Great Movie,Lousy Premise

Rating: 8/10 (27 November 2000)

I'm a big fan of ghost movies,but I do tend to go into them with a certain knowledge of ghosts and paranormal activity. This movie seems to suggest that a sub-culture exists beyond our knowledge and has been developing into a society beyond the confines of our reality. This movie is pure Tim Burton as we see the point of view from the ghosts who realize that strangers have moved into their house and have to hire a poltergeist named Betelgeuse who must have been a really obnoxious New York City cab driver before he died. Michael Keaton is the title role with the least screen time, but he is so wild and crazy with his appearances that it's barely noticeable. Winona Ryder is the psychic daughter who feels his presence. Cute and gothic as Lydia Deets, this is definitely one of the highlights of her career. Jeffrey Jones and Catherine O'Hara are wildly eccentric as the new owners who viciously rearrange the ghost's enviroment and character actor Glenn Shadix puts in a great role as the wierdly eccentric kook who becomes a remorseful exorcist. Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis are the one-dimensional traffic cops in this barrage of humor and wildness as they experience Burton's slanted views of purgatory and the afterlife. This is where the movie really deviates from actual phenomenon and instead suggests that ghosts have civilized the afterlife instead of crossing over. I'm sorry but "Casper" made more sense. The movie does succeed in creating images and dark visions straight from Tim Burton's imagination and that's where the appeal of the movie lays. The Harry Belafonte score, however, is contagious, but the overall movie has a corny but hilarious laugh a second roller coast ride to it.I give it eight out of ten stars.