I’ve seen Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in theaters twice now, with the hope that I would enjoy it more the second time. I thought that perhaps I wasn’t in the right frame of mind the first time I saw it. Maybe I was leaning too heavily on my memories of the first film which I’ve seen dozens of times.
The first time I saw it I did my makeup with sand worm lips and purple and green ghostly eyeshadow. I even wore my Beetlejuice earrings and bought the $20 popcorn bucket. Disappointment. The second time was just as underwhelming as the first, minus the makeup and plastic popcorn bucket. It’s a classic sequel, not living up to the promise of the first film. Capturing only shadows of the magic of its predecessor.
Not to say it’s a complete bust, this film brought some cool things to the franchise such as a shrunken head character called Bob. There was a couple of musical numbers—one that went on for entirely too long. The sand worms were there, only in CG this time instead of stop motion animation.
Like I said, some of the magic and the weirdness was gone. Monica Belluci was there in all her ghostly glory, the movie would have been just as good without her character’s brief appearances, but she was there. The Tim Burton atmosphere is pervasive starting with the blended overhead/attic model shots of the town and the familiar music by Danny Elfman.
Ortega’s Astrid wasn’t really interesting enough to carry the film. She was just sullen and resentful with none of the quirkiness or charm that warmed audiences to a young Lydia. I suppose her Marie Curie costume was supposed to be quirky and interesting; we know this because her father’s character tells the audience as much.
Nothing about her character had the audience rooting for her. Catherine O’Hara was fantastic as Delia, and it was nice to see that she and Lydia have come to some sort of understanding over the years. Justin Theroux did a great job as Rory, a slimy tv producer who is dating Lydia. I couldn’t quite figure out what Willem Dafoe was doing in this movie. He was “acting” but it was bizarre, and not in a good way.
Jenna Notably missing was Jeffrey Jones who plays Charles Deetz due to his being in jail for soliciting a minor. Burton found a hilarious work around with someone else playing the character of Charles after he had been halfway eaten by a shark. Winona Ryder was fantastic in her reprisal of Lydia. She nailed the cheesy tv host aspect of the character.
Michael Keaton inhabited the Beetlejuice character once more, although with the perviness significantly toned down for modern audiences, and was pitch perfect as the trickster demon. I didn’t love that he broke the 4th wall so many times by looking at the audience and giving Jim Halpert expressions with snide comments. Apparently, Beetlejuice breaks the 4th wall a lot in the musical and it may have been a nod to that.
Something new to this film was the introduction of the Soul Train. A train that takes the souls of the dead to the Great Beyond which is surrounded by ghosts dancing to disco beats. Burton has faced criticism in the past for not including much racial diversity in his films. It felt like he heard that criticism and decided to throw the audiences a bone by including all of the Black people in the entire movie in one scene. This ham-handed attempt at inclusivity fell pretty flat.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice didn’t work as a popcorn movie or as a cult hit the way the original Beetlejuice found success. But I would watch it again on a rainy Saturday afternoon if it came on the television. Scratch that, If given a choice, I would rather watch the chaotic Beetlejuice cartoon. The sequel ended up feeling like more of a money grab that an exercise in creativity.
Discover more from I Heart Noise
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.