Beetlejuice (1988) review

(9/10)

This has always been one of my favorites. I love the unique style, plotline, and character development put into it by Burton. It's more than an 80s classic; it's a pretty good mark in movie history.

PLOT:Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) Maitland are a young country couple living in the sticks of Winter River, Connecticut. This year for their vacation, they decided just to take it at home with each other. However, riding back home from a regular trip to town, the couple swerve off a bridge and crash into the water below. The couple somehow make it back to the house and notice strange things going on. They don't accept until later on that they are now ghosts and didn't survive the crash. The house is rented out and a city-based family moves in, including artisic Delia (Catherine O'Hara), the simple-minded Charles (Jeffery Jones), and the strange Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder). These people tear up the house and start to drive the couple ragged, but they need help being ghosts. They start to hear about the bio-exorcist, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaten), and contact him, which is when things start getting crazy. It's a really good plot executed awesomely.



ACTING:The performances in here are very good overall. Michael Keaten stole the show as Beetlejuice, even if he didn't have as much screen time as the others. He really let loose and made the character interesting. Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis also played a pretty funny part as the unaware couple. The other shiners would be Catherine O'Hara as Delia, Jeffrey Jones as Charles, Winona Ryder as Lydia, Sylvia Sidney as Juno, Robert Goulet as Maxie Dean, and Glenn Shadix as Otho. The performances were really great in this movie.

SCORE:The soundtrack in this movie is another one of the best parts of it aside from the plotline. The great Danny Elfman, whose work for Burton is very famous. The themes and background score produced in here is very detailed, fitting, creepy, contagious, and loveable by all. It was perfect.



EFFECTS:The effects in here weren't as fantastic as some of the Hollywood effects you see today, but they were still really good. I love the old effects used in here for the sandworms; I've always loved these kind of effects. The effects used to make the gruesome ghosts look real are very creepy and realistic as well.

OTHER CONTENT:This has always been a favorite film of mine. It's funny, smart, creative, and like no other. I believe this movie should get even more credit than it has already. I believe there should be more movies like this: wild, creative, and just unique. However, this movie is flawed. There are moments where it does come off as very cheesy with some of the dialogue and situations. The rest of the dialogue was pretty solid and smart though. Despite its few cheesy flaws, I believe this movie should stand taller in the film industry and be more of an inspiration to others.

OVERALL,an awesome movie with an awesome plot, very great performances, creepily-perfect Elfman score, old and realistic effects, and just an overall creatively wild and unique feel that other movies should have, but a lot of it can come off as cheesy sometimes.