Tag Archives: Michael Keaton

Beetlejuice Review

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Beetlejuice is definitely a very popular horror film so you’re bound to have run across it at some point or another. The theater play certainly ran for a while as well. It’s a pretty interesting story and it can be a fun blend of humor and supernatural like Ghostbusters or something like that. Unfortunately it is held back by the main villain Betelgeuse who just isn’t able to hold the film here. His screen time actually isn’t all that long which is good but he still tries to drag down the scenes that he is in.

The movie starts with Adam and Barbara settling into their new house. Unfortunately they end up dying in a car accident. They are now ghosts who are stuck inside their own house and cannot leave. They are now forced to watch a new family show up to live there. They need a way to chase these people out so the house will remain theirs but their various scare tactics aren’t working. There is one person who can help, a ghost known as Betelgeuse. However the guy has a rather shady reputation and all the experts are telling the leads not to summon him. Should they listen?

The main characters aren’t the greatest leads so it’s good that we got the next family to come in. Adam is way too passive the whole time and just lets everything go on around him. The first thing Betelgeuse does when he shows up is attack Barbara and Adam literally does nothing about it. I think I may have heard him utter a half hearted “hey” when he did it but that was it. He certainly means well but at the end of the day he just doesn’t do much. He looks really bad in the final scenes of the film as well. Seriously you’d think the guy would have been able to do more. Barbara is a little better. She still isn’t very active at times but at least she’s a bit tougher than Adam. I feel like she also should have been against summoning Betelgeuse after the initial scene though.

No, the real characters show up when Charles and Delia along with their daughter Lydia appear. This family is ready to have a swell time in the new place. From all of the characters Charles is definitely putting in the most effort in order to relax. He’s a glass half full kind of guy where nothing can really keep him down. He’s just got a nice way of spinning everything into a positive around here. It’s part of why the ghosts can’t really mess with him. You can’t mess with a guy who’s having a lot of fun right? Then you have Delia who’s a bit more eccentric and certainly very particular about interior design. She’s eager to have the ghosts around later on even though she was super skeptical beforehand.

Lydia isn’t quite as fun as her parents. She’s going through that goth phase where she is pretty depressed all of the time and even writes a foreboding letter at one point in the film. The characters definitely need to keep a very close eye on her that’s for sure. The family also has a friend/uncle named Otho who’s a lot of fun. That guy has some pretty solid tricks at his disposal. He was easily able to take down the two nearest ghosts which is impressive and in general he doesn’t scare easily. So we’ve got a pretty strong cast here. It would help if Betelgeuse was better but it just wasn’t meant to be. You can tell what kind of character portrayal they’re going for here but instead of funny he just came across as annoying instead.

One of the best scenes in the film helped to highlight how solid most of the cast was though. There’s a scene where the ghosts force the characters to dance to a crazy song for a while. Instead of running away they’re all pretty pleased with themselves for being able to keep up with the choreography. I thought this scene was handled really well with the humor and is an example of a moment that was written very well. The movie definitely had some fun lines here and there as well but this was the standout moment. As you would expect the film goes all in with some of the creepy visuals here and there. The scenes of Adam and Barbara destroying themselves to show the new tenants how scary they were was definitely something else that’s for sure.

Beetlejuice has a good blend of humor going for the most part but it’s movie where the flaws definitely do show more than in others. It’s hard to really put this one above the breakeven point as a result. One thing I would have done to take this to the next level would either have been more scenes of the new family hanging out since they were a lot of fun or maybe exploring the fantasy land outside. Those giant worms were pretty impressive and it raises a lot of questions about what the world of death is really like. I guess every ghost is sorta trapped in their domain aside from visiting the spirit world? I’d also question how much a spirit can influence. On one hand they seem to be able to interact with objects but not directly with people. Of course Betelgeuse can, but I suppose he’s a unique case. Maybe it’s one of those things where you have to build up your power.

Overall, Beetlejuice is definitely a classic. I don’t think it’s aged as well as some of the all stars like Ghostbusters or Men in Black but I can see why a lot of people find this to be a pretty fun watch. There’s a lot going on and the movie tends to move at a quick pace. Throw in some fun visuals like the outside world and you’ve got enough elements to keep you interested. I’d also say that there’s definitely a whole lot you could do for a sequel as well. I feel like this movie is primed for a sequel at some point. By now it’s definitely old enough for the nostalgia to work. Halloween may be over but if you want one last trip down memory lane then this could be a good one to check out.

Overall 5/10

Jack Frost Review

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After watching the animated Jack Frost movie a while back, I had to check out the live action one. Don’t let this intimidate you…but Michael Keaton is Jack Frost this time around. He may not look like the Jack from the animated film, but it doesn’t really follow that plot anyway. It’s a fun film that breezes by, but the ending holds it back a little in the replay value department.

