He's the ghost with the most, babe.

Rating: 8/10 (21 September 2013)

Tim Burtons' hilarious, visually impressive follow-up to "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" is pure 1980s fun, with fantastic special effects, superbly flamboyant design, a willing cast, and plenty of good, solid laughs. It holds up quite well today, a quarter century later, with a generous dose of Harry Belafonte tunes to add to its ultimately upbeat spirit. It gets down to business in fairly quick fashion, and populates its story with great and memorable characters, not the least of which is our scenery devouring title character.
Michael Keaton delivers a delicious comedy performance to rival his Billy Blaze from "Night Shift". He's having a ball, and most of his co-stars do a fine job of playing "straight man" (or woman) and reacting to his antics. He plays the obnoxious, fun loving spirit of Beetle Juice to perfection. His speech when he's asked about his "qualifications" is particularly priceless stuff.
He's called in when newly deceased couple Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) find adjusting to the afterlife to be just too hard, especially when an intolerable pair played by Jeffrey Jones and Catherine O'Hara move into their old house. Eventually, they find that dealing with him is even harder as he creates a ruckus, and sets his sights on Jones's Goth-type daughter Winona Ryder.
Working from a screenplay by Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren (based on a story by McDowell and Larry Wilson), Burton is definitely in his element, crafting a blessedly wacky and unpredictable comedy that, much like the Pee-wee Herman movie, plays like a cartoon come to life. Burton also has great fun with his casting choices; in addition to those actors mentioned, veteran actress Sylvia Sidney provides a special treat by playing weary afterlife case worker Juno; also appearing are Robert Goulet, Dick Cavett, and a very funny Glenn Shadix as interior designer Otho.
It's all set to a delightful Danny Elfman score and there are some great set pieces revolving around Belafontes' "Day-O" and "Jump in the Line".
This film does know how to send you off with a smile on your face. It's one of the most purely entertaining things that Burton has done.
Eight out of 10.