time I watch. Reccomendable to anyone.

One of my favourite movies of all time. It's a Halloween classic. Spooky, funny and very rewatchable. I am waiting for that moment when I forget this movie again and get to rewatch it. Beetlejuice is a creativity booster, an inspirational, in an artistic sense, film. The sets, the wardrobe, the props - everything inspired me as a kid and made me love those dark-romance, Tim Burton motives.

Watching this one more time on TV yesterday reminded me of the first time I saw it all those years ago at the movies when Tim Burton was just the guy who had directed that funny Pee-wee Herman movie. Walking into 'Beetlejuice' then, without knowing anything about it, was an amazing experience. Along with 'Blade Runner', 'Blue Velvet', 'Videodrome', 'Brazil', 'Paris, Texas', 'The Terminator' and 'Repo Man' it was one of the most astonishing and memorable movies of the 1980s, an era dominated by Hollywood dreck like 'Flashdance', 'Top Gun', and 'Footloose'. The whole Bruckheimer/Simpson/Spielberg/Hughes zeitgeist that dumbed down popular movies as never before. Movies like 'Beetlejuice' were a glimmer of hope in a truly awful period.

The big question is - how does it stand up today? The answer is better than ever! In fact I would argue that 'Beetlejuice' is Tim Burton's most successful and least compromised film. Everything about it is perfect. A great cast lead by the very appealing and likable Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as the newly dead Maitlands, a star turn by Michael Keaton as the gonzo "bio-exorcist" title character, and strong support from Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O'Hara, and especially Winona Ryder (a performance that really put her on the map), as the new occupants of the Maitlands house. 'Beetlejuice' juggles gruesome, trippy and genuinely witty sequences, and ends up becoming one of the freshest and surreal movies to find a mainstream audience since the heyday of 60s/70s "head" movies. Forget Burton's more recent hit and miss big budget efforts, and try this for the real deal, Luis Bunuel meets Tex Avery meets George Romero, and then some! 'Beetlejuice' is a blast!

You gotta figure that only Tim Burton could come up with this! An ultra-zany story of rural couple Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis), who accidentally get killed and witness a tasteless couple moving into their house, forcing them to hire "bio-exorcist" Beetle Juice (Michael Keaton), is truly something else. With a new joke almost every minute, the movie never gets dull. And how about that soundtrack? "Day-O" in the most morbid comedy ever? Yep, it's all here. Great support from Catherine O'Hara and Jeffrey Jones as the tasteless couple, Winona Ryder as their disaffected daughter Lydia, and Sylvia Sidney as afterlife counselor Juno, make this one of the coolest movies of 1988!

This is by far Michael Keaton's best performance. Every time he comes on the screen he displays such an eccentric performance that it rivals Jim Carrey from 'The Mask', only without as much help from computers. If his role calls for gross he brings revolting; pushy he brings offensive; witty he brings hilarious sarcasm. One of my few complaints is that he doesn't get enough screen time, although he does have a large portion of it, most goes to Gena Davis and Alec Baldwin.

Tim Burton's directing is great. My favorite scene by far doesn't even have Michael Keaton in it. Anyone who has seen this will remember it as the dancing dinner scene.

This is a classic. If you haven't seen it then you must've'e grown up under a rock or born before I was.

What can I say... Michael Keaton is great at everything he does and the visuals of this film are fantastic. Even 3 decades later they still look great. I really hope they can bring the same level of energy and weirdness for the sequel.

Beetlejuice has a weirdly small amount of screen time in a movie called Beetlejuice. Love the Claymation and special effects. Also love the film's depiction of death as a bureaucratic hellscape with a multitude of stupid and confusing rules.

In the idyllic small town of Winter River, Connecticut, Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis) are a happily married couple who are content to fix up their house while on vacation from working the local hardware store. However, on a routine drive the Maitlands inadvertently plunge their car into a river trying to avoid hitting a dog in the road. Upon their return home the Maitlands start noticing odd things such as not remembering how they returned home and eventually discover with their inexplicably acquired book The Handbook for the Recently Deceased that they died in the river and are now ghosts bound to the property. A bad situation is rendered worse when their home is sold to the yuppie Deetz family consisting of stressed architect Charles (Jeffrey Jones) who hopes for peace and quiet, Charles' tacky socialite would-be artist second wife Delia (Catherine O'Hara), and Charles' gothic death obsessed daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder). As the Maitlands try to scare the Deetz' out of their home to no avail Lydia begins seeing glimpses of them, however a fast talking lecherous con-man named Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) offers his services as a "bio-exorcist" to the Maitlands to get rid of the Deetzes, but Beetlejuice may be even worse than they are.

