Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)


I admit that I am not a big fan of the original Beetlejuice.  It has a lot going for it, like a unique vision of the afterlife, and some memorable performances from Winona Ryder, Geena Davis and Glenn Shaddix.  The problem I had was with the title character himself.  Michael Keaton is not in the movie much, but those times are supposed to be highlights since Beetlejuice is supposed to be the main antagonist.  In his efforts to come across as a whacky ghost, though, the portrayal of the character has always annoyed me.

The reason I always came back to it every now and then is because the cartoon did the character justice and concentrated more on building a friendship between him and Lydia rather than being a creepy old ghost trying to marry a teenager.  There was also more emphasis on the afterlife, and it was that cartoon that kept the spirit of the original movie alive.  Tim Burton never really saw a reason for a sequel and it became even less likely as original cast members died or did stuff to kill their careers.

Burton finally found a script he liked and managed to get Keaton back as well as current hot celebrity Jenna Ortega, who stars in the series Wendesday, which Burton also produces.  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is one of the reasons for the delay in a second season of that series, although it is becoming more likely that we will rejoin Wednesday as a bitter, 40-year-old divorcee rather than as a boarding school student.  Still, this allowed Ortega to keep a bit in the spotlight while checking in on the Deetz family after a long absence. 

Lydia (Ryder) is now the host of Ghost House, a program where she speaks to spirits to help people out with hauntings in their own homes.  When she receives a call from her stepmother Delia (Catherine O'Hara) that her father has died she returns to Winter River for the funeral along with her boyfriend and manager Rory (Justin Theroux) and daughter Astrid (Ortega).  Lydia and Astrid do not get along, with her daughter thinking she is a fraud and angry about the fact her parents split up shortly before her father Richard (Santiago Cabrera) died.

Lydia is on edge because she has been seeing glimpses of Beetlejuice who, it turns out, is still in love with her and wants to see if he has a second chance.  Unfortunately, his previous wife Delores (Monica Bellucci), who has the power to consume the souls of spirits, has reassembled and is looking for him, causing some major disturbances in the afterlife.  Astrid is also kind of seeing a boy named Jeremy (Arthur Conti) who is not all he appears to be, leading Lydia to have to do the unthinkable and ask Beetlejuice for help. 

In a wise move Burton does place a lot of the action in the afterlife, using practical and makeup effects instead of CGI whenever possible.  We meet a spectral police force headed by a former action movie star named Wolf Jackson (Willem Defoe) and Beetlejuice's staff of shrunken-headed ghosts that work customer service for the dead.  Danny DeVito shows up briefly as a janitor and all the sets and everything are great.  A lot of thought and creativity went into what we see.

But that is where it ends.  It is not a tepid retread of Beetlejuice like it could have been, but where in many cases the audience could connect with the characters in the original that is gone in this one.  Astrid isn't given any setting other than mopey, Lydia is far from the confident person she was becoming at the end of the first movie and, while Delores is set up as an interesting bad girl, there is no payoff.  

The only one that comes out on top is Keaton as he seems to have toned down some of the antics to where Beetlejuice no longer grates on the nerves.  He's still not a good guy like in the cartoon but he is more of a roguish personality, and we get his origin story told in the style of a black-and-white Mario Bava film.  Even the central theme for Lydia having to rescue Astrid comes off as dull, as the lead up to that is predictable.

Not a surprise as the script does have three writers listed and who knows how many script doctors behind the scenes.  Burton may have directed but this is yet another movie made by committee, or possibly just fed into a computer to print out a script and then work it out as filming went along.  What's worse is that it seems critics fell for it, praising it Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as some sort of return to form for Burton, while it is obviously still sub-par when compared to much of his early work. 

Not to mention having to sit through two versions of "MacArthur Park".  I still have no idea how a great songwriter like Jimmy Webb made one of the worst songs in existence, and have no idea why Burton or anyone thought this would be funnier than the Harry Belafonte songs in the original.  

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Time: 105 minutes
Starring: Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Michael Keaton, Justin Theroux, Catherine O'Hara, Monica Bellucci
Director: Tim Burton

 

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