Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror comedy from 1988. That movie is "Beetlejuice".
Now, I have a story about this movie. You see, I have technically seen this movie before. However...when I say that, I've really only seen the ending to this film at least a few times before. Most of the time I saw this movie is when they would usually air it on the Freeform channel, AKA ABC Family. And despite me having seen the ending to this film a few different times, I don't understand the whole context to it. So I finally decided to track this movie down via a two-pack, which also comes with it's sequel. And yes, I will actually cover the sequel later this month.
For now, though, I'm only gonna focus on this movie. As for what I remember about it, I do know that it stars Michael Keaton as our main titled character, and I also know the film is directed by Tim Burton, who usually tends into the dark fantasy that he's usually comfortable with. This movie is obviously gonna be no exception. As to whether it'll be good or not has yet to remain seen. I am aware that it is one of Burton's most popular movies, but just because something's popular doesn't mean that it's necessarily going to be good.
That being said, I am still looking forward to finally watching this movie in it's entirety. I am hoping for it to be good, though I am prepared for the slight possibility that it could also suck. I don't know yet, but I am gonna find out. And the only way to do that is for me to shut up so I can push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Beetlejuice".
19 minutes later
OK, I have a question here, and it's starting to bug me a little bit. So, our main couple are now ghosts, and they're trying every way to scare the new people moving into their house. Adam has now closed the door to the attic and apparently locked it, too. But since he and Barbara are now ghosts, then how is Adam able to interact with his door and is able to lock it, too? I mean, if they're dead, then they really shouldn't be physically interacting with *anything* in their house, right? I'm really kinda curious here.
14 minutes later
You know, guys, for the amount of time that Adam and Barbara have been dead, they're surprisingly taking everything that they've seen so far rather well. And I mean more of the horror imagery rather than their house being taken over, obviously. I guess, after being dead for a while, being surprised by anything isn't really that much of a common occurrence anymore to them.
9 minutes later
Hold up. So earlier, either Adam or Barbara was wearing a sheet to act as a ghost and scare the people living in their home. The daughter can see them, even without their sheets. And yet, just a few minutes ago, when they were scaring her Dad, he could see the sheets, too. So...does that mean then that if you are wearing something like a sheet, then normal people can actually see you? I admit, that doesn't entirely make sense, but I'm gonna wait and see if this movie attempts to explain that at all.
5 minutes later
OK, I have been meaning to ask this for a while now. Why is the name Beetlejuice spelled differently in this film? I'm going to assume maybe there's some kind of actual reason for it, but it's starting to bug me a little bit because I've seen his name spelled like this throughout the entire movie. Maybe that's how his name is supposed to be spelled, but it still kinda bothers me slightly, you know what I mean?
8 minutes later
OK, I was gonna ask what the hell kind of plan they had in mind. And I will say that, while that plan was goofy as shit, the pay off was actually really cool. So, I really gotta give Barbara and Adam props for coming up with something that was sorta creative.
15 minutes later
You know, I'm a little surprised that Adam and Barbara are still talking to each other, despite changing their faces to look scarier and such. By the way, the makeup effects here look awesome. However, I'll talk about that later when I get to reviewing this film.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Beetlejuice". And now that I've seen the whole thing, I know kind of understand the context of the ending...kind of. Still doesn't entirely make sense, but I'm not gonna continue to question it further. I'm just gonna shut the movie off now...OK. Well, I suppose I should let you guys know, first hand, that I really enjoyed this movie. Now is it my favorite film from Tim Burton? No. Personally, I would never put it above something like the 1989 "Batman" movie, or even "Batman Returns" for that matter. But I still enjoyed this film for what it is.
So let's start this review off here by first talking about the writing. Now, you may have noticed that I started to ask questions about certain things that didn't really make sense to me. And as the film went on, I continued to ask more questions. And you might think that, even though I just said I enjoyed this movie, that I would end up disliking it because some of those questions kept piling up. And I'm gonna tell you guys that a lot of those issues that I had are very trivial in the long run. As long as you're willing to suspend your disbelief and just accept certain things for what they are, then you are going to enjoy this film immensely. Especially if you're someone who still hasn't seen this movie yet and you enjoy the works of Tim Burton, and you're into the kind of horror that doesn't necessarily go overboard into straight up slasher territory, then this film will be perfect for you. Provided, again, that you're willing to suspend your disbelief here.
Our characters here are fleshed out and each have their own unique personality. Which I believe helps make this film stand out because there's a character here for everyone to like. In which, I mean, that you're not required to like every single character here, but there is enough to where you could pick a favorite out of our cast here. Whether it's our two main characters trying desperately to get their home back, or Lydia, or her two parents. Well, correction, the mother from "Home Alone" is technically her stepmom. I personally didn't care for her character here at all, but I can see someone being attached to it for whatever reason. And, of course, you have our titled character as well, who is amazing. Granted, there are a couple of noticeable problems that involve him, which I'll talk about in a second here. But to summarize, our characters here are great, and they help make this movie stand out immensely.
