Beetlejuice

Name: Beetlejuice
Director: Tim Burton
Released: 1988

3.89

Synopsis

A newly dead New England couple seek help from a deranged demon exorcist to scare an affluent New York family out of their home.

100
Washington Post
Hilarious…The joy of Beetlejuice is its completely bizarre -- but perfectly realized -- view of the world, a la Gary Larson's "The Far Side," or "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." [1 Apr 1988]
100
Los Angeles Times
By the time this irresistible treat is over, it has created some of the funniest moments and most inspired visual humor and design we may expect to experience at the movies all year. [30 Mar 1988]
90
Time
Beetlejuice means something good: that imaginative artists can bring a fading genre back from the dead. [11 Apr 1988]
88
USA Today
So original that it'll be years before a major filmmaker attempts another one. We're talking black-belt cult-movie status here. [30 Mar 1988]
80
Variety
Beetlejuice springs to life when the raucous and repulsive Betelgeuse (Keaton) rises from his moribund state to wreak havoc on fellow spooks and mortal enemies.
70
Chicago Reader
Only about half of the disconnected gags and oddball conceits pay off, but their gleeful delivery takes up most of the slack.
50
Chicago Sun-Times
Gets off to a start that's so charming it never lives it down. The movie is all anticlimax once we realize it's going to be about gimmicks, not characters.
50
Christian Science Monitor
The screenplay is foolish and Michael Keaton overplays the title role badly, but director Tim Burton gives the comedy a heap of visual imagination. [22 Apr 1988]