Clean and Sober: Warner, pan&scan, languages: English Dolby Surround [CC], subtitles: none, single side-single layer, 34 chapters, rated R, 124 min., $14.98, street date 11/10/98.

Directed by Tim Burton. Starring Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O'Hara, Winona Ryder.

What's a yuppie ghost couple to do when their quaint New England home is overrun by trendy New Yorkers? They hire a freelance "bio-exorcist" to spook the intruders. And everyone get more than he, she or it bargained for!

Director Tim Burton (Batman, Mars Attack!) teams with Michael Keaton (Night Shift, Batman). The result? "Keaton's Beetlejuice is one of the biggest, baddest wolves a ghost movie has ever unleashed, a polter-gas" (The Village Voice). He's a juggernaut of jokes, jolts and jive who hurls one-liners, spins into grotesque forms, gobbles insects and can't leave ladies (living or dead) alone. Keaton's wild work in this and Clean and Sober won him 1988's National Society of Film Critics Best Actor Award.

Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder and Sylvia Sidney share starring honors with the movie's wondrous production design, Harry Belafonte soundtrack tunes and Academy Award winning Best Makeup. So exorcise your right to fun. Say the "B" word three times and have a wonderful Day-O!

Clean and Sober: Directed by Glenn Gordon Caron. Starring Michael Keaton, Kathy Baker, Morgan Freeman, Tate Donovan, Henry Judd Baker, Claudia Christian.

When the comic star of Night Shift and Beetlejuice tackled his first dramatic role, the result was one of Michael Keaton's best performances ever, earning the National Society of Film Critics Best Actor Award.

Keaton plays real-estate broker Darryl Poyater, whose cocaine habit nearly consumes him until he enters a local detox program promising discretion and privacy. It also guarantees one thing more: the toughest battle of his life. Powerfully directed by Glenn Gordon Caron and boasting other great work from Kathy Baker, Morgan Freeman and M. Emmet Walsh, Clean and Sober is a hard-hitting study of besting personal demons...one day at a time.

However, the events of 1988 were to alter that path, at least briefly. Keaton starred in two films that year - Beetlejuice and Clean and Sober. While both films featured extremely divergent subject matter, they coalesced in one respect: the near-unanimous praise for Keaton's work in both pictures. One year and one National Society of Film Critics award as best actor (interestingly, the award was given to him as a result of his work in BOTH movies), Keaton made it to "A"-list status with his starring role in mega-hit Batman. It seems extremely unlikely that he could have obtained that plum part as the Dark Knight had he not made such positive impressions with his 1988 output.

Of course, this comeback wasn't to last very long. After Batman, Keaton did well with Batman Returns and some nice cameos in Out of Sight and Jackie Brown, but other than that, he's not exactly set the world on fire. (Jack Frost? Yikes!)

But that's neither here nor there in the context of this article. I though it might be interesting to examine via DVD the work that Keaton did to make his late 1980s comeback.

Of the two films in question, I find Beetlejuice to be the far more compelling picture. Ironically, though Keaton's performance still ranks among his best work, I feel that of his seven films, Beetlejuice is one of director Tim Burton's weakest efforts; in my opinion, only 1994's Ed Wood falls below it on my list.

This isn't to denigrate either of those films, not by a long shot; they're both solid pictures. However, such is the genius of Burton that his misfires are more compelling than most Hollywood hacks' successes. Again, not that I consider Beetlejuice to be a misfire, but I think Burton has made much better movies than it.

Also ironically, 1988 proved who the real creative force behind 1985's Pee-Wee's Big Adventure was. I loved and continue to adore P-WBA. Although it's snobbishly dismissed as piffle by many, few films have ever approached its level of creativity, wit, and manic energy; it easily remains one of the five funniest films ever made. I had always assumed that this was because of Pee-Wee himself; I figured it had to be Paul Reubens' show, right?

How wrong I was! Within a few months of each other, we saw the follow-up efforts from both Reubens and Burton. As already discussed, Beetlejuice was a delight and it performed well at the box office. Big Top Pee-Wee, on the other hand, was an absolute disaster. Man, I saw that thing opening night, and not only did it fail to reignite the sparks caused by P-WBA, it couldn't even muster any giggles. I didn't laugh once during the entire (thankfully brief) enterprise. In fact, I think the on-screen antics only provoked me to SMILE once or twice. Most of the time, I sat gape-jawed in horror at the putrid "comedy" shown before me.

Clearly, Burton was the real auteur behind the brilliant extravaganza that was P-WBA, though it took his subsequent films to establish that fact even more clearly. While most view Beetlejuice as superior to P-WBA, clearly I disagree; the former tries harder to be more of a coherent film - as magnificent as it was, P-WBA essentially amounted to a series of loosely connected gags - but it simply lacked the bizarre creativity of the earlier effort.

