Tag: Catherine O'Hara

Film Review: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (The Geffen Company/Plan B Entertainment/Tim Burton Productions/Domain Entertainment)

By: Jesse Striewski

Many moons ago, my Aunt Sharron took me to a video store (couldn’t tell you if it was a major rental chain such as Blockbuster, or simply a mom and pop type of place), where we picked up a “new release” for the night called Beetlejuice from Director Tim Burton, whose Pee Wee’s Big Adventure a few years earlier I was already a huge fan of.

I was in awe as I watched in the dimly lit room full of ’80s decor (I definitely recall there being plenty of furniture with wood paneling surrounding us), partially frightened, yet fully intrigued. There was no doubt about it, I was falling in love (and in more ways than one…Winona Ryder as goth goddess Lydia Deetz was actively stealing my heart as one of my very first, and very real crushes).

Fast forward more than three decades later, and Burton finally returns to the unique world that is Beetlejuice. Upon initially hearing this, I instantly knew I had to be there in the theater with the family as soon as possible, even if so many long-awaited sequels, reboots, etc…in recent memory have only tarnished once-great franchises (ahem, the Halloween “requels” are the first things to come to mind).

But much like the more recent Ghostbusters entries, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is the exception to the rule, even if there may be a hiccup or two along the way. All these years later we find Lydia (Ryder) has (most appropriately) become a ghost-hunting TV show host. When her stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) informs her that her father Charles (played by the now-disgraced Jeffrey Jones in the first movie) has died in a horrific plane crash, she brings her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) and Producer boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux) home to Winter River for the funeral.

It doesn’t take long before the “ghost with the most” himself, “Betelgeuse” – who is dealing with problems of his own in the afterlife when his ex-wife Delores (played by Monica Bellucci, who oozes on the screen with massive sex appeal) – rises from the grave seeking revenge on him – starts becoming a factor in their lives again.

Like the original, there’s twists and turns around nearly every corner, with just enough side/back stories thrown in without any of them becoming overwhelming. Willem Dafoe stands out as one of the films unsung heroes Wolf Jackson, a former action movie star who in the afterlife thinks he’s a legit detective, and even the often overly-exposed Oretga does an admirable job here.

The only real complaints are the way several other aspects are handled; the quick glossing over of the Maitland couple (played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis in the 1988 original), and the disappointing treatment of the Charles Deetz character is admittedly in pretty bad taste.

But I digress; like the first film, I found myself getting completely lost in the world Burton has created here. As a follow-up to a movie like Beetlejuice, it’s a perfectly suitable continuation; I’m not really sure what else audiences could really expect from such a film.

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Retrospective: 30 Years of ‘Home Alone’ By Jesse Striewski

I can remember it like it was yesterday; I was a typical 9-year-old kid growing up in New Jersey (and if memory serves me correct, there was even snow on the ground at the time) when my big sister took me one cold winter night to see this new film everyone was raving about, Home Alone. As soon as the opening credits rolled, I could tell (even then at my young age) I was watching something uniquely special. And being around the same age as Kevin McCallister (played by Macaulay Culkin), it felt as though my own childhood fantasies were coming to life and jumping onto the big screen right before me. It was no doubt an event unlike any other, and by the next Monday morning at school, every kid was talking about and quoting Kevin’s lines.

Writer/Producer John Hughes, the mastermind behind such ’80s classics as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty in Pink, and Uncle Buck, came up with the idea for Home Alone almost by accident, when, while packing for a family vacation, imagined what it might be like if he were to suddenly leave his ten year old son behind. In doing so, he manged to capture exactly what every red-blooded American kid has dreamed of since the dawn of time.

Rather than direct the film himself, Hughes gave the duties to Chris Columbus, who already had a couple of film credits under his belt, and was even originally slated to direct another Hughes-holiday production the previous year, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (before tensions with that film’s lead, Chevy Chase, lead to him dropping out of the project). But Columbus proved to be the right fit for Hughes’ new project, bringing his own sleek, youthful spin to the finished product.

The adult cast quickly included a number of veteran stars; the roles of bumbling crooks Harry and Marv were respectively given to Joe Pesci, who was hot off the tails of the hit blockbusters, Goodfellas and Lethal Weapon 2, and a young Daniel Stern, who was already gaining momentum with roles such as Little Monsters. Meanwhile the duties of Kevin’s parents were given to Catherine O’Hara (Beetlejuice) and John Heard (C.H.U.D.). John Hughes alumni, the late John Candy (Uncle Buck) also appeared in a bit part. But when it came to casting the film’s young star, Kevin, Hughes eventually turned to another Uncle Buck star, the young Macaulay Culkin, after a long audition process.

The story itself of course centered around Kevin being left completely alone at his house just before Christmas, as a series of hectic events leads his family to forget about him while rushing to catch a plane to Paris on time. Kevin is instantly left to his own devices; at first it’s an all-out party, but soon enough Kevin realizes he has to actually take care of himself and learn such mundane choirs (often with humorous results) as grocery shopping and doing laundry, while also dealing with unknown fears that include a creepy basement, and a strange old neighbor.

But it’s when Kevin discovers his house has been targeted by the Wet Bandits, Harry and Marv, that he’s truly forced to step up and defend his home. Using household items that includes everything from paint cans to mirco machines, Kevin constructs an elaborate series of booby traps throughout the house, fighting off Harry and Marv in almost cartoon-like, slapstick fashion. In a recent interview, actor Michael C. Maronna, who portrayed Kevin’s older brother, Jeff (best remembered for uttering the infamous line, “Kevin, you’re such a disease!”) told Rewind It Magazine; “It was a confluence of good factors (script, direction, actors, style) that added up to a good (if violent) family Christmas film.”

The film was an instant success, earning over $476 million worldwide, and becoming the highest-grossing live action comedy film of all time (a title it would hold for over two decades). It also spawned four sequels (with only the first two of them being released theatrically) and countless parodies (Macaulay Culkin somewhat reprised his role as Kevin in a 2018 ad for Google Assistant, and appeared on a Home Alone-themed episode of the webseries The Angry Video Game Nerd around the same time). Today, it is regarded as a classic, and is still played nearly around the clock on various cable stations til this day. As a husband and father now myself, I usually catch the film with my family at least once every Christmas season.

Regarding the film’s legacy, recent Rewind It Magazine interviewee Diana Rein, who appeared in the film as Kevin’s older cousin Sondra, reflected to us; “There’s so many people who watch it multiple times every year, it’s like their holiday tradition! I’m SO grateful it’s still around like it is!” You can check out our full interview with Rein from our Dec. 19 article; and be sure to look out for the rest of our full interview with Maronna, posting later this week!