Paramount Home
Video
Hey,
give a psychopath a camera and some money
and you get what you deserve. In the case
of Tim Burton's BEETLEJUICE you get one
of the most twistedly entertaining flicks
in years.
Burton, you may remember,
was the director behind the hysterical PEE-WEE'S
BIG ADVENTURE. If you think back to that
film, you'll recall that one of the standout
sequences involved Pee-wee's run-in with
"Large Marge," the ghostly truck
driver. The cartoonish goofiness of that
scene is the trademark of this flick, with
Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD 2 being the closest
celluloid cartoon that I can compare it
to.
Geena Davis (THE FLY, gorgeous,
EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY) and Alec Baldwin (Baldwin
brother, THE SHADOW, wondering why he turned
down other Jack Ryan flicks) star as a recently-deceased
couple who want to scare away the new owners
of their house. Jeffrey Jones (HOWARD THE
DUCK, but we won't hold that against him)
and Catherine O'Hara star as the new owners,
and Winona Ryder (from LUCAS) gives a wonderful
performance as their somber, death-obsessed
daughter (and also the only living person
who can see the ghosts).
Because the two ghosts are
SO inept at being frightening (the couple
is amused rather than terrified), they call
upon Beetlejuice, a crazed demon whose job
it is to get rid of humans. (A "bio-buster"
if you will.) The character of Beetlejuice
is played brilliantly by an almost unrecognizable
Michael Keaton, and one has to wonder if
this film will be the hit he needs and so
richly deserves.
Keaton, one of the more gifted
comic actors in the film world, had early
success in NIGHT SHIFT and MR. MOM. Since
then his career has been plagued by poor
decisions, spotty distribution of films
and other problems. The star turned down
in rapid succession: 1) Tom Hanks's role
in SPLASH; 2) Nick Nolte's role in DOWN
& OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS; and 3) Steve
Guttenberg's role in COCOON. However, in
that same time, he starred in the dismal
JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY and saw TOUCH & GO
get little distribution before ending up
on video. He needs a hit, and I hope that
this will be it. [Ed. Note: It was, leading
to big-paycheck roles in the BATMAN films
and so on.]
His performance is an acting
tour de force, helped along by Burton's
maniacal direction (there's something in
every scene to be amazed by). The script
is wonderful, containing lines like: "My
qualifications? Well, I attended Julliard,
went to the Harvard School of Business,
traveled extensively, and I've seen THE
EXORCIST one hundred and sixty-seven times!
And it keeps getting funnier EACH TIME!!!"
One of the most enjoyable
films of 1988 and one that I'll watch no
matter when I stumble onto it while channel
surfing.