Following the success of Tim Burton's debut film Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Burton became bankable enough for Warner Bros. That he became attached to the long stalled in development Batman. While Batman continued its turgid development Warner Bros. Offered Burton a number of scripts many of which he hated including the infamous Hot to Trot. Eventually Burton was given the script to Beetlejuice and decided it would be his next project. The script, originally written with a much darker and less comic edge was reworked by written Warren Skaaren and gave us the final darkly comic toned end result. The film received positive screenings from test audiences and upon release the film became a sleeper hit opening at #1 at the box office and staying there for four consecutive weeks ultimately making $74 million in North America alone against its $15 million budget which gave Warner Bros. The confidence to formally greenlight Batman which would only make Burton and even bigger name than he already was. Beetlejuice has become one of Burton's most iconic films as its undeniably the first film where Burton's signature style is fully on display (Pee-Wee's Big Adventure had glimpses, but it wasn't quite the Burton we all know). Visually creative, darkly funny, and incredibly quotable, Beetlejuice has become a classic for a good reason.

At its core, the movie is a culture clash of two exaggerate types with the Maitlands represent humble, nice, down to earth people while the Deetzes represent the garish tackiness of obnoxious urbanites who revel in excess and inanity and even when they come to small towns to "get away from it all" their thoughts turn to "how do we make this more like where we came from?". Burton loves larger than life characters and he does well with the over the top likable Maitlands and the over the top tacky Deetzes but we also get a more grounded core in Winona Ryder's Lydia who despite being positioned as a gothic outsider, is also ironically the most normal and down to Earth one of the group and serves as our proxy through which we experience the supernatural shenanigans. Baldwin and Davis are both incredibly likable and have fantastic chemistry as Adam and Barbara, and Catherine O'Hara is delightfully over the top as she voices her disgust with the Maitlands home and mutilates it along with her buffoonish and foppish interior designer Otho (Glenn Shadix) who's very much a jack of all trades and a joke at all of them. But of course, we can't talk about Beetlejuice without discussing the titular character and he steals every scene he's in thanks to the manic energy brought by Keaton to the role. Very much a Bugs Bunny by way of the Cryptkeeper, Beetlejuice is repulsively funny as he's essentially this fast-talking conman with vulgar appetites and lecherous leanings that he doesn't even try to hide that culminates in a satisfying climax where everything is fully unleashed.

Beetlejuice is an inverted take on Ghostbusters with the crazy surreal imagery that would become part and parcel to many a Tim Burton production. With sharp clever writing, beautifully ugly visuals, and memorable lines and characters it's no wonder why Beetlejuice's legacy has endured as long as it has.

Despite an interesting premise and several impressive, unsurprisingly strange sight-gags, 'Beetlejuice (1988)' isn't really all that engaging. It isn't bad, but it doesn't quite grip you in the way it should. It isn't particularly funny, for instance. It's also somewhat undisciplined, with a plot that seems to operate on an "and then this happens" logic. Of course, the thing has its more successful moments. Keaton is good as the eponymous creepy character, bringing a lot of unnerving energy to the role. Baldwin and Davis do a good job of playing an everyday couple forced to cope with an inconceivable situation, too. The film is at its best when Burton's signature weirdness is allowed to run wild, with stop-motion monsters and grotesque make-up galore. It can be a very visually pleasing experience. It just isn't all that entertaining as a whole, though. It's hard to say why, but it just isn't all that compelling. 5/10

This starts very well with an original and interesting take on the afterlife. The prospect of two naive but likable ghosts having to learn their haunting skills on the job was delightful. As was the depiction of a monstrous bureaucracy behind the scenes, not far removed from Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

Had the second half proceeded along these lines, this would have been a true classic.

