User reviews

What interested me about beetlejuice was the highly innovative concept. However, after the innitial ohhing and ahhing about it, I got a little bored. I really didn't get into this movie like the majority did although I thought the whole conception of the idea was brillient. When I think of Beetlejuice now, I think of a cute innovative film with great acting that in spite of it all, bored me silly at times.

Beetlejuice was the second big budget film from visionary Tim Burton and is the first film were you see some of his later trademarks come in. The film is packed with dark comedy, comical horror, offbeat performances and Gothic visuals that have become a mainstay in most of his movies. It has a lot going for it, but the execution holds the film back.

The story focuses on young couple Adam and Barbara Maitland who are killed in a car crash, yet they live on as ghosts in their home. Problems arise when a strange family move into the house and any attempts to get rid of them prove to be useless. The only solace the Maitland's get is with the young daughter who happens to be able to see them. The Maitland's are left with no choice but to hire crazy 'Bio- Exorcist' Beetlejuice who guarantees to get rid of the family. The premise is an extremely inventive one, the idea of ghosts expelling humans does sound very funny and starts off well here. The problem lies within how it's told as the film loses focus the longer it goes on. The film lacks coherence as a lot of things come from nowhere and aren't explained well.

The cast all do solid jobs. Alec Baldwin is very good in a reserved and very naturalistic performance as Adam, he comes off as a likable everyday person which means the ghost scenario genuinely confuses him. Geena Davis also puts in a very good turn as the laid-back and sweet natured Barbara. She too has a real sense of likability to her and the chemistry between her and Baldwin comes off as sincere. Winona Ryder is good as the goth inspired daughter Lydia. Ryder does have a good screen presence and comes across as innocently charming. Catharine O'Hara is excellent as the eccentric and obsessive Delia, she has a great sense of comic timing that is put to good use. Jeffery Jones is also great as calm Charles. However Michael Keaton steals the show as the equally bizarre, wacky and hilarious title character. His energetic expressions, exuberant delivery and knack for physical comedy work brilliantly here.

Visually the film is a typical Burton one with bright designs mixed in with the Gothic styling he usually goes for. The ghost world that is created is really imaginative and the colour scheme used adds to the supernatural theme nicely. The humour is a problem with the film. At times it doesn't go as far with the comedy as it should do which means that most of the comic sequences are wasted while when does go comically over-the-top, the calypso scene, it just feels forced. The scenes in the afterlife offices and the ones involving Beetlejuice were the only ones that had the ability to draw the laughs naturally. The comic horror aspects are used effectively and balance out with the straight up comedy well. The special effects are very weak too. They are extremely dated and the usage of Claymation looks very fake these days. The music from Danny Elfman is quite good and carries that quirky dark sound that works perfectly well with in the film.

On the whole Beetlejuice does have a fun premise and a brilliant Keaton performance, yet it lacks a fluid structure and truly funny moments to become anything great.

Pros: 1. Michael Keaton (Betelgeuse) delivers an amazingly energetic and magnetic performance.

2. Alec Baldwin (Adam) and Geena Davis (Barbara) have incredible chemistry together and it's that which powers the first half of the movie along.

3. The set designs are well made and intriguing. They also help add to the overall charm of the film.

4. The practical effects, although slightly dated, still look great in addition to adding further charm.

Cons: 1. The special effects haven't aged well at all and are very distracting.

2. Betelgeuse doesn't arrive properly until about 47 minutes into the movie. The film definitely picks up when he arrives as it's a little too slow-paced before then.

3. The character of Otho (Glenn Shadix) is pretty much redundant. Most of what he does could have been done by one of the parents but he's given a lot of screen time.

4. A lot of the humour feels dated and stale.

5. How Barbara and Adam pass away is a little unrealistic and corny: there's no way a dog could have supported the weight of a car, and there's no way they would have died from that height.

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.

I remembered seeing this movie in a theater when it came out. I recall the good makeup and camera work, but didn't think the story was that good. So, I watched it again these many years later and had the same impressions.

The idea for "Beetlejuice" was quite novel for the time. And there can be little doubt about the superb job of makeup, animation and special effects. And while the idea for the plot had possibilities, the screenplay is very lame. It's a challenge to stay interested because it quickly becomes boring. So much so, that the one very good performance in the film – that of Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, can't salvage the film. The comedy is flat. What little of it I could find was dull.

My five stars are solely for the exceptional makeup and artwork that went into the production. It deserved its Oscar for that, but the film otherwise is a dud.

I have been hearing about Beetlejuice for years and I am a Michael Keaton fan so this film was on my watchlist. I was quite let down by how bad it was. This is hard to watch and it is like watching a disaster unfold before your eyes. Mindless, silly and nonsense comes to mind after watching this film. Also it does not help that this film is being watched so many years later when CGI and effects have really moved on. It adds to the lackluster nature of it. I could not get into it. Despite a legendary cast and good director this film is a real dud. I do not agree with the high rating and praise this film has garnered, it should have not been given the green light.

Beetlejuice has not held up over the years.

