BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
(director: Tim Burton; screenwriters: story by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Seth Grahame Smith/Gough, Millar; cinematographer: Haris Zambarloukos; editor: Jay Prychidny; music: Danny Elfman; cast: Michael Keaton (Beetlejuice), Winona Ryder (Lydia Deetz), Catherine O’Hara (Delia Deetz), Jenna Ortega (Astrid Deetz), Willem Dafoe (Wolf Jackson), Justin Theroux (Rory), Danny DeVito (janitor), Monica Bellucci (Delores), Arthur Conti (Jeremy), Santiago Cabrera (Richard), Burn Gorman (Father Damien); Runtime: 104; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Marc Toberoff, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Tommy Harper,Tim Burton; Warner Bros. Pictures; 2024)
“Less fun than the original.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
An unfocused, campy and stylish sequel to Beetlejuice (1988), the original cult horror-comedy. Director Tim Burton (“Dumbo”/”Edward Scissorhands”), who is in a slump of late, hopes to get back on track directing the sequel to a film where he made his rep 36 years ago.
It’s written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, from a story they wrote with Seth Grahame Smith. It turns back to the original (with some success) and forward with new story lines (with less success). Burton keeps things busy, frantically moving and filled with macabre visuals. But the film offers less fun than the original while trying to have twice as much fun.
The new story revolves around the widowed Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), a medium who is a popular paranormal talk show host of the program called Ghost House. She previously moved with her family from NY into a country haunted house in Winter River as a goth teenager and became a believer that there are real connections the mortal world has with the afterlife. Since becoming a widow–her hubby (Santiago Cabrera) died in an accident in the Amazon–she has moved back to her beloved childhood home.
At the haunted house, she has a problem dealing with her teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega), who resents that she spends more time with the ghosts than with her.
When Lydia’s sex offender father dies, her artist stepmother of outrageous objects, Delia (Catherine O’Hara), someone she has a strained relationship with, puts the house up for sale.
Meanwhile Lydia reluctantly accepts an awkward marriage proposal at her father’s funeral from her phony New Age secretive producer Rory (Justin Theroux), someone her daughter finds revolting.
There’s attempts to get laughs wherever it can from its many comical situations. There are also several musical numbers that pop-up, like a great rendition of MacArthur Park and a weaker version of Day-O that rocked the original as one of its most inspired musical moments.
When needing help with her daughter, who accidentally opens a portal to the afterlife, Lydia utters Beetlejuice thrice and Michael Keating appears from the other world as Beetlejuice and tries to save the film, help Astrid resolve her problem, and save himself from his irate ex-wife Delores (Monica Belluci). She has risen from the undead and is seeking revenge against him for his nasty past actions.
Willem Dafoe (always in top form) plays Wolf Jackson, a deceased action pic actor who works as a cop in the afterlife.
Meanwhile, the motormouth reprobate Beetlejuice might be overwhelmed by too many sketchy subplots and too many forgettable characters, and a narrative that may still be daffy but is no longer fresh and is no longer viewed as must see entertainment. But the film still has a lot of laughs in it whether silly, sarcastic, snarky or just weird.
It played at the Venice Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 9/8/2024 GRADE: B-
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