Title: Beetlejuice
Release Date: March 30, 1988
Director: Tim Burton
Production Company: The Geffen Company
Summary/Review:
Beetlejuice was on cable TV a lot in my youth, and despite seeing it multiple times, I never really liked it. I’m not quite sure why it rubbed me the wrong way, but as a Harry Belafonte fan it did annoy me that so many people acted like his calypso music was original to his movie. I thought my younger child might enjoy seeing a young Winona Ryder after watching Stranger Things, and that I would warm to the movie since my surly teen days are long behind me.
But it didn’t. I still don’t find it funny. It’s almost funny which can be worse than not being funny at all. The basic plot is kind of a take on gentrification. Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam (Alec Baldwin) Maitland are a young couple restoring a large Victorian house in Connecticut. When they die in a car crash, they find themselves trapped in the house as ghosts. When an awful yuppie couple from New York, Delia (Catherine O’Hara) and Charles (Jeffrey Jones) Deetz, Barbara and Adam try to use their ghostly powers to scare them away. They do bond with the Deetz’s goth daughter Lydia (Ryder), but ultimately call on the creepy “bio-exorcist” Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) to help them drive out the Deetzes. Hijinks ensue.
There are aspects of this movie I like, starting with just the general weirdness of everything that is distinctively Tim Burton. The stop motion animation effects are well-done and a lot of fun. And Ryder is terrific in one her earliest roles. But overall, Beetlejuice just doesn’t do it for me.
Rating: ***
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