Nonetheless, Beetlejuice was and remains a thoroughly entertaining little romp through the afterlife. Keaton's work in the film has been justifiably praised; without his brash performance as the title character, the movie still would have worked well but it would have lacked the spark that took it to another level. Keaton pulls out all the stops in a necessarily over the top tour de force.

Through an amazingly successful job of casting, the film also features a shockingly high percentage of actors who went on to varying degrees of fame and fortune. Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Alex Baldwin - all these actors were virtual unknowns when Beetlejuice was released; only Davis has achieved any significant success with her minor role in Tootsie. (Interestingly, 1988 was a great year for her, as well; she earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for that year's Accidental Tourist.)

Really, the most prominent actors in the film other than Keaton were Catherine O'Hara and Jeffrey Jones, and one wouldn't exactly call them superstars. O'Hara was (and still is) best know for her consistently superlative work on the late, much lamented SCTV, and Jones appeared in supporting roles in hits like Amadeus and Ferris Beuller's Day Off.

No matter what their previous or future successes may have been, all members of the cast acquit themselves well. To a degree, all are overshadowed by Keaton, of course, but that was virtually inevitable; most of his scenes were written so that the rest of the cast essentially acted as straight men for him. Nonetheless, all the other members of this amazing cast do terrifically well. I seriously doubt that the magnificent Catherine O'Hara could ever be less then delightful (though she couldn't save the first two Home Alone movies), and Winona Ryder played her role as Goth teen Lydia with a nice balance of spunk and misery. Jeffrey Jones supplies his usual level of unplayed goofiness as well.

Actually, although it may seem otherwise, Keaton's really a supporting player in Beetlejuice; the film's mainly about the recently-deceased Maitlands and their difficult adjustment to the afterlife. Both Baldwin and Davis play their roles as the only normal people in the film with charm and fine comedic timing.

(As an aside, here's a fun internet variation of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: while writing this review, I checked on all the actors' filmographies through IMDB. I think it's fascinating to see just how many times members of the cast crossed each others' paths in the future. For example, Glenn Shadix appeared with Winona Ryder in 1989's Heathers and with Keaton in 1996's Multiplicity, as well as performing a voice for 1993's Burton-produced Nightmare Before Christmas, as did Catherine O'Hara. Well, I think it's fun!)

In contrast to the perverse fantasy romp that is Beetlejuice, we have the much more realistic and down to earth drama of Clean and Sober. While Beetlejuice boasts many elements that make it work, Clean and Sober really only has one: its cast. Get beyond Keaton and supporting actors such as Kathy Baker, Morgan Freeman, and M. Emmet Walsh, and you're dealing with fairly typical TV movie fare.

Although the possibility that he would "ham it up" seemed great, Keaton largely avoids the pitfalls commonly experienced by comedic actors who turn to drama. At times he goes too broad, but for the most part he keeps himself restrained and believable; Keaton doesn't go to the "feel my pain" excesses that less disciplined actors might.

Despite Keaton's best efforts, however, I'm not terribly sure that I really believed his character's transformation from reckless drunk/druggie to stable recovering drunk/druggie. While his change doesn't occur in the "miraculous" way that some films might portray, it still seemed too easy for me. Keaton plays Daryl Poynter, an embezzling real estate broker who hits rock bottom and enters a rehab center solely to try to hide from the long arm of the law. Much of the first half of the film works hard to establish that Poynter definitely doesn't buy into the whole rehab/AA culture and that he doesn't think he has a problem.

But then all of a sudden he DOES begin to accept and embrace the notion of a drug and alcohol free lifestyle. It never makes much sense to me why he changes so drastically. I suppose part of it occurs because he meets and falls for Charlie (Baker), another recovering addict; his affection for her enables Poynter to go for wastoid in the first half of the film to attempted redeemer during the second part as he tries to persuade Charlie to escape her abusive relationship and to keep her from falling back into her old cocaine- loving habits. He doesn't, which I guess is supposed to make the film gritty, but it all seems to artificial to me. We never see Poynter stumble once he's made his commitment, even though he seems like a probable candidate for relapse; instead, the movie has OTHERS (Charlie and another rehab center patient) give in to their temptations. That looks like the film wants to have its cake and eat it too; it wants to show us the pitfalls and perils experienced by recovering addicts, but it doesn't want to tarnish the newly shiny image it has given to its protagonist.

In my opinion, that just doesn't wash, and the cowardly way it introduces bathos at the end of the film really ruins the experience. If you haven't seen the movie, I won't give it away, but let's just say the filmmakers try to have both happy and sad endings at the same time, and it deflates any real possibilities for either.