Jack is the lead player in a band. The problem is that it means he doesn’t have a lot of time to spend with his son Charlie. One day, Jack is called away on Christmas, which is the last straw for Charlie. Charlie gives up on being a musician in his downtime from being a hockey all star in training. As Jack drives away, he decides that the gig just isn’t worth missing Christmas for. Unfortunately, he had already set things into motion and is murdered taken out of commission on the way home. Charlie doesn’t take the news of his dad’s death very well and keeps to himself for the next year. When a snow man barges into his front yard the next Christmas while claiming to be Jack, Charlie is understandably skeptical. Could Jack have really been given a second chance to watch Charlie score a goal?

The film takes a while to get to the actual Snowman part and it isn’t a very long movie to begin with. Luckily, the first half is still pretty interesting. Jack wasn’t written as an extremely bad Dad or anything so it made the role more realistic. He did have a bad habit of cancelling his promises and it was definitely an issue on his side since he completely forgot about it in the movie as opposed to being called out for work. He should have turned down the Christmas gig on the spot since that was something that could be avoided, but nobody’s perfect and he made the right call in the end. Jack was a likable main character and if anything, you may want to see more of him than the Snowman. Speak for yourself if that’s the case though since I liked the snow form.

It felt like something out of Frosty and the movie even references this. The film runs into a major snag here though. Jack doesn’t want Charlie to let anyone know that he has come back from the dead…this includes Gabby, Jack’s wife. So, why does he not want her to know this? Well, that’s tough to say because it doesn’t make any sense, especially with Jack’s personality. There’s no way that he’s just ashamed to see her as a snow man. For one thing, the snowman was well made aside from its head being too big, also Jack just has too much confidence for that. My guess is that they didn’t want her to know because it adds an extra level of drama to the film as you have to question whether Charlie is actually making this up or not. The whole cast should see the snow man talking, but only 2 of them actually react to it. So, either everyone has bad eyesight or maybe this is actually fake. Luckily, the film doesn’t go down that terrible path, but I feel like that’s what the film was going for. It wasn’t worth it though.

Also, as mentioned before, the ending is pretty underwhelming. It’s not a terrible ending like Bridge to Terebithia, but it’s not a brilliantly out of left field ending like Madoka Magica Rebellion. It just ends on a flat note while you wonder why Charlie isn’t a little smarter. Considering that a few sounds from his magical instrument were enough to set the events in motion…couldn’t he have just played a little more with a different wish? Not only does Charlie not try this idea out, he doesn’t even consider it. I mean, you’ve got to be kidding me. You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me. Now I know why Charlie couldn’t hit the J shot, he never thinks outside the box.

Charlie…wasn’t a good main character. I couldn’t sympathize with him much at all. He definitely has good reason to be a little upset at Jack choosing his job over the family for Christmas, but at least Jack was hoping to earn some money for all of them since the family was on the poor side. For the rest of it, Charlie could have taken it all better. At least he helped stick up for the little girl during the snowball fights with the bullies. It was great…until he left her to fend for herself when there were two bullies towards the end. He flat out just left her and the character never really recovered from that.

Gabby was a good heroine. She was pretty reasonable the whole time and didn’t jump to a lot of hasty conclusions like some other characters have done in the past. She took the snowman plot in stride. We also had the Hockey coach. I just have to mention him because he had one of the most motivating speeches I’ve ever heard in Hockey and really helped the team get their competitive spirit back. Never winning is definitely tough so I’m glad that his team pulled it out in the very end. Another character was one of Jack’s band buddies, but he didn’t do much. He mostly just slept on the job and attempted to have some witty dialogue, but he forgot the wit part of it. The side characters didn’t have much to do, but again…it was a fairly short film. There wasn’t a whole lot that they could do so the film just developed them all a bit and kept it moving. Hey, it still had time to fit in the “cheesy bully turns good” moment.

The best moments in the film were probably the snowball fights. These action moments were a good contrast to the rest of the film. There were a few solid rounds and they all had very serious themes playing. Yes, the film actually had a soundtrack and it was actually very good. I was pleasantly surprised to see this. Watching the kids all get defeated by a Snowman was also pretty rich. Hey, Jack’s a natural at this. The animation for the Snowman wasn’t bad I suppose as they got the permanent glare that Frosty always had, but the actual design could have been a little better. I would have liked fists instead of twigs for the hands since it would have let Jack fight a little more. I suppose that was good news for his opponents though.

Overall, Jack Frost was a fun film. It’s not the kind of film that will end up being particularly memorable, but it hit enough of the right notes. I wouldn’t say that the film did anything wrong and while the ending was underwhelming, it wasn’t terrible of anything like that. A bad ending can go a long way, but this ending is good enough to not hurt the film. I’d recommend this to someone that just wants to see a nice film for Christmas. It’s mostly pretty uplifting and while it tries to have a somber plot, I’d say that it is less successful in that department. Maybe it’s about time I check out those Santa Clause films again. It’ll help pass the time by until they make a Jack Frost vs Mummy 2018 film or something. That’d be a fun match up although they’d need to power up Frost a bit. This version was not too strong to say the least.

Overall 7/10