Wolff rating: GOOD
Plot summary: Young couple find themselves in a house haunted by ghosts, and only a young girl can see them.
Biased, pithy comments: They don't make movies like this any more. Perhaps egged on by the success of fantasy-themed movies like ``Star Wars'' and ``Raiders of the Lost Ark,'' there was a brief bubble of interest in making films like ``Ghostbusters,'' where the fantastic meets middle-American comedy. These were basically family movies, where the kids oo-ed and ah-ed over the silly special effects and Mom and Dad identified with the middle-class values and talented performers who were playing this weird world straight. Betelgeuse is the result of this trend, and shows the uneasy balance between Reitman-style comedy and Burton-style weirdness. This is a movie about dead people, and no matter how wacky and whitebread you make their world, they're still dead, and that's kinda creepy. The movie has a wonderful pace and great actors (Keaton, Davis, Baldwin, O'Hara, and Shadix) and one great ingenue warming up to her part in ``Heathers'' (Ryder). Near the end of the film, it starts getting a little forced---why does he have to marry her? Why are they getting suddenly very old? Huh?---but if you forgive this, it's a creative show that takes you in very surprising directions. Still, I'd probably see ``Ghostbusters'' and ``Nightmare Before Christmas'' first, and not everyone gets the absurdity right away.
Other Notes: Keaton revisits this role in, of all things, ``Much Ado About Nothing,'' where he plays a very Beetlejuice-ian character.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Glenn Shadix, Catherine O'Hara.
Directed by: Tim Burton