Beetlejuice (1988)
Country: US
Technical: col 92m
Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton, Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones
Synopsis:
A recently deceased couple enlists the services of a renegade ghost in evicting some unpleasant yuppies from their home - but they don't scare easily.
Review:
Boppy, vulgar supernatural comedy in the tradition of Ghostbusters, dominated by its special effects and a showy, irritating turn by Michael Keaton as the eponymous randy ghost with an encyclopaedic knowledge of American TV culture, most of whose debunking lines are unintelligible on account of the voice he affects. There's a Harry Belafonte number which works quite well, and Burton serves it all up in a riot of gharish eighties colour and Caligari-like set design, the most satisfying stroke being the conceptualisation of limbo as a surrealist waiting room. In retrospect, the film can be seen to usher in a cinema of gimmicks and effects that would dominate Hollywood in the decades to come, knowingly referential and devoid of affect; it also heralded the arrival of a furious directorial talent.
Country: US
Technical: col 92m
Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton, Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones
Synopsis:
A recently deceased couple enlists the services of a renegade ghost in evicting some unpleasant yuppies from their home - but they don't scare easily.
Review:
Boppy, vulgar supernatural comedy in the tradition of Ghostbusters, dominated by its special effects and a showy, irritating turn by Michael Keaton as the eponymous randy ghost with an encyclopaedic knowledge of American TV culture, most of whose debunking lines are unintelligible on account of the voice he affects. There's a Harry Belafonte number which works quite well, and Burton serves it all up in a riot of gharish eighties colour and Caligari-like set design, the most satisfying stroke being the conceptualisation of limbo as a surrealist waiting room. In retrospect, the film can be seen to usher in a cinema of gimmicks and effects that would dominate Hollywood in the decades to come, knowingly referential and devoid of affect; it also heralded the arrival of a furious directorial talent.
Country: US
Technical: col 92m
Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton, Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones
Synopsis:
A recently deceased couple enlists the services of a renegade ghost in evicting some unpleasant yuppies from their home - but they don't scare easily.
Review:
Boppy, vulgar supernatural comedy in the tradition of Ghostbusters, dominated by its special effects and a showy, irritating turn by Michael Keaton as the eponymous randy ghost with an encyclopaedic knowledge of American TV culture, most of whose debunking lines are unintelligible on account of the voice he affects. There's a Harry Belafonte number which works quite well, and Burton serves it all up in a riot of gharish eighties colour and Caligari-like set design, the most satisfying stroke being the conceptualisation of limbo as a surrealist waiting room. In retrospect, the film can be seen to usher in a cinema of gimmicks and effects that would dominate Hollywood in the decades to come, knowingly referential and devoid of affect; it also heralded the arrival of a furious directorial talent.