Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (B) takes the haunted house movie to a whole new level with Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin as a recently deceased couple trying to co-exist in the same bucolic household with an eccentric family including a goth girl played by Winona Ryder, plus the titular sleazy demon (Michael Keaton under outrageous prosthetics) being summoned in highly charged situations for madcap mayhem. Burton is best when crafting fantastical worlds of eccentric creatures and human oddities, and this is a candy shop for him, full of purgatories populated with characters in various modes of cartoon-style deaths and physical sight gags galore. The story and characters are largely adrift, leaving only Keaton as a real standout in his commanding and wisecracking 17 minutes on screen. The production is wide-eyed, colorful and full of iconic costumes and practical effects. The humor is just a little rude and the effects just a little crude, and it makes for a fun and adventurous modern comedy.
Coming to America (B), directed by John Landis, is a classic fish out of water comedy with a contemporary twist. Eddie Murphy plays the naïf Prince Akeem of the fictional African country Zamunda who travels with his best friend (Arsenio Hall) to New York undercover in order to find his bride. Murphy is committed to the role as basically the straight man of the comedy but gets to unleash his inner stand-up by playing a bunch of supporting characters under clever prosthetics including the eccentric denizens of a Queens barber shop. Although there’s a through-line of a plot, it’s really a film of episodes representing varying levels of amusement. Landis does some effective world building with the exotic locations on multiple continents. Kudos to Murphy for lots of funny notions and for delivering some wry commentary amidst the madcap adventure. Ultimately there’s more lark than bite, but it’s mostly pleasant fun.
