Beetlejuice Beetlejuice feels like it should be a disaster. It’s a sequel to a nearly 40-year-old film that had a very distinct tone and sense of humor. Director Tim Burton hasn’t been covering himself in glory in the last couple of decades. And with much of the original cast returning, it looked like everything (and everyone) might be a bit creaky to recreate the manic cartoon energy of the original.
But against all odds, the film isn’t terrible. In fact, it is downright entertaining, and in some scenes comes close to the cheerful morbidity that makes Beetlejuice so special.
Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) left that movie as a sort of special friend of the spirit world. Well, after nearly four decades of life, she and ghosts don’t get along so well anymore. She has a cheesy ghost hunting show that exploits her gifts and a daughter who won’t speak to her. Worse, lately she’s been catching glimpses of the one spirit she never wants to see again: Beetlejuice.
After her father Charles dies in spectacular fashion (head bitten off by a shark in an animated sequence that deftly addresses the impossibility of disgraced Jeffrey Jones returning to the role), she, her step-mother Delia (Catherine O’Hara), and the angry daughter Astrid (Jenny Ortega) converge on the town of Winter River from the first film. That’s where Delia orchestrates and elaborate artsy funeral more about her than Charles.
From there, a series of complications in the real world and the world of the dead re-entwine the fates of Beetlejuice and the Deetz. Astrid doesn’t believe her mother can see and talk to ghosts. If she could, then how come she’s never seen Astrid’s own late father? Down in the Netherworld, Beetlejuice’s ex-wife has literally pulled herself together and is coming to seek revenge. And Lydia’s douchey boyfriend/TV-show producer has decided this funeral will be a wonderful time to both confront Lydia’s demons (literally) and have an impromptu wedding.
If that seems a little overstuffed, it absolutely is. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has at least four major plots running at the same time, and not all of them get the attention they deserve. Monica Bellucci as Delores, the ex-wife, has a bravura entrance. Several boxes containing her dissevered body parts are knocked off a shelf in an accident. Not missing a beat, Delores finds a stapler and gets to putting herself in good order. She has a few good scenes, and Bellucci looks as gorgeous as ever, but her entire plot feels underbaked.
But it’s fun, and it’s funny, filled with ideas that it commits to, however absurd. Willem Dafoe plays an afterworld cop. He was an actor who played cops during life. Every scene he’s in begins with his lovely secretary bringing him a cup of coffee, even if there’s no reason she should be on hand. There’s a train that delivers souls to various parts of the Netherworld. Of course, it’s called the Soul Train, and it takes that joke in the most obvious way possible. And for an exceptionally long time. I didn’t even find it funny but liked the commitment.
Of course, the major attraction of the film is Michael Keaton, returning as Beetlejuice. He doesn’t miss a beat from his original performance. He’s just as disgusting, libidinous, and scheming as before. And he has a lot more screentime. He’s still running his bio-exorcist business, where he hires out to frighten living people that ghosts can’t seem to get rid of. And he’s still obsessed with Lydia. When she inevitably comes calling, he’s ready to help… as long as she’s ready to finally marry him.
As wild and cartoonish as the original film was, it had a heart at its center, and this is another aspect that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice approaches successfully. The strained relationship between Lydia and Astrid is the film’s emotional core.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is softer than its predecessor. It’s not as inventive, and more of its jokes fall flat. But it’s still definitely entertaining, and more importantly it is not just a rehash of the original. It tells its own story and isn’t content to just remind us of what we liked in the previous movie. It’s flawed, but never generic. And a much more entertaining film than I’d dared to hope when it was announced.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has been released on 4K by Warner Brothers. Extras on the release include an audio commentary by director Tim Burton. Video extras include “The Juice is Loose: The Making of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (28 min), a behind-the-scenes featurette; “The Ghost with the Most: Beetlejuice Returns” (9 min), brief interview with the cast and crew on the character of Beetlejuice; “Meet the Deetz” (7 min), a similar piece of the Deetz family; “Shrinkers, Shrinkers Everywhere!” ( min), a short piece on Beetlejuice’s shrunken-head office workers; “An Animated Afterlife: The Stop-Motion Art of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (9 min), a featurette on the film’s few stop-motion animated sequences; “The Handbook for the Recently Deceased” (12 min), a featurette on the visual design of the Netherworld; and “‘Til Death Do We Park: Beetlejuice and Lydia’s First Dance” (8 min), breaking down the lengthy “Macarthur Park” wedding song sequence.
