Film: Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

 

GENRE: Dark Comedy
RATING: PG-13 for violent content and language
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 45 minutes
PLATFORM: Movie Theatres
STARRING: Michael Keaton (Batman, Birdman, Spotlight, Beetlejuice)
Winona Ryder (Little Women); Jenna Ortega (Wednesday, Scream VI)
DIRECTOR: Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Beetlejuice)
WRITERS: Alfred Gough & Miles Millar (Shanghai Noon, Smallville)
PLOT: The Deetz family returns for a funeral but end up needing Beetlejuice after a family member makes an uninformed choice.  

FULL DISCLOSURE: Usually apprehensive of legacy sequels.

STORY STUFF: That was a mixed bag. There are some very fun parts of this film but way too many plot threads. The stuff with Beetlejuice is awesome and the Deetz family stuff is okay, although Justin Theroux is to hammy. Willem Dafoe’s actor cop is completely unnecessary as is Monica Bellucci as Beetlejuice’s ex-wife who is trying to track him down. There are some nice callbacks to the first one along with a rousing musical number near the end. I do miss the Harry Belafonte tunes though. There is a snippet of an eighties ballad lip-synch that made me laugh out loud in the theatre. I also was thankful that the film was short and sweet being under two hours – how refreshing.    

ACTING STUFF: Keaton commands the screen once again as Beetlejuice – he brings the energy, the sounds, the voice and grossness. Ortega is along to pull in the younger viewers but does a great job as Lydia’s daughter. Catherine O’Hara falls back into her role seamlessly but Ryder is a little clunky at times but that could be because she’s with Theroux who I found annoying. The shrunken head people are fun but the stand out is Bob.       

ARTISTIC STUFF: Because Jeffrey Jones is behind bars, they kill off his character early and tell the story of his death using Claymation. Then they have the top half of his body missing for the rest of the film – pretty clever. While I didn’t see the need for Monica Bellucci’s role, I did enjoy the special effects of stapling her back together as she gets introduced. I was surprised the exposed brain of Dafoe’s character was not more grotesque; it just looked really fake, like they didn’t care. There are some odd song choices in the film that are very un-Burton like. Also, I get the gimmick of the Soul Train but are there this many disco nuts dying or do they just keep filling the platform and train on repeat? I guess I’m not supposed to think about that though.

VERDICT: Three stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You liked the original and are up for a legacy sequel
UPCOMING REVIEW:  Wolfs, Joker: Folie a Deux