Baker's fine as Charlie. Actually, she's probably better than Keaton, since her character comes across like more of a real person throughout the entire picture, as opposed to the role model Poynter becomes. Freeman provides his usual rock-solid performance as rehab counselor Craig, but it's wasted in an underwritten and largely inconsequential role.

As I alluded earlier, there's little to Clean and Sober that differentiates it from regular TV "Movie of the Week" fare. Sure, it provides a lot more profanity, plus a little nudity, but other than that, it'd fit in well on any of the major networks. Actually, it'd probably work better on something like cable's Lifetime, one of those networks that loves this "real stories of real people dealing with real problems" stuff.

Don't get me wrong: Clean and Sober is by no means a BAD film. It's simply extremely mediocre, despite its extremely capable cast. Nothing here makes it stand out; we've seen it all before, and it's not done in a way that offers any kind of new or unusual experience.

Clearly I find Beetlejuice to be the superior film, and it's also the superior DVD. Overall, the picture quality on this DVD is pretty terrific. Focus remains sharp from beginning to end, and colors look bold and vibrant. Strangely, the film only displays significant problems during outdoor daylight scenes; at these times, the image seems oversaturated and frequently plagued with terrible moire effects. This situation is unusual, to say the least, since daylight shots almost universally look better than indoor segments. That ain't the case here; most of the film takes place inside the Maitland's house, and it looks great.

Beetlejuice boasts one of Warner Brothers' beloved soundtracks that has been "remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1" (as the box so proudly tells us) and it sounds pretty good. I'm not quite sure what difference the remastering makes; I've heard a few others that fall into that category, and while they don't match true 5.1 mixes, they generally offer at least a modicum of rear surround separation and effects. That's not the case with Beetlejuice. While it makes the surround channel a fairly active participant, it remains essentially a glorified Pro Logic mix; at no point during the film did I detect any split surround usage.

Beetlejuice contains a minor array of supplements. We get the theatrical trailer and the standard cast and crew bios. The DVD also includes a few printed screens of semi-interesting production notes (many of which are simply more crew biographies) and an option to watch the film with a "music only" soundtrack. Who do I have to kill to get a Tim Burton audio commentary? I don't even care which of his films it accompanies, but it's about time we had one!

While both Beetlejuice and Clean and Sober are distributed by Warner Brothers, the former was one of their standard $24.98 MSRP releases. Clean and Sober, on the other hand, came out through WB's recent bargain "no frills" line that lists for only $14.98. Is the difference between the two lines worth an extra ten bucks? I think so, but you make the call!

The Beetlejuice DVD offers you the option of either letterboxed (to a mild 1.85:1 ratio) or full-screen versions; Clean and Sober, however, provides only the full-screen rendition. It's a perfectly mediocre transfer. While it maintains pretty decent sharpness and focus throughout the entire film (much better than stablemates Protocol and Doc Hollywood, for example), the movie seems overly flat and drab. Granted, some of the dinginess on display may be related to design decisions. After all, this isn't The Wizard of Oz; I'm sure they wanted to give the film a muted, subdued appearance. However, the look of the DVD goes beyond that; I don't think it's supposed to look quite THIS dreary and undersaturated. Nonetheless, the picture seems adequate and it shouldn't detract from the experience.

Likewise, the Dolby Pro Logic 2.0 mix seems competent but unspectacular. It's actually a bit more active and lively than I would have expected, but you won't confuse it for Jurassic Park. Rear channel usage was limited to environmental effects, and it does a passable job of creating a sound field. I believe that even when Dolby Digital mixes don't utilize split surrounds (ala Beetlejuice), they usually remain superior to standard Dolby Pro Logic mixes simply because of the full-range nature of the rear speakers that's unique to the former. In Beetlejuice, sounds from the rear channels match the caliber of those from the front, but in Clean and Sober, there's a distinct degradation in quality discernible between front and rear; the surrounds consistently sound harsher and less natural than the main channels. Still, it's a decent little mix for this type of film.

As the "no frills" label would imply, Clean and Sober contains absolutely nothing in the way of supplements. No trailer, no production notes, no captions in any language - not even a photo from the film on the menu's title page! I'm not really complaining, but still...! This DVD is about as basic as it gets.

In the end, I give Beetlejuice a fairly high recommendation. It's an above- average DVD for an above-average film. Clean and Sober, on the other hand, is not a DVD that clearly merits your hard-earned cash. It's an acceptable presentation of a mediocre film, but that's all it is. Its low price makes it more appealing, but I think it's more worth your while to spend a little more money for more complete and entertaining packages.