Michael Keaton is just not funny in this role. Robin Williams would have done better. Geena Davis, Catherine O'Hara, and Sylvia Sidney were all fabulous in their roles. Winona was her typical goth pixie dream girl character. Not a lot of range from her. It's the same role in every movie.

An odd choice for the writers to have a 37 year old ghost attempt to marry a teenager. I guess no one questioned this creative decision back in the 80s? The scenes are creepy and not the Halloween creepy.

The movie is ok for killing some time in October but not much else.

This movie is definitely different compared to other movies but it's not something special. I grew up watching Looney Tunes so for me this movie is basically like one of the Looney Tunes episodes and instead of Bugs Bunny (my favourite character) there is Betelgeuse as a trickster character who unfortunately wasn't the most focused character even though he should have been therefore my score is 5. If the movie had revolved around Betelgeuse instead of the couple the movie would be an 8/10.

The weird thing about the movie is not its afterlife theme and its horror style but how genre-wise I had a hard time making sense of the movie. It's childish but clearly not for kids due to horror scenes that involve extreme gore, I have no idea if the director tried to make it a dark comedy or tragedy, it's hard to tell if it's a drama so all I can say is this movie is a very soft tragedy without anything humorous. Some thought this is a dark comedy but even though I love dark humour this movie is too sad to even manage to make me smile because I see no humour in it. Dying together with your loved one when you were living a dream life and then as a ghost you got stuck in your own dream house that some strangers ruined is not a comedy subject and a movie like that being childish is not a nice thing to watch therefore if the movie wasn't like Looney Tunes episodes and if it didn't have a trickster character my score would be a solid 1 instead of 5.

The movie has quantity and its complex style but I can't say its quality is decent. Still I cannot say this movie is good or bad. All I can say is I didn't like Tim Burton's style just because if this movie had to be a food it would be a little salty chocolate cake which means genre-wise the movie has no proper style (I mean genre-wise the movie is like a random crazy drunk bipolar person) and it being unrealistic make it a hard time for me to find a reason to enjoy the movie and immerse myself. While watching this movie all I could think was why the director did that and why this happened just because everything about the movie seems like it doesn't fit the movie and everything is too unnecessary.

I at least appreciated this movie somewhat denies usual stereotypes and instead the movie has its own stereotypes but too bad they are very unrealistic. The movie tries too hard on being a parody of the certain stereotypes the director wants to turn into a comedy about something that's not a comedy subject and the movie fails to make me amused. In that regard the movie has a childish style that was uncalled for.

Even though I loved Ghost Busters (and still do) somehow when Beetlejuice first came out 25 years ago I was not even tempted to see it. Despite the hype at the time, it just didn't seem very appealing or funny to me. But my yoga teacher recently said it was very funny so I decided to give it a shot.

My gut feelings were correct -- it is not funny and the special effects, while visually inventive are really bad, even for 1988.

It was fun to see Ryder, Baldwin, Davis, and O'Hara as young actors again, and that kept me watching the whole hour and a half. But that would be the only reason I might give anyone to watch this mess. Otherwise I say avoid it.

Beetle Juice is an extremely odd film that does not make much sense and seems quite the complex story for most of the film. It some ways the story is actually a few stories in one as, it simply does not know what it wants to be. This is a film that I am not sure if it would classify into the Halloween-esque type of telling as it is just... weird. This is one that can certainly be skipped and you won't have missed out on much.

Beetle Juice is a film so unique and bizarre, it could only have come from the mind of Tim Burton. The concept and plot, the set designs, the creatures and the characters are all so different it a mystery how this sprung even from his imagination. Love his work or hate it, Burton has a strong cinematic eye and one of the boldest visionaries making movies. And if there's one person who does love it and understand it very well its Michael Keaton. Sure, much of it is on the page but this a part, as the titular Beetlejuice, can only exist because of him. His manic, uncontrollably wild and amusing performance(which you wonder how much of is ad-libbed) brings a boost to the movie that makes it what it is.

A clever opening of a haunted house story. Tim Burton paints a daunting surreal picture. That being said, the house in this honeymoon/vacation get away is reflective of Alfred Hitchcock's, Psycho. Though Barbara played by (Geena Davis) tries to defend their house against interlopers, she and her charming husband never really know what to do. The film jumps around a lot too, but I won't delve into that. After a while, it finally sinks into the mud of our emotions. The whole film is about scaring people, I get that, but do we really need to laugh at others mistakes. This is not funny! I anticipate Burton films to be somewhat like this, taking someone like Edward Scissorhands and, making that a symbol of how, we in society are to laugh at someone's misfortune. No ... not buying into it. At least, this is the main premise to Beetlejuice. A film about a freakshow. Enough of the bad stuff though. (timeout!!) I will say the best part of this film for me was the set and design. It's fun to watch these people crack up; and, if this was Burton's idea, it's genius. The table scene is an absolute delight to see on screen, and it's scenes like these that can absolutely change a bad film to something meaningful to your day. Even if you go into this film depressed you are bound to laugh at some point. Once the funny emotions come out it's the point of no return, it's on. What I like, too, about this film is that there's an operatic tone, but sadly Burton doesn't do anything with it. It would have been good to see something like this flipped into a musical. All in all, a fun and fantastic film.