Beetlejuice (1988)
I saw this when it came out in theaters, but our son had never seen it, so the same day we watched
American in Paris, above, we followed it up with
Beetlejuice. I had forgotten that our male protagonist was Alec Baldwin. THIS movie holds up. Oh yes, it does.
If by some miracle you have not seen this movie, dear reader, it is definitely worth checking out, assuming you are familiar with and enjoy Tim Burton-style movies. Adam (Baldwin) and Barbara (Davis) are a New England couple who take a wrong turn and end up on the Other Side. This comes as somewhat of a shock to them, and they are trapped in their house, doomed to haunt it forev--wait a moment, here come Charles (Jones) and Delia (O'Hara) to buy the (presumably vacant) house and Delia immediately sets about kitsching up the place, much to the chagrin of their haunting hosts. She is joined by Otho (Shadix) who is absolutely
marvelous in his role as the foppingest dandy you have ever seen. Our ghostly couple is horrified and sets off to see what they can do to drive these usurpers out of
their house. There are supernaturally bureaucratic channels for this, which the couple pursues, but they are also approached by another spirit willing to do the deed--the titular star (heh) of the movie, Betelgeuse (Keaton). I had forgotten how absolutely disgusting and slimy the character is, and Keaton absolutely nails it. This was actually a surprise, since the kind of roles he had before this were things like
Johnny Dangerously*,
Night Shift*, and
Gung Ho*. Things really take a turn when the couple realizes that the morose daughter (Ryder) who moved in with the new couple can actually see them...
There are cameos and camp and creepiness and calypso and catastrophes and comedy, and the movie really is a romp through the weird tunnel of Tim Burton's imagination, and I really thought it would make more of an impression on our son than it did. Ah well, maybe he's just not ready for it yet. We'll try again once he's deeper into his teens, perhaps
then he'll be "feelin' it" more.
...Daaaay-O!
--Patrick
*I've seen
Night Shift and quite a bit of
Johnny Dangerously. I have not seen
Gung Ho and I'm not sure I want to.