Movie Review: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Synopsis: Decades after avoiding a forced wedding to the demonic Betelgeuse, Lydia Deetz is a widowed mother of a teenager and famous host of a paranormal talk show. When she learns her father, Charles, has been killed in a shark attack, she, her stepmother, Delia, and her teenage daughter, Astrid, return to her former home in Winter River, Connecticut for the funeral and Lydia soon discovers Betelgeuse is still around and still seeking to marry her, this time to escape the soul-sucking ghost of his first wife, Delores.
Who's in it? The movie stars Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenna Ortega, Catherine O'Hara and Willem Dafoe.
Review: When I first learned they were going to release a sequel to Beetlejuice 36 years after it first came out, I had a lot of doubts about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and decided I wasn't going to risk my money watching it at the theater. My wife and I finally got around to watching it tonight, now that it is available on Netflix and, while I was correct in assuming it wasn't as good as the original, it did end up surprising me.
While a bit cartoonish (I even told my wife it reminded me more of the Saturday morning Beetlejuice cartoon than the original film), the movie does have quite a few funny parts in it. Michael Keaton is at his best as the title character, bringing a decent mix of evil and comedy while the remnants of the original cast meshed well with the newer additions.
My wife and I also liked the part about Lydia (Ryder) needing to travel into the afterlife to save Astrid (Ortega) after the latter was tricked into giving up her living soul. It allowed for some interesting takes on that underexplored part of the original film, and I especially liked the Soul Train.
My biggest complaint about the movie is it does try to do too much. Betelgeuse gets his fair amount of screen time (much more than in the original, I think), complete with song and dance numbers but, because of that, the two other villains, including the very intriguing Delores (Monica Belluci) don't get enough. Both were defeated way too easily, and I was beginning to wonder if the writers completely forgot about Delores.
I also honestly wasn't that big of a fan of the ending, which had some parts that were a bit of a downer and left things on a somewhat confusing note. It was the kind of ending you would expect if a third movie was a given but, considering Keaton is in his 70s, I'm not so certain that was the way to go.
Final Opinion: The movie is entertaining but there's a reason why the original is a classic. This film tried a little too hard to live up to it and fell a bit short in the process.
My Grade: B
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