Beetle Juice

Tim Burton, 1988 (8.4*)
Sure, it's silly and uneven, yet this comedy of Tim Burton's is perhaps his funniest film. A young newlywed couple, played by Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin, who excels at comedy, move into a very nice New England country cottage, then nearly immediately drown in a freakish car accident. They wake up as unknowing ghosts, apparently still alive, yet soon realize that they are not in reality any longer.

A new family led by spouses Catherine O'Hara and Jeffrey Jones, and with a young, nihilistic teen played by Winona Ryder, buys the house and moves in. The newlywed ghosts want the family to leave, so they try haunting them away. They fail and enlist the help of "the ghost with the most", Beetlejuice, wonderfully played by a hilarious Michael Keaton.
Actor Glenn Shadix [photo rt] has a wonderful turn as the interior designer, Otho, who dabbles in the occult, pretending to be an expert when he has no real experience. [This review is being posted in his honor, as the actor was found dead today in his Alabama home, at 58, apparently after falling from his wheelchair]

Basic comic nonsense ensues to the delight of the audience. Don't look for much here other than comic fantasy, which this delivers quite well. Actor Keaton chose this film (over Burton's Batman) as the one of his work he'd put in a time capsule if limited to one.

Quote: "Go ahead, make my millenium!"
Quote2: "Hey, this could be a good look for me" (after having his head shrunken)