: What are your qualifications?
Scenario
The ghosts of a dead couple are haunted by an insufferable family that has moved into their home and hires a thug to drive them out. This is Michael Keaton’s own favorite movie.. Otho’s Shoes, when he spray paints the walls of the house, changes from fire engine red elf-looking shoes to white shoes as he walks through the bathroom, then changes back to elf red shoes as he enters the next room. Beetlejuice: Oh. Well… I went to Juilliard… I graduated from Harvard Business School.
I travel quite widely
I survived the Black Death and had a pretty good time of it. I’VE SEEN THE EXORCIST APPROXIMATELY SIXTY-SEVEN TIMES AND IT GETS FUNNIER EACH TIME I SEE IT…UNLESS YOU’RE TALKING TO A DEAD GUY…WHAT ARE YOU THINKING NOW? Do you think I’m qualified? The Geffen company logo is accompanied by a terrible version of the Banana Boat song (sung by the film’s composer, Danny Elfman). A print of the film appeared with some added/alternate scenes. This version of the film is about 2 minutes shorter than the theatrical release, has a few extra scenes and is missing a few others, is in black and white, and has a timecode at the bottom. This version has 4 main differences: Alternate Scene: The scene where Adam tried to leave the house after he and his wife died is different.
Edited for Terror Toons (2002)
Instead of a desert, he sees an empty darkness filled with rolling gears. Additional Scenes: Added a scene where Lydia develops the pictures taken by Adam and Barbra. After her mother yells at her and blames her for cutting holes in the sheets, Lydia runs upstairs and tries to convince her dad that the pictures are real. The scene where the adults are looking for ghosts in the attic is even more so as we see a desert monster try to eat Adam and Barbra as they hang from the attic window. There is an extra 2 minute scene at the end where we see Lydia riding her bike home from school and her parents are on the phone with Jane saying they don’t want to sell the house. Lydia’s dance scene is shorter in this version, and there is no scene with Beetlejuice in the waiting room. The film ends with a final exterior shot of the house.
Day-OTraditional, lyrics by William A
Attaway & Irving Burge [Wrongly credited as written by William A. Attaway & Irving Burgess (as Lord Burgess)] Performed by Harry Belafonte of RCA Records. It may take two or three viewings to warm up to “Beetle Juice”. It has a strange, haunting sensibility and a rhythm that is, by turns, easy, lazy, and boisterous. A charming couple in New England die and return to their beloved home as ghosts, determined to rid the place of their terrifying new tenants. Perhaps Alec Baldwin’s most benign and engaging performance ever; Geena Davis, Winona Ryder and Sylvia Sidney are also very attractive. The new couple from New York who take over the house (Geoffrey Jones and Catherine O’Hara) aren’t as well written or thought out as the other characters and some of their confused, dry ice comic lines.
a few seconds to reach you
Of course, there’s Michael Keaton, wildly comical as Betelgeuse. I remember hearing comments back in 1988 that Keaton wasn’t anywhere near enough to make the picture worthwhile, but that’s only if you watch the movie to know how fast it is. Keaton is truly wonderful, but he’s also fantastic, and I felt there was enough of her to satisfy—it’s not his story anyway, it’s Baldwin and Davis’s; Betelgeuse is used as a corny, vulgar punchline. Director Tim Burton is very careful not to overload the film with fighting; he’s surprisingly careful in crafting this story, and he works magic in a dubious scenario: a comic fantasy about dead people who ultimately celebrate life. ***1/2 of ****