LogFAQs > #980009513

Seginustemple - Loved it as a kid, several scenes have stuck with me for decades: the waiting room w/ smoking guy and shrunken head, Baldwin and Davis stretching their faces like putty (this really freaked me out when I was young), any scene with Michael Keaton, and of course the calypso songs. Setting the 'danse macabre' to Harry Belafonte is a stroke of genius, and Catherine O'Hara practically steals the show with the all-in lip-sync performance. But Keaton's character is an all-timer, he's on a Jim Carrey/Robin Williams level of having fun here. There's great Danny Elfman score throughout as well. Like Poltergeist, watching it nowadays I can't help but notice the theme of real estate in the background, this time the newly-dead couple is trying to scare the new occupants of their home away because, wait for it - they're not ready to sell the house! Yeesh. One other element I was keen on this time was the confusion of inner/outer space, there's windows to Saturn outside the house, a model town in the attic where the movie plays tricks with scale, and the house itself has this weird outdoor wall thing going on https://hookedonhouses.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Beetlejuice-House-set-photos-Tim-Burton-44-611x343.jpg, what's up with that?

Plasmabeam - Gushing with creativity and fun. Reminded me of Wristcutters from our Road Trip list.

Bitto - Rating: C+

There are so many things done right here. The overall plot is solid. The characters are all well-defined and likable. The humor is great. It's family-friendly while also capturing the spirit of horror. I could see this being a timeless Halloween classic that you could put on every year. I just have one major problem: Betelgeuse. He really messes up the flow of this movie. That's probably the joke, but...it's not a good one. The comedy just changes completely when he's on-screen and for the worse. I also don't really like his role in the plot. He seems both too important and not important enough. I think the director was going for an independent "friend or foe" character like Jack Sparrow, but I don't think Betelgeuse does enough to gain that reputation until he suddenly becomes the antagonist at the end.

Karo - When a newly minted ghost couple's home is invaded by an infestation of fleshy meat bags, they turn to the services of 'bio-exorcist' ghoul Betelgeuse to drive the poor fools out.

Betelgeuse himself is this vile and unpleasant creature who is not as funny as Tim Burton thinks he is, and comes across less a comedic trickster and more like just the Joker's drunken deadbeat dad. Here I would complain that the titular character is like barely relevant in his own movie, but I came to the realization that I don't really want to see any more of this fucker than is already forced upon us.

Unfortunately, the movie's actual protagonists are not much better, as this lame newlydead couple are about as exciting as a mormon bachelor party. I kept not wanting them to scare away the new tenants because unlike this pair of stuffy phantoms the family was actually interesting and funny.

Tim Burton indeed has a unique artistic vision, but man does he suck ass at telling a story. This is nothing more than Burton being weird and marginally entertaining and that just isnt going to do it for me.

Lightning - Ive seen The Exorcist about a hundred and sixty seven times and it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it!

This is a film I was always aware of but never actually watched, so it was a bit unusual finally watching it and seeing things that I knew were in the movie but simply had not seen with my own eyes. Also, I loved the cartoon and in retrospect its pretty odd that that cartoon exists given some of the content here! Overall this is a fun horror comedy with some great practical effects and costumes and a terrific performance from Michael Keaton.

I was a bit surprised by how little Beetlejuice (or Betelgeuse) is actually in the movie, even after he finally appears, but he steals every scene hes in. Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin also do a great job of playing the sweetest ghosts imaginable. There is also a young Winona Ryder doing a good job and Catherine OHara basically playing her Schitts Creek character almost thirty years prior. Really the whole cast is great, and even though this is a film with a lot of dark ideas, they give it a real lightness.

Also, the weird similarities to Dune have to be mentioned. It is very odd that there is a desert planet ith giant sandworms on it in this film. Weirder still is that it is apparently Saturn. Lastly perhaps weirdest of all it has a pivotal role in the plot at the end. It just goes to show that this film is kind of a giant collage of lots of different often tonally conflicting ideas. Fortunately most of these ideas work.

4/5

Snake - A film bursting with creativity and character, the film never really takes itself too seriously and thats a good thing. Basically from the first minute on, this film is manic and crazy, especially once Beetlejuice himself shows up, played to utter perfection by Michael Keaton. Beetlejuice is a film that's not afraid to be weird, but its strangeness is precisely what makes it so endearing. It's a laugh-out-loud comedy with clever sight gags and witty dialogue and still beneath the surface lies a touching story about loss, acceptance, and the importance of finding your own strange family. My favorite parts will always be the stop-motion effects here!

Johnbobb - I've always liked Beetlejuice, but I actually rewatched this one just a little before this contest and it didn't hold up as well as I'd hoped. I'll be 100% honest, and possibly an unpopular (?) opinion here - the musical is better. Significantly better. Still an overall fun time though.

Evilordexdeath - Tim Burton is definitely one of those names whose stock has gone way down since the 80s, but I like Edward Scissorhands and I... acknowledge Beetlejuice as a good enough movie. The aesthetic is very consciously built and on point, it does a good job keeping a more horror-comedy tone, Beetlejuice himself is like a little bit charismatic but not that amazing at the best of times and kinda cringe at the worst and the heroes and the narrative are pretty forgettable. It's one of those movies I have a hard time feeling anything about.

Jcgamer107 - 6/10