Tim Burton's most purely fun film!

Rating: 10/10 (7 August 2009)

Another gem from the 1980s and by one of my favorite directors...the unique and special Tim Burton. One of the few 80s films that I think is REQUIRED viewing, especially by wannabe filmmakers, BEETLEJUICE is a prime example of "less is more". With a relatively unknown (at the time) cast, cheap claymation effects, cartoony cardboard sets, simple location shooting, and I'll bet made in a short period of time with the most simple script, Burton has fashioned one of the most original films in the last 30 years! BEETLEJUICE is most certainly Burton's most purely entertaining film AND his oddest. It perhaps is the REAL Tim Burton at play. While films like BATMAN, ED WOOD, SLEEPY HOLLOW all have the "Hollywood" feel about them, BEETLEJUICE is the perhaps Burton's most "personal" film. It all feels totally HIM.
BEETLEJUICE is an amalgamation of comedy, horror, ghost story, animation, AND its a family film...weird?! It tells the tale of New Englanders Adam and Barbara Maitland (played with refreshing, confident, sublime glee by film newbies Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis), who die at the film's outset in a bridge accident and spend the bulk of the film as ghosts haunting their home of its new inhabitants. They are the Deetzes: daffy Charles (wacky Jeffrey Jones), his annoying wife Delia (hilarious Catherine O'Hara), and weird, goth teen daughter Lydia (brilliant newcomer Winona Ryder).
The eclectic supporting cast also includes Glenn Shadix as Otho, and the iconic entertainers Dick Cavett and Robert Goulet and veteran actress Sylvia Sydney...Odd, strange, yet utterly brilliant casting!
But the casting coup is the actor who plays the title role...Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice! Well, it's really spelled "Betelgeuse", but Beetlejuice is funnier. This has got to be the most inviting role/performance that Keaton has ever given. He plays Beetlejuice so uninhibited, raw, and vulgar that you can't help but be fascinated by the character. I say that Beetlejuice is the best "villain" of all of Burton's films, even the Batmans, because Beetlejuice just plain does not care. He is totally self-serving and lets NOTHING stand in his way! Keaton's Beetlejuice probably has more memorable lines in this 1 film than you'll find in any 10 random films combined! And that's incredible given that he is barely on screen. I rank this as one of the all-time comic performances!
BEETLEJUICE is just plain enjoyable from start to finish. It's almost like watching a live action cartoon. Amazing how you are drawn into this comic book world so easily and take for granted the afterlife and its "rules". The background music adds to the eeriness. And there are some actual scary moments in it, esp. when Beetlejuice enters the picture. The cast chemistry is also indelible: Keaton, Davis, Baldwin, Ryder, O'Hara, Jones ALL do excellent work. At a run time of around only 90 minutes, BEETLEJUICE may be Burton's most entertaining work!