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Tim Burton’s 1988 kids’ movie horror/goof-fest might have impressed that era’s young audiences with its stop-motion animation effects, but “Beetlejuice” is too scattershot with its humor to make much of an impression.
Tim Burton’s use of surrealistic elements gives you a disorienting sense of time and place, and that is this movie’s greatest gift; it takes you to weird, dystopic landscapes and atmospheres.
There are plenty of great sight-gags, but they only get the movie so far. The narrative development just isn’t there.
At heart, “Beetlejuice” is a haunted house story, with Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin doing the ghostly honors.
Winona Ryder owns the picture with her insouciant Goth attitude.
In what equates to Ryder’s big screen career (this is just her third film), you can clearly see her star shining bright behind those dyed black bangs.
Michael Keaton elevates the meandering script with sheer energy. Only Robin Williams could have come close to Keaton’s over-the-top performance, and even he would have had a hard time matching it.
For kids’ Halloween movie, “Beetlejuice” is a safe bet, but it won’t go over as well with the adults.
Debatable though is the film’s tone-deaf use of Calypso music.
Not helping.
