I couldn't help laughing!

Rating: 8/10 (17 April 2009)

To say I couldn't help laughing is not to say that the film was so stupid it was funny. I mean that "Beetlejuice" was so funny that I couldn't help laughing at it, and that's not something I say all of the time. It starts off with a couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) crashing their car and getting back to their house and discovering they are dead and are now ghosts. What's worse, a new (and somewhat crazy) family is moving into their home, and they are so disgusted with the new owners that they decide to haunt the house and scare them off. The film gets extremely funny from there, as they are torn between scaring them off themselves or hiring a Bio-exorcist (Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton). It's hard to know what else to say, because there are so many funny parts to describe. For me, perhaps the funniest scene was watching the ghosts scare off the family by controlling their bodies into singing "The Banana Boat Song" around the table while guests are present at dinner. The film is silly and over-the-top at times, but it has become one of my favorite comedies from the last 20 years. It's much funnier than I expected any film of its type to be, and is probably my favorite of the horror-comedy genre. It may not be for everyone, but if you want to laugh, I suggest you check it out.
***1/2 out of ****