JP Nunez
I pretty much grew up on Beetlejuice. I loved the movie, I watched the TV show, and I even had a few Beetlejuice action figures, so when I heard that a sequel named Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was in the works, the news instantly caught my eye. And when I found out that Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, and Winona Ryder were all coming back, I was over the moon. The film instantly became one of my most anticipated titles of the year, and I couldn’t wait to see what crazy antics the Ghost with the Most would get up to this time.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was directed by Tim Burton, and it stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Jenna Ortega, Arthur Conti, and Willem Dafoe. For much of the movie’s runtime, it essentially tells two distinct stories. On the one hand, we have Lydia Deetz and her family. The poor woman’s father has just died, so she has to take her stepmother, her daughter, and her boyfriend up to her parents’ old house for the funeral.
On the other hand, we have the titular specter. Beetlejuice’s wife manages to put herself back together after being cut into pieces and stored in multiple boxes, and she’s out for revenge. She’s scouring the afterlife for her trickster husband, and she’ll stop at nothing to find him. Somewhat surprisingly, this second narrative track is little more than a minor subplot, so Beetlejuice Beetlejuice only touches on it every now and then. The emphasis is clearly on the human characters, but by the end, everything comes together in a super fun finale.
I’m not going to lie, for about the first hour or so, I didn’t exactly love Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. It feels like two different films merely juxtaposed rather than truly integrated into one overarching narrative, and to be honest, it’s tough to even know what the whole thing is about. The movie just doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, so it’s forced to rely almost entirely on fun nostalgia. And for the most part, it works.
For instance, we see the afterlife waiting room, we briefly visit the sandworms’ desert home, and Tim Burton uses a lot of the same practical effects that made the 1988 original such a hit with fans, and it all looks almost exactly the same as it did over 30 years ago. But above all else, the presence of Lydia and her stepmother, Delia, are almost guaranteed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside if you’re a fan of the original Beetlejuice.
Admittedly, I don’t think Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara are quite as good in these roles as they were in that first film, but they’re more than good enough to convince you that they really are these characters, just several decades older. Lydia is still the “strange and unusual” goth girl we all know and love, and Delia is still the pretentious artist you just can’t help but roll your eyes at.
As I said, the first hour of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice relies almost exclusively on that nostalgia trip, but there is a bit more to it than that. It also introduces a few newcomers, and they’re all great. But hands down, the best of the bunch is Lydia’s daughter, Astrid, played wonderfully by Jenna Ortega. She brings some of the same harsh, all-business demeanor that made her portrayal of Wednesday Addams so beloved, but it’s not nearly as dark. Ortega perfectly blends that vibe with a more typical teenage girl attitude, and as usual, she absolutely knocks it out of the park.
On top of that, this film is also really funny, and almost every character contributes to that comedy. To take just a few examples, Beetlejuice is as hilariously irreverent as ever, Delia’s absurdly dramatic antics are so over the top you can’t help but get a kick out of her, and Lydia’s boyfriend, Rory, is even more ridiculous than his potential future mother-in-law. There were numerous scenes that had my entire theater in stitches, so on that front, this movie is an absolute success.
The great characters, fun nostalgia, and effective humor manage to keep the first hour of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice afloat despite its lack of narrative direction, but just barely. And coming from me, that’s saying something. I eat up nostalgia like it’s my job, so I adore films like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, The Flash, and Alien: Romulus. But the first hour of this one didn’t have anywhere near the same effect on me. Sure, I still enjoyed it, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit underwhelmed.
Thankfully though, the final 35-40 minutes end the experience on a much better note. I can’t get into specifics without spoiling the movie’s surprises, but suffice it to say that there comes a point when the story seems to just magically crystalize out of thin air. We realize that one of the characters is in mortal danger, and there’s only one bio-exorcist who can save her.
From there, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice becomes an absolute blast of practical-effects-driven horror comedy, and when the credits began to roll, I had a big smile on my face. This part of the film retains all the strengths of the first hour while overcoming its biggest weakness, so despite a rocky start, I ultimately enjoyed this long-overdue sequel to one of my favorite childhood staples. Sure, the movie’s narrative struggles keep it from even coming close to its full potential, but I walked away happy, and the way I see it, that’s a definite win.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is set to hit theaters on September 6.
