Almost as ghoulishly fun as the original.
The rental video store I used to go to as a kid was called “Hollywood Video,” and when it was closing its doors, it was giving away their VHS tapes. One of the videos I’ve gotten was Tim Burton’s 1988 ghoulish comedy “Beetlejuice,” which had Michael Keaton playing a crazy bio-exorcist, whose name (spelled “Betelgeuse”) must be said three times in order to conjure him. Of course, he has his ways of making some people zip their lips. Now that was one of my childhood’s most iconic movies.
Questions were asked about when Burton was going to make a sequel and have Keaton reprise his role, but now that time has come, and it makes sense that it would be called “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” instead of “Beetlejuice 2.” After all, some sequels don’t take chances with their titles, so how about “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.”
In the 2010s and 2020s, we’ve have had a number of 80s sequels like “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Vacation,” “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” “Coming 2 America,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” “A Christmas Story Christmas,” “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” and even “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.” Some of them are fresh, some are good, and some are crappy. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” doesn’t top the original, but it does like to honor it, even in the afterlife.
Winona Ryder is also back as Lydia Deetz, who has a reality TV show regarding paranormal possessions, which makes her teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) resent her, and her manager and boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux) exploit her gifts. Then, she visits her stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara, also back in her role), who informs her that her father Charles has died (remember: Jeffrey Jones has been registered as a sex offender). And they all must return to the house to pack up his belongings and for his funeral.
But when Astrid ends up in danger, Lydia is forced to summon the ghost she was almost forced to marry and say his name three times. You know. “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.” There’s Keaton. He’s back, his head is back to normal size, and he’s trying to dodge his dead wife Delores (Monica Belluci), who was the leader of a soul sucking cult and wants revenge on him. Lydia needs his help, and I think you know what his condition is for saving her daughter.
Yes, the story gets jumbled from time to time and some things just come and go, and the jokes aren’t perfect, but this sequel likes to live up to the hype and has fun trying. I admire how Burton stays faithful to his original film without tainting it to appease to new generation of movie-goers. He’s trying to appease to the old generation of movie-goers. The sets and decor of the afterlife are still remarkable, the special effects are as practical as intended, the waiting room corpses are twisted and wickedly funny, and I like how they interpret the Soul Train.
Keaton still has the juice in him with the voice and make-up, Ryder consistently transcends her character in the 2020s, O’Hara is hilarious with her verbal gimmicks, and Willem Dafoe has attitude as the B-movie actor-turned-ghost detective Wolf Jackson, whose motto is “Got to be Real.” And look where it got him.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” comes in a time when movie cynicism is at an all time high, but it also comes when people celebrate nostalgia and throwbacks. Keaton and Burton couldn’t throwback their old tricks even further. And I still like how Beetlejuice lip syncs to Richard Marx’s “Right Here Waiting” and how he has his musical number of “MacArthur Park.”