Beetlejuice Review
Tim_Burton caught audiences' attention with Pee_Wee's_Big_Adventure (1985), but Beetlejuice established him as film's prominent imaginer of skewed fairytale worlds. Even after several subsequent collaborations with composer Danny_Elfman and a couple of this film's stars (Winona_Ryder, Michael_Keaton), Beetlejuice still exists as the prototypical Burton film, if not actually his best. A veritable wellspring of imagination, the film removes ghosts from the horror realm and puts them in the slapstick world of Keaton's wisecracking title character, a con artist who specializes in expunging the living from the homes of the dead. Keaton's performance is spotty and over-the-top, but Alec_Baldwin and Geena_Davis are nicely understated as the mild-mannered spirits doomed to haunt their bucolic mansion (an architectural creation that's trademark Burton), even though they're more interested in peace and privacy than acting ghoulish. The film also features such hammy icons as Dick_Cavett and Robert_Goulet, giving a good preview of Burton's knack for oddball casting. The effects are first-rate for their time, and include such wonderful oddities as a snake creature that slithers through the dunes of an afterworld purgatory, and a dead waiting room occupant with a head shrunk to the size of a prune. The film is notable for providing Ryder her breakout role, and it represents one of the only times Jeffrey_Jones hasn't played a weaselly villain. Derek Armstrong, Rovi
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