Alas, things start to go downhill with the appearance of the title character, one of the most annoy characters in cinematic history, not made any better by Michael Keaton's mannered performance. One is grateful that he does not put in much of an appearance.

The film then abandons any attempt at intelligence to instead go in for a lot of gimmickry. The reaction of the family to the dinner table haunting could have been made plausible if the haunting had not been so wildly over the top. Nor is it clear where Baldwin and Davies acquire the ability to control humans and create disembodied hands. They do not demonstrate this skill anywhere else.

More overblown (but unfunny) scenes kill any willing suspension of disbelief leading to the rushed and clunking finale.

With ghosts and the dead, one would normally anticipate a horror movie loaded with screams and gory figures. But in Beetlejuice, we see a new dimension humour being experimented with.

Taking into the account that the movie was made in 1988 with limited special effects, Beetlejuice could be simply labelled as "creativity at its best".

Tim Burton is a pure visionary and with this movie you cannot help but appreciate the amount of creativity he has and his ability to translate it to screen.

Acting is top-rate from all fronts. One can't help but admire promising young Winona Ryder - a flower ready to bloom.

It would take a couple of viewings to be appreciate the movie in totality.

Tim Burton's Beetlejuice is a great film. The director was given free reign to make his own film visually and it is great. The casting is good, but the standout is Michael Keaton. Keaton is absolutely hilarious in the title role. This movie is very funny and well done.

Beetle Juice may be strange and oddball at first, but like several films I have seen over the years, it could well grow on you. Essentially it is a landmark supernatural comedy as well as being a refreshingly flaky fantasy crammed with wit and invention, that I think is one of Tim Burton's better films along with Batman, Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands. It is also a marvellously imaginative view of the afterlife as a ghoulish extension of mundane earthbound problems. The visuals once again are absolutely wonderful, with dark cinematography, imaginative sets and zany special effects. The script are filled to the brim with one-liners that are funny and somewhat demonic, the score from Danny Elfman is fun and the direction is pretty much superb. And I loved how offbeat the performances were, with Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis suitably low key as the recently deceased couple who want to rid their new home of human pests. Speaking of those human pests, Catherine O' Hara proves herself fantastically pretentious as the artist whose creations come to life in one of the film's most memorable scenes, and Jeffrey Jones and Winona Ryder are also memorable but it is Michael Keaten as Bettelgeuse, the unstable freelance exorcist who steals the show who portrays the character as unique and completely and utterly insane. Overall, unique, imaginative and lots of fun. 10/10 Bethany Cox

RELEASED IN 1988 and directed by Tim Burton, "Beetlejuice" chronicles the story of a couple (Alec Baldwin & Geena Davis) who accidently perish after moving to a quaint Connecticut town. They find themselves sentenced to "haunting" their former house where they try to scare the new wannabe swank couple out (Jeffrey Jones & Catherine O'Hara), but they find that their Goth daughter is more curious than scared (Winona Ryder). Michael Keaton plays the eponymous madcap "bio-exorcist" while Glenn Shadix is on hand as the new couple's interior designer.

This was Burton's debut on the silver screen and the first half is hilarious entertainment mixed with some interesting insights on the afterlife. The movie puts its best foot forward, but the second half isn't as compelling and I think the title character is more annoying than amusing.

THE FILM RUNS 1 hour & 32 minutes and was shot in beautiful East Corinth, Vermont, and (studio) Culver City, California. WRITERS: Michael McDowell, Larry Wilson and Warren Skaaren.

GRADE: B+

Keaton steals the show as the title character in this off the wall comedy from director Burton. Baldwin and Davis are two new ghosts who try to scare new occupants of their home out, with the help of "bio exorcist" Keaton. Won a much deserved Oscar for its make up effects.

In 1988, prior to the inordinate success of "Batman" (1989) which would line his pockets, Tim Burton bequeathed this work which is from his own words: "a comical version of "the Exorcist" told from two dead people's point of view". I have never been a fan of William Friedkin's masquerade marred by extravagant, ludicrous special effects.