Now as for our titled character, there are two issues that stood out to me about him. The first one is that, even though henis technically the star of the movie, he's not in it for all that long, especially for the first half of the movie. He only has about three appearances in the first half, and each scene with him is very sporadic. For the first half, most of it is spent on our two main characters, Adam and Barbara, as they try to scare out this new family that bought out their house after their deaths. And you don't really see enough of our titled character outside of several brief moments. Now in fairness, the movie actually does make it a note to our main couple that they shouldn't ask for his help by calling his name 3 times. Instead, they should scare out this new family that took over their home by themselves. Which makes some sense, because our titled character has his own unique ways to scare people. I won't spoil how exactly on the off chance that you still haven't seen this film yet. But still, seeing as how he doesn't appear in the film all that much is a little bit underwhelming at times.
Now the other issue involving our titled character actually to do with his name. You probably noticed that I haven't been using his name. And it's not because of "fear" that if I repeat his name 3 times, he'll appear. It's more so with how his name is actually spelled here. See, while the film itself is called "Beetlejuice", his actual name is spelled as B-E-T-E-L-G-E-U-S-E, or "Betelgeuse" for short. Now I genuinely don't know what the issue was regarding his name. I don't know if his actual spelled name would've been a hit for the title of the movie, or if it was some sort of inside joke that I didn't get. But regardless, his actual name is different from the title, and it's just something that I think you just have to take for what it's worth. It's ultimately not a big deal in the long run, but it is something that could make you raise an eyebrow, especially when you first notice his actual name popping up on screen.
And yeah, as you probably guessed, both of these issues are incredibly minor in the end. And you're not really not gonna notice them very much unless you have a stickler attention to detail like I do. And even if you do notice it, you're not gonna really care about it because the film itself has more than enough quality to where it outweighs the negatives by a mile. And the film is also very entertaining, too. Which is great, and it also has great pacing as well. It doesn't really slow itself down too much, but also isn't rushing things either. It has a near perfect balance of where it wants to go, and it doesn't overstay it's welcome. Then again, the movie's only about 90 minutes long, which, to me, is a perfect runtime that most comedies should have. Though that's just more of a personal bias, really.
So yeah, guys, writing here is really strong, and our characters are all likable and fleshed out. And when you make both of those elements work together, especially with Burton's own kind of flair added to the mix, it makes for a really entertaining movie. And as for the acting, well, the acting here is fantastic, guys. Every single actor turns in 110%. The biggest stand out, of course, is gonna be Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse. The man is having a blast with his role. And even though I would've like to have seen more of him here, what he's able to do is still amazing. And I'm grateful that he did live up to his character here. Everyone from Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Winona Ryder, to Jeffery Jones and the late Catherine O' Hara, they give just about as much effort as Keaton did, and it's fantastic across the board. There wasn't a single actor who phoned it in, which is also great to see.
Special effects are also absolutely phenomenal. Now again, since this is a film from Tim Burton, you're gonna be expecting to see a lot of his style added into the effects. And the best part about it is that, even though he likes to rely a lot on Gothic horror, he never takes it too far. Well, except for "Batman Returns", although that's more of a different issue with how that film was received by fans. But my point is, since this is technically a family film, he knows when to reign it in, but still is able to add his own creativity here. And a lot of it here comes from the stop-motion animation. There is quite a lot of stop-motion used in this movie, such as the sand worm that you see in the beginning, or the infamous snake version of Betelgeuse you see in the latter half of the film. Both instances look fantastic. This is some of the best stop-motion animation you'll ever see, at least for 1988 standards. The makeup effects are also great, too. The most noticeable one is Betelgeuse himself, though that one's more iconic than anything else. Costuming here is really good. The sets are amazing, especially for anytime that you are inside Betelgeuse's world. It looks really cool. If I had to nitpick anything, I would say the backgrounds for the sand world might look like it was shot on a blue screen. If it was a legitimate set, then I would be shocked. Though I don't know if that was the case or not. Regardless, it looked really cool, so I'm not about to dump on it.
Camerawork here is really good. Lighting here is great. The sound-mixing here is also good. The score here is great, as it is composed by Danny Elfman. Granted, he's done a lot of musical scores for Burton's movies. And while the score here is, admittedly, not as good as his other ones, it's still really fucking good. And I'm never gonna say that his music is crap or anything. It's just not as good as some of his other scores are in other films.
So anyway, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Beetlejuice"? Oh yes, guys, most certainly. I mean, at this point, it's very much a Burton classic. And I completely understand why this film has been beloved for all these years. Now again, I don't consider this to be a high favorite of mine, especially from Burton, but I can't deny that it has a lot of charm to it. And I'm really glad that I actually got to finally watch it for this series. Now, as I mentioned before, I do have it's sequel as part of a 2-pack, so I will be covering it later this month. Whether it'll be any good or not is something that I'll eventually figure out for myself when I get to covering it. Now, there is one neat feature about this 2-pack. Both movies come individually as their own movie, unlike the "Gremlins" 2-pack where both movies are together on one disc. And on the first disc for the first "Beetlejuice" movie, it actually comes with 3 bonus episodes from the "Beetlejuice" animated series. I've never seen it before, so I'm gonna go and watch those 3 episodes right now, because if they're any good, I may end up checking out the rest of the series on YouTube, provided it's available anyway.
And on that note, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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