When you think very intelligent people you might think about people like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton or perhaps of Leonardo da Vinci. The list is very long and we could probably talk about a lot of historical people who made a great impact on this world. But not all very intelligent people are only people who made paintings or worked on physics. You also have very intelligent people who are very creative, such as making films in a very creative way. One of the people i am especially thinking about is legendary director Tim Burton. In every single film he have made so far in his incredible career he have proved that as long as you dare to take chances and find original ideas, it doesn´t matter what the story is all about. The thing i especially love about director Tim Burton is that he have a very uniqe style in making his films that i can´t really compare with anyone else. No matter if we are talking about Edward Scissorhands, Pee Wee´s Big Adventure, Batman, Ed Wood or Mars Attacks!, each of these films capture the feeling of Tim Burton´s own world where anything is possible. One of my personal favourite Tim Burton films ( even if i love many of his films ) is the 1999 horror film known as Sleepy Hollow. This is a film adaptation loosely based on Washington Irving´s 1820 short story "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow". The film Sleepy Hollow takes place in the upstate Dutch hamlet of Sleepy Hollow in 1799, where Ichabod Crane ( Johnny Depp ) is needed to investigate the murders that are said to be caused by a headless Hessian mercenary from the Revolutionary war. Time is running out and more victims are found along the way, while Ichabod Crane tries to find a way to stop the headless horseman. Sleepy Hollow is filled with delightful horror influences and it really feels lik director Tim Burton tried to capture the tone of the story of The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow in this film adaptation. I highly recommend this film if you have not seen it. Speaking of Tim Burton i was reminded a while ago that his film Beetlejuice have turned 35 years this year and i felt that it would be a great time to revisit the film. Is this still today a very entertaining film or have Beetlejuice aged a lot over these years and have lost some of the magic along the way?
In Winter River, Connecticut, Barbara Maintland ( Geena Davis ) and her husband Adam Maitland ( Alec Baldwin ) dies in a drowning accident when their car fall off a bridge. Not knowing they are deseased at first, they learn that they both died. As Barbara try and leave their house she finds herself in a desert with a sandworm attacking her. She manage to get back to the house but they realise they are stuck there. A new family is ready to move in and neither Adam and Barbara want people to move in. They try to scare them but fails completely, until they discover that there is only one way to really make the new people go away, if they get help from a very odd bio-exorcist known as Beetlejuice ( Michael Keaton ).
To really enjoy a film like Beetlejuice you have to be a fan of Tim Burton in general and especially the combination of comedy and horror from the 80´s. Some of the jokes they have in this film would not go home among feminists in modern times, especially how vulgar the character Beetlejuice is in some scenes. We have to remember that in the 80´s they were able to joke about anything and that´s exactly the way i want a comedy to be. Beetlejuice is no ordinary horror comedy though, because the story of a deceased couple who has to learn to deal with their death have never been portrayed as we get to see in this film. Just the agency where you go to meet your caseworker is filled with crazy details such as hanged dead people dealing with paperwork, while suicide victims works as a secretary. Im not surprised at all why director Tim Burton doesn´t hold back joking about different kinds of death scenarios in these scenes, because he knows how to push boundaries in his own unique way. Let´s talk about the characters for a bit and we might as well begin with the main characters Adam Maitland and Barbara Maitland played by actors Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis. Their screen presence in this film works so well, and their comedy timing hits the right spot every single time they do certain scenes together. However, the real highlight of Beetlejuice is without a doubt Michael Keaton as the character Beetlejuice. This could be one of his most iconic acting performances in his career, because i honestly believe that everyone would love Beetlejuice once they see his personality and how different he is. Beetlejuice feels like a combination of Rodney Dangerfield and Ace Ventura combined, but being a corpse of course. Michael Keaton does not only uses his body language brilliantly but he also deliver some really funny dialogue as well. Glenn Shadix as the character Otto really stands out as well for being rude, ignorant and cares about no one else but himself. I have to mention a young Winona Ryder as the charming young lady Lydia. To be able to joke about death in a brutal way you have to be a director who knows how to do it without having limits, and that is exactly what director Tim Burton does. No matter if he takes us to the sandworms in a desert or creatures from the other side attacking, there are so many creative moments in this film to be pleased about. Beetlejuice is a film like no other, and therefore i have to say it is just as effective today as it was 35 years ago. Director Tim Burton is a genius when it comes to combine horror and comedy and he have proved this for so many years. Time may have passed but Beetlejuice still remain as one of the true classics of horror comedies.
Rating: DDDD
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