There are also special effects in "Beetle Juice" and they constituted the main attraction for many viewers when the film was released. But unlike Friedkin's enticing work they're much better tapped to serve as complements for the needs of the story but also to depict the beyond after death for Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin. On this point, one recognizes with pleasure Burton's trademark. The filmmaker had visibly pleasure to recreate a quirky vision of hell enhanced by extravagant scenery with rather loud colors and populated with funny monsters. This hellish universe has the look of a public services office.

Another positive thing about "Beetle Juice" is that it never really falls into the excessive or the very grim and genteel humor is also an asset for the film. The story has genuine looks in its beginning but takes a derivative direction as the film advances and certain characters verge on the space of cardboard characters. But the actors seemed to be well aware of this problem and perhaps that's why they offer subdued, enjoyable performances. But the prize for the best actor arguably goes to Michael Keaton as the grouchy, dangerous Beetle Juice, absolutely unrecognizable under his make-up.

"Beetle Juice" hasn't got really its place among Burton's seminal works like "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), "Ed Wood" (1994) or "Big Fish" (2003) but if the filmmaker's set of themes and stylish job is your cup of tea, why not give it a chance?

I enjoyed watching the movie throughout, and it is really fun. The story is pretty great with a ghost couple wanting to keep their house the same while trying to scare off the new inhabitants of it. It builds up really well with their deaths, them learning about the afterlife, and meeting with Beetlejuice. I like the creative on the afterlife with the desert-like landscape, the waiting room for the ghost, and the visual of the movie. The movie has a charm to it with its presentation and how it tells the story. I also do think the relationship between the characters are pretty good on how they connected with each other and how it effects the plot. It is also entertaining to watch Beetlejuice being a maniac on how he acts and the stuff he does throughout the movie. I have to be honest that I didn't laugh at any humor in this movie because it is not my type of it, but the movie is still entertaining throughout. I found the characters to be pretty great in this movie, and the performance was amazing, too, like Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine o' Hara. I found the special effects to be really great in this movie. The makeup effects for the ghost look amazing on how much work they put onto them and how creative they can get with each of the ghosts you see throughout the movie. I also like the set designed when the ghost couple enter into a different place with is both creative and memorable to see it. There are other great practical effects in it, like the sandworm creature and the Beetlejuice snake like creature.

Beetlejuice is an entertaining horror comedy movie that I have fun watching and is highly recommended.

Many older movies date not so gracefully, and when you watch them after awhile, crappy video effects, or bad montage and cutting are so obvious that the whole movie turns sour or very silly. Beetlejuice aged gracefully, thanks to a huge injection of healthy humor, spellbinding star cast, excellent calypso songs, awesome plot and very cynical twists in the story. You saw it, you know it. What else can be added to this great film? Winona Ryder is very cool choice here, she is dark, moody and way way out there, but her deep sense of humor helps her get through all the initial sadness. Great work by Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin also add much to the whole crazy vertigo of gags, jokes and laughs. Good camera work also helps, and even old-fashioned video effects do not spoil the party and do not steal the infectious joyousness of the story. Highly recommended

How can anyone who has seen this movie not like it. Michael Keaton is perfect perverted creepazoid Beetlejuice who lives in the attic of a house along with a heap of other ghosts who have difficulty adjusting to the fact that they are dead.

Beetlejuice is one of those characters in film you are either going to love or hate.

I've long been a fan of Tim Burton. His movies are almost always weird, but there is almost always something endearing about his work. His films are almost always entertaining, and Beetlejuice is probably one of the more obvious examples.

If you really think about it absolutely nothing happens in this movie. For those of you who've seen it, think about it.

If you haven't yet seen it, just watch it for Tim Burton's really weird and wonderful imagination. It really is what makes the whole movie.

This movie is a big departure for Michael Keaton. I found it really hard to believe he was actually a comic actor, but he is hilarious here and he is another thing that makes it worth watching.

Just be aware this movie's story is almost nonexistent.

What interested me about beetlejuice was the highly innovative concept. However, after the innitial ohhing and ahhing about it, I got a little bored. I really didn't get into this movie like the majority did although I thought the whole conception of the idea was brillient. When I think of Beetlejuice now, I think of a cute innovative film with great acting that in spite of it all, bored me silly at times.