Beetlejuice

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.

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 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.

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!

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.