Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
[4K/Digital]
I’ve always known about Beetlejuice but I never sat down and actually got to know it. That changed last year when I watched (or rewatched? I can’t remember) the first movie and truly hung out with it for a coffee. What struck me was its personality: it was fun going back to a time when Tim Burton was (arguably) more creative and where all this stuff was fresh. The first Beetlejuice is just perfectly cast and as engaging now as it was almost 40 years ago (wow!). I gave it 4 stars on Letterboxd and said “Everything about Beetlejuice is scary and stylish in the best possible way. It’s sweet, hilarious, visually compelling, and welcomes the audience into its strange little world. It teaches us that weirdos can also be cool.” Wow, I nailed it!
What a shocker that Burton made a sequel. I don’t think the man is known for revisiting IP, even though when he did (Batman Returns) it ended up being one of the greatest movies of all time. Sequels are always a recipe for disaster, but with the old cast coming back and Burton back at the helm, there was cause for optimism.
There’s a lot going on in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and a lot of it is positive. It turns out that this is indeed a fun world to revisit and Jenna Ortega (who I don’t know from anything else) plays the role well. She fits right in there instead of being a fish out of water. And Michael Keaton’s still got it! Who knew? The look of the movie is a familiar and cozy one and the designs and practical effects are noteworthy and just add to the fun of the whole thing.
This movie is a little overstuffed with ideas, however. There are b plots and c plots and d plots which don’t seem to go anywhere. I get it, you already created the world in the first movie, so why not build on it? But here, Lydia is now a TV phychic, her producer is trying to scam her, her daughter Astrid (why not Ophelia?) is rebelling and becoming estranged, Delia is now a self-involved “artist,” and Astrid is looking for love, finds it, but there’s something fishy about it. Meanwhile, we have the undead world to deal with, with Beetlejuice, Astrid’s dad, and Lydia’s dad (in a hilarious portrayal by everyone EXCEPT Jeffrey Jones) all navigating in and out of it. Too many cooks and some of these recipes just don’t taste great.
I liked Beetlejuice Beetlejuice a lot. More than I care to admit, but look, someone left this script out in the rain. It’s wet and messy and some pages seem to be completely missing.
