Not Burton's best

Rating: 5/10 (8 October 2019)

I guess I'll be in the minority opinion here in saying that as a whole I don't think this film really works at all. It's rather a series of comic scenes and vignettes played alternately for humor and zany, oddball kookiness (the scene where the ghosts posses the house guests to sing "Day--Oh!" as their levitated) rather than a meaningful, coherent story. Having said that, I give it a number of stars for the enjoyable performances of Alec Baldwin and Gina Davis in the title roles, and of course especially the absolutely outstanding portrayal of the used car salesman like poltergeist "Beetlejuice" by the extremely talented Michael Keaton. I have literally watched only that part of this movie again a number of times just to watch him say his memorable lines like "Hey, you're workin' with a professional here!" or "Now, where does a guy like me, just a regular Joe, go when he's feeling kinda 'anxious'. . .? Still hilarious now many years later (perhaps they could develop another film just around that character). Also, I have definitely liked much of Tim Burton's other work, and he's impressive in his ability to do both sweet, deeply humane movies like "Edward Scissorhands" and very dark, haunting films like "Sweeny Todd". So see "Beetlejuice" for Michael Keaton's amazing performance, but see Burton's other films to see Burton at his best.