‘Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice’ Review – The Juice is Reduced
A big problem with sequels that come decades after the original film is that they tend to rehash the same story points. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice looked to do just that based on the trailers, but thankfully it is a mostly pleasant surprise when it comes to being something new from the Ghost with the Most.
With the introduction of Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe), a big action movie star turned afterlife detective, a string of murders involving a bunch of slurped-up corpses, and a suspect that has made it abundantly clear that they are looking for Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), the run-of-the-mill routine of dying and taking a number at the DMV of the afterlife has become more than a little hectic.
Back in the world of the living, Charles Deetz has died. This reunites Lydia (Winona Ryder) and Delia (Catherine O’Hara) but takes some convincing from Lydia’s daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega). Lydia has made a living based on her ability to talk to ghosts, but Astrid is a science major in college who thinks ghosts are a figment of her mother’s imagination. She hates her mother for not being able to allow Astrid to speak with her deceased father.
As Lydia struggles to organize her affairs, Astrid opens the door to the afterlife, which leads Lydia to turn to Beetlejuice for help.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice embraces mostly practical effects, which is a huge deal these days. The sequel incorporates a ton of stop-motion animation, which only authenticates that morbid Tim Burton stamp of approval. The moments of CGI contained in the film, like the sequence of social media influencers being sucked into their phones, are understandable but noticeably less appealing. Visually, practical effects not only look better but stand the test of time far longer. Tim Burton knows this so it pays off here.
For those unaware, Jeffrey Jones, the man who portrayed Charles Deetz in Beetlejuice, is a sex offender and was arrested in 2002 for possession of child pornography. Despite having acting roles after that, Jones’ career was never the same. What they do with the Charles Deetz character in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is nothing short of brilliant.
Charles gets a stop-motion animated sequence that explains how he died which is also narrated by Catherine O’Hara. It’s a long-winded story that is as amusing as ridiculous, but it culminates with Charles getting his head and shoulders bitten off by a shark. Charles stumbles around the afterlife with a piece of his spinal cord showing that spurts blood when he speaks; complete with a gurgly voice. He shows up sporadically throughout the film; gloriously headless and portrayed by someone new.
The sequel mostly capitalizes on what made the first film so entertaining. There’s a decent balance between horror and comedy as there are just as many potential scares as absurd bits. Performance-wise, the returning cast is great. Michael Keaton is having just as much fun here as he did 36 years ago and Catherine O’Hara is as fantastic as ever. Willem Dafoe outshines every other new cast member as Jenna Ortega’s Astrid is far more interesting than the modern version of Lydia.
There are several shortcomings in Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice and most of them come down to the film’s writing. Many of the characters are written in questionable ways. The trauma aspect of Lydia’s character wouldn’t be out of the question, realistically speaking. A demon traumatized her and her family as she realized that she could see and contact the dead.
But Lydia is such a pushover in this sequel. She does whatever anyone tells her to do and goes with anything thrown at her despite how illogical it may seem. She’s turned her paranormal communication talent into a TV monopoly; she’s romantically involved with the biggest douchebag in the film, and she agrees to a marriage proposal in the wake of her recently deceased father. Lydia has become everything her younger self would hate.
Speaking of Lydia and her bad romance, Rory (Justin Theroux) is atrocious. He is Lydia’s current manager who somehow turned their association into a relationship after they met at the same therapeutic center. Rory embodies sleaze as he makes every situation in the film about himself. He’s like a hippy who got promoted to corporate hippy. You know he’s up to something shady from the start and it’s more annoying than anything that Lydia goes with it. His fate is nowhere near as gruesome as it should be.
Delores (Monica Belucci) is an interesting character even if she’s a recycled version of Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride. She’s a soul sucker, which means she can walk up to someone and inhale their soul leaving them like an empty and crumpled-up juice box.
She has a connection to Beetlejuice, which has her chasing after him the entire film. The issue is that it isn’t exactly clear if she wants to devour his soul or get back together with him. It doesn’t help that Delores exits the film in the most anticlimactic way imaginable.
The original Beetlejuice is known for having fun with lip-synching and silly dance numbers, but the sequel takes it a bit too far. The film’s end utilizes the Richard Harris song “MacArthur Park” from 1968. The song is over seven minutes long and Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice uses it in its entirety. The sequence starts fine but goes on entirely too long.
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice is nowhere near as good as the original film as belated sequels are rarely worth it. But despite its absurd number of defects, it still manages to be ghoulishly silly fun. It’s undoubtedly the best and most entertaining Tim Burton film in years.
NEXT: ‘Alien: Romulus’ Review – Facehuggin’ The Franchise
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024), Warner Bros. Pictures
PROS
- Practical effects
- The majority of the cast
- Charles Deetz
- Anything stop-motion
CONS
- Rory
- Lydia
- The Delores character goes nowhere
- MacArthur Park sequence
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