Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2 ½ stars out of 4)
Back in 1998, I went to see “Blues Brothers 2000” with tempered excitement. I was genuinely looking forward to the experience, but I knew I should keep my expectations low. There was no chance the film would even approach the grandeur of what had become my favorite movie of all-time, and even more importantly, 50% of the titular brothers had been dead for almost twenty years.
I came away feeling like I’d attended a high school reunion. It was fun to see a bunch of familiar faces, and there were some good moments, but the experience felt more like a tribute to the original movie than a new chapter in the story. And I think that description can be applied to most of the classic franchises that have been drudged up in the last twenty years.
So far, the only exception to this rule seems to be “Top Gun: Maverick,” which was even better than the original movie. And after seeing Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” this week, Tom Cruise is still alone on top of the mountain of long-delayed sequels.
To its credit, “Beetlejuice 2” is a pretty fun movie. It’s fun to see some familiar faces, and there are some scattered good moments. But it’s not a good movie. And unfortunately, it really could have been.
Going in, I noted that thanks to the main character’s heavy makeup and Michael Keaton’s talented physical comedy skills, there was no reason the new “Beetlejuice” movie couldn’t pick up right where the original left off. And for their parts, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara also seemed to be at the peak of their talents.
Unfortunately—unforgivably—it’s the script that lets the movie down. Penned by a trio of writers, the “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” story is an incoherent mess, and the lesson is clear: even if you have a manic main character, your story still has to make sense.
The first movie centered around the exploits of the Maitlands, a newly-dead couple who recruit a paranormal exterminator (Keaton) to get rid of the eccentric family (including O’Hara and Ryder) who buy their home in the wake of their deaths. There was a lot going on, but it still kept a pretty tight focus.
The story in “Beetlejuice 2” feels more like a group of unrelated threads that only come together because they happen to involve the original characters. Matriarch Delia (O’Hara) is still an eccentric artist, and step-daughter Lydia (Ryder) has channeled her ability to see the dead into fame and fortune as a TV personality—which seems like a very not-Lydia Deetz thing to do. Lydia’s teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) is now in the old Lydia role, resenting her family and being bullied by her peers for being an oddball. The Maitlands have “moved on,” but Beetlejuice is still waiting to spring into action once someone is unwise enough to say his name three times.
Aside from tying together familiar faces, the story threads in “Beetlejuice 2” all seem to involve dysfunctional romantic relationships. Early on, Delia’s husband (Jeffrey Jones in the first film) is killed in a shark attack, Lydia’s producer Rory (Justin Theroux) responds by suddenly proposing marriage, and in her efforts to get away from her family’s craziness, Astrid meets a boy (Arthur Conti) who seems a little too good to be true. For his part, Beetlejuice still pines for Lydia, but even he is being hunted by a mysterious woman from his own past (Monica Bellucci).
The hijinks that follow offer plenty of callbacks to the original film, and Burton has some fun in his old late-‘80s sandbox. Keaton is fantastic in his old role, even if the story undercuts the impact of his character. But there’s really no central story here, nothing to drive the action forward, and what we’re watching feels more like writers throwing random ideas at the wall and trying to make all of them stick. Sadly, it seems like they are using the craziness of the Burton Universe as an excuse to ignore the rules of good storytelling.
If you squint a little and roll with it, you might just enjoy the ride. For many, seeing Keaton back in action as the “ghost with the most” will be sufficient. But the truth is that “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” should have been a much better movie, even with the compromised standards of a 35+ year sequel.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is rated PG-13 for a generous amount of macabre (if comic) frights and gore, plus some vulgarity and profanity.