A stupid, stupid movie

Rating: 1/10 (3 August 2003)

This was probably the worst movie I have ever seen.
The concept is quite original and could have been interesting if done well, but it wasn't. The story went no where even though they could have done some interesting stuff with it. As it is the film degenerated, as Roger Ebert pointed out in his review, into a series of gimmicks. It was supposed to be funny but I laughed maybe once or twice. Actually it was more like a chuckle. Most of the time I was in agony and bored out of my mind.
The characters were all uninteresting and I really didn't care what happened to any of them. There was no character development. The couple that moved into the house were annoying yuppies, and the bubbly giddiness at the start of the film followed by their stupidity later on made the Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin couple almost insufferable. Only Winona Ryder's character was tolerable. Beetlejuice inexplicably seemed like an afterthought, which is probably a good thing since he was more annoying than anything else. Pretty much every character was stupid, especially the married couple who couldn't find a way to scare anyone despite the fact that they were ghosts - their attempts were just pathetic, but I guess they had to be in order to keep the story going. What? Scare them right and the movie ends? Oh, how I wish! If the movie went one hour instead of two I would double my rating. Furthermore, the way characters reacted to the situations they were in was illogical to say the least.
**Possible Spoiler**
Late in the movie when the married couple speaks to the case worker at her desk, they show her what they plan to do to once and for all scare the new family away. They mutilate their faces, but why should we believe that will work, and better yet why did the case worker say "not bad"? At that point the new family was already not taking the ghosts seriously, despite the fact that they had tried something even more radical already (the dinner scene with the dancing and hands coming out of the table).
**End of Spoiler**
So this is all supposed to signify Tim Burton's genius? Umm, yeah, okay. I guess if you do something unique it will automatically be labeled as genius by a lot of people. Unique? Yes. Interesting? No. Genius? Definitely not.
The only redeeming quality of the film was Winona Ryder. Not for her performance mind you - not her fault, she had little to work with - but only because I think she's stunning.
A truly bad film - 1/10