Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Rated PG-13 for Thematic Elements, Violence, Macabre Humor and Brief Strong Language.
I have been a fan of the original Beetlejuice movie since I was in elementary school. It was released in 1988, and I think I might have seen it two years after its release, since I was only seven at the time, but I always found it very funny, especially all of the practical special effects, since CGI special effects were in their infancy. Now that I am....uhhhh, 43 and have gone back and rewatched the original while gearing up for the sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, (also, I wanted to mention, my wife, Lindsey, had never seen the original, and she wanted to go to this one with me, so we watched the original together.) She found it silly, and the sequel is more of that silliness, but doubled down.
My favorite element from the original was all of the makeup and costumes that the people in the afterlife waiting room, since they all resembled their deaths. For example, there is a guy that is char black, and he's smoking a cigarette, a diver with a shark attached to his leg, and my personal favorite, a man in a sleeping bag with a rattlesnake rattle sticking out of the sleeping bag. There is a lot more of that in this second outing. There is a lot more of the afterlife shown, so there is a lot of fun costumes and makeup again that made the original special.
The story isn't bad, but at the same time, there are four plots going on at the same time, and the one that you think will have the biggest payoff ends up being the weaker of the four plots, and literally ends within one minute. The basic storyline picks up thirty years after we left our characters who are happily sharing their home with two nice ghosts of the couple that lived in the house before the main characters in this one.
Lydia (Played again by Wynonna Ryder), who has her own "Ghost Hunting" TV show, but she is in a pathetic relationship with the producer of the show. However, as Lydia starts seeing flashes of Beetlejuice, (of course wonderfully played by Michael Keaton), and thinks they are just Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, but it really is him just flashing himself so that she can't get rid of him in her mind and in real life. Lydia also has a daughter, (Played by Jenna Ortega) in this one who attends the same school for girls that Lydia attended at the end of the first film, but she is the butt of jokes and pranks. Even Lydia's stepmother, Delia, (Played great by Catherine O'Hara), is in the mix.
The characters are all brought together with Lydia finding out her father, Charles, has passed away, and a funeral is held. However, the man Lydia is dating, Rory (Played by Justin Theroux) doesn't really love, is trying hard to insert himself into the family, and Lydia is put on the spot with a proposal at her father's funeral, and reluctantly accepts. Upsetting Astrid, she takes off on her bike but crashes and meets a good-looking boy that she finds interesting, as they both are kind of into weird things in common. This is plot one and two so far.
The third plot has Beetlejuice working in an office, trying to come back to the land of the living, and is still in love with Lydia, who wishes she could completely forget. This plot thickens when there is an accident in the afterlife world, and we find out that Beetlejuice has been married before to a beautiful, but terrifying woman, Deloris, (Played by the gorgeous Monica Bellucci), and we find out she is what they call a "Soul Sucker", a person who can steal someone's soul by breathing it out of the poor person, which makes the victim cease to exist all together.
Plot four deals with how Lydia and Astrid lost their husband and father, and are sad and depressed about it, making the relationship with Lydia and Rory even more awkward. I won't talk much about this plot because the less you know of this one, the better.
The plots are a lot of unpack in an hour and forty-five minutes, but they all seem to come together just fine. My wife liked this one more because there were more stories and funny practical effects, makeup and costumes. The movie also has some interesting story telling gimmicks. The first is a stop-motion sequence about how Lydia's father passed away. Then there is a Beetlejuice scene where he starts telling the story about him and his soul sucking wife, but it turns into a black and white, French impressionist sequence. We also get another quick trip to the moon of Saturn where the Claymation Sandworms.
All in all, I really enjoyed this outing. It's been over thirty years since the first film was released, and even though it's been forever, and doing a sequel almost sounds like a quick cash grab by the studio and filmmakers, it actually takes the charm from the original, and like I said, doubles down on what made the first one so fun. I was thinking that even though so much time has passed, it made the storylines make more sense. Lydia is all grown up and middle-aged with an older teenager who also goes on the crazy adventures, and the characters were written and played to have that much time in between the two films.
I also have to say, I love Tim Burton, but it seems like it's been almost a decade since he has had a fun and entertaining outing, and this one brings back all of the charm that Tim Burton had, and still has when he has a passion project like this film to let loose and do what he does best. Also worth noting, pardon the pun, Danny Elfman is back as the composer, and his music transports you right back into the story. There are also a few other songs in the soundtrack in the film that are funny, but no Harry Belafonte' music is heard at all, besides the children's choir at Charles' funeral.
If you love Tim Burton, or at least the first Beetlejuice, I think you will have a lot of fun with this one. Yes, the plots get tangled because there are a lot of things going on, but they get untangled in the end, even if one of them should have had a bigger finish. If you aren't a Tim Burton fan or didn't like the first film, you will not like this one at all.
As I mentioned, I took my wife, Lindsey, with me, and had a fun night out at the movies. I felt it was on par with the first one. It felt like there were stories worth telling to warrant the sequel, and heaven forbid, I could see a future where we might tie everything together in a "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetle........Well, I better not say his name three times.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is rated PG-13 for Thematic Elements, Violence, Macabre Humor and Brief Strong Language.
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