RELEASED IN 1988 and directed by Tim Burton, "Beetlejuice" chronicles the story of a couple (Alec Baldwin & Geena Davis) who accidently perish after moving to a quaint Connecticut town. They find themselves sentenced to "haunting" their former house where they try to scare the new wannabe swank couple out (Jeffrey Jones & Catherine O'Hara), but they find that their Goth daughter is more curious than scared (Winona Ryder). Michael Keaton plays the eponymous madcap "bio-exorcist" while Glenn Shadix is on hand as the new couple's interior designer.This was Burton's debut on the silver screen and the first half is hilarious entertainment mixed with some interesting insights on the afterlife. The movie puts its best foot forward, but the second half isn't as compelling and I think the title character is more annoying than amusing. THE FILM RUNS 1 hour & 32 minutes and was shot in beautiful East Corinth, Vermont, and (studio) Culver City, California. WRITERS: Michael McDowell, Larry Wilson and Warren Skaaren.GRADE: B+

Oh my gosh! This movie is so amazing! I love this movie and I will never ever forget it. I think I remember watching it and being kind of scared of Beetlejuice. Keaton is so amazing and so great and he is so funny in this movie. I will always love this movie and the chemistry between the other characters in the movie as well. There great as well and they are so interesting. I will always love watching this movie during Halloween or anytime for that matter. :)

This is a movie that's talked about so much that you practically know it, even if you haven't seen it; it's a pop culture phenomenon. Well, I never saw this movie when it came out in the theaters, don't really know why, just hadn't made the time to see it. I finally saw it (1/25/17) and... man, was it boring. Yes, boring.The pacing is slow, the acting is mediocre (the mother and father) and some of the jokes don't land. I love the actors in this movie, but it just seems to drag along. The special effects are dated, but rather enjoyable, so I didn't mind that at all. My biggest gripe about this movie was with Beetlejuice himself. For a movie that carries his name in the title and is acted with great gusto by Michael Keaton, you'd think Beetlejuice would be in the movie a lot more. The movie is 1 1/2 hours long and Beetlejuice is on screen for about 15 minutes! His character is not fleshed out all that well, as oftentimes we are left to wonder about his motivation. Is he a good guy, a bad guy, who's he trying to help or hurt? Beetlejuice just acts quirky and rambles on, probably in the hopes that we as the audience won't notice that he's not really doing anything. But again, it's the story itself that fails; it has bad pacing, not enough of the main title character, and ultimately it becomes a boring mess This is a movie that had great actors, a decent outline for a story and terrific potential, unfortunately it doesn't deliver on any of them. I think I would have liked this movie if I had seen it when it came out and I would remember it fondly and with a nostalgic sense of wonder. But no, I just recently saw it and nope, can't recommend it. As an 80's kid, I hate saying this, but this movie is just badly executed. Sad, it could have really been something, if they had only made Beetlejuice the main character in the movie and fleshed out the story.

From "Topper" to "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" to present day, we have had movies where ghosts occupy space with humans and even are in discourse with them (usually, only one of them). In this film, a couple of newlyweds purchase and old house and everything is fine until they are both killed in a car accident. In the afterlife, they continue to occupy the place, but, of course, the house is sold, and another couple moves in. This is disheartening as they now realize they are actually dead. We have a lot of potential here. They decide to drive the new owners out of the house, but they don't know what they can do, so they enlist an evil spirit, played by Michael Keaton, to do their dirty work. The problem is that he is totally uncontrollable and soon they are paying a bigger price than the new occupants. Of course, it's Tim Burton, so it's dark and oddly funny, but Keaton wears on one after a while, and the film slide into all sorts of gimmicky special effects. He is not the least likable, and that works against the charm of the story.