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| Michael Keaton and a guy who talked too much. |
Back in 1988 when Tim Burton's comedy classic Beetlejuice hit the theaters I was a new mother with little interest in going to the movies. Life intervened and I never saw it, even though the cast includes many of my favorite actors, among them Geena Davis, Michael Keaton and Catherine O'Hara. Now that it's been turned into a musical slated to open on Broadway next March, I figured it was time to check it out. I was glad I did. Despite the severe shock of seeing a young, thin and handsome Alec Baldwin not pretending to be Donald Trump, the movie was a blast from beginning to end.
The story revolves around a young married couple (Baldwin, Davis) happily renovating their rural farmhouse who die and return as ghosts. Besides accepting the bad news that they are dead, they have to tolerate the home's new owners, an obnoxious couple of wealthy New Yorkers (Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones) and their surly teenage daughter (Winona Ryder). Much of the plot revolves around the dead duo's attempts to scare the new owners away, with hilarious results.
Director Burton really lets loose with the craziness, creating a world of monstrous creatures from the Land of the Dead who turn into hideous giant snakes with teeth, or have shrunken heads, or eyeballs inside their mouths, or faces that pull right off, and more like that. Also showing little restraint is the off-the-wall title character (Michael Keaton), a clown-like deadbeat in the truest sense of the word who wants only to be freed from his grave in order to gross people out. This requires his name to be repeated three times in succession, which several people do and instantly regret.
If slapstick is not your thing see it anyway, for two reasons: First is a truly riotous dinner party scene wherein all the guests, including Dick Cavett, are suddenly compelled to sing and dance to the calypso hit "Day-o!" (in Harry Belafonte's voice no less; follow the link below to see it), and for Keaton's maniacally hysterical performance. It's easy to see why his long and celebrated career followed this early film, for which he won a National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQXVHITd1N4
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