"Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" lost his juice...

SPOILER REVIEW

It's been 36 years since the juice has been loose and needless to say...he's lost his touch. This sequel completely feels like they needed to bring back this beloved cult classic just because Jenna Ortega has emerged into the horror world and since she's already been working with Tim Burton on Wednesday S1 and S2, I felt this was his excuse to make another with Jenna bringing in new audiences.

STORY

Since the crazy orginal back in 1988, Lydia Deets played by the beloved Winona Ryder has gotten her own television show helping bring people face to face with their own haunted houses and has made quite a name for herself. During this time, we catch her having glimpses of Beetlejuice at random times. If you're paying attention, you'll notice she sees him 3 times (hence the saying of his name 3 times brings him to the real world). Each one basically freaks her out a bit. She's formed a relationship with the producer of the show which turns out to be extremely annoying (more on that later).

Her daughter, Astrid, played by Jenna Ortega, could not be more annoyed of her "alleged mom". She fails to believe in the same supernatural world and thinks everything is just for show and money. During a funeral for her grandpa, she decides to take her bike for a ride downtown and ends up meeting a boy whom she ends up liking who actually turns out to be dead and thus our story really begins. But everything up to this point is just a romantic comedy at best. Not much to do with BJ himself or that world.

Photo by Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictu - © 2024 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Speaking of, Danny Devito has a nice little cameo in this film as a janitor. His weird electrical shock ends up introducing the most pointless part of this story...Beetlejuice's ex-wife, Delores, played by Monica Bellucci. According to BJ, she's extremely pissed that he chopped her up and that's why she's determined to find him. Without having any real climatic scene between her and BJ, her plot is quickly gobbled up by a sandworm at the end making that storyline completely useless. Why they even included her in the film is beyond me.

Back to the story about the dead teen. It's revealed that this boy Astrid runs into is actually dead and to both of their shock, she can see him which no one has before. Long story short, he cons her into trading lives with him so he can be alive again in the real world and she will be stuck in the dead world. The whole reason he even brought her there was so she could see her dead dad (which she does by the way). Lydia Deets then tries to save her by summoning the almighty Beetlejuice for help. If you thought this story sounded random...it is.

Tim Burton is known to make weird and out there films and you can find this one in the way back far left corner of all those weird films. This just didn't have the same love and care as the original did. This honestly feels like you're watching a romantic comedy with Winona Ryder and Justin Theroux and Beetlejuice is just there to remind you that you're supposed to be watching a Beetlejuice film. I also would like to note one other thing...the "not so absent" Charles Deets, played by Jeffrey Jones.

Photo by Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictu - © 2024 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

If you've been following the news, you'll know that Jeffrey Jones pleaded no contest to counts of child pornography back in 2003. While the man is not in prison, he's a registered sex offender. This leads me to believe that this is the reason why his face isn't necessarily shown in the film. In fact, in the film, they say he died from a shark attack. I do find it funny that the shark just happened to bite most of his upper body off as to not show his face. His role in this film is a bit confusing for me. Normally when an actor gets in trouble with the law, they are usually referenced in film/tv for the sake of the story and not necessarily shown, but in this case, his body and voice pop up pretty frequently. I mean, in fact, the entire movie basically takes place around his funeral. To keep it short, Delia Deetz, played by Catherine O'Hara, desperately misses him and ends up dying on accident and reunites with him in the dead world. Again...another random plot line.

CHARACTERS

Winona Ryder does an excellent job as portraying an older Lydia Deetz. Think of her in Stranger Things only with her Lydia hairstyle and you've got it. She has not lost her touch when it comes to delivering comedy in random ways. From making moose noises to being nervous about her daughter with a boy, she wins every time. But you also feel pretty bad for her because she just struggles with making the right decision.

Justin Theroux plays the annoying producer that Lydia falls for and let me just say, if there was one character to completely bring down an entire movie, it's him. His constant obsession with Lydia and the stupid decision to propose to her on her dad's funeral is enough for me to wish his character actually died and never came back. Catherine O'Hara represents all of us when it comes to dealing with him.

Jenna Ortega delivers the same dead pan face a lot during this film. At times, it was like watching Wednesday only in regular clothes. As I've stated earlier, I feel this film was only made because she emerged onto the scene in a big way. She was definitely brought on to bring in new audiences, which I understand, but I think her involvement in the film could've been used a lot better.

Michael Keaton did a great job portraying Beetlejuice once again. He definitely was not as obnoxious as he was the first time, but he delivered the character with ease. I wish he would've been a little more exploitive though because that's what makes Beetlejuice...Beetlejuice. Although it looks like he had disappeared forever at the end, I feel like a third movie is on it's way but who knows.

William DeFoe makes a nice appearance in this film playing Wolf Jackson, a ghost detective who used to be an actor. He actually plays a bigger part in this film than I would've thought. He's great for playing the bad guy and also the good guy at the same time (looking back at "Spiderman"). It's pretty clear that his character is there for comic refief only but still, brings a good laugh when we need one.

Photo by Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictu - © 2024 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Tim Burton is known to have films that travel down a random rabbit hole and this is right there with them. While this works in most of his films, this film is continuing a storyline that, in my opinion, was not thought out perfectly. I felt this was made for the sake of having a second movie and trying to revive an old classic. In theory, I could see how this could take off and be something very successful but just missed the mark on this one making this a sequel that didn’t need to be made. As a big Tim Burton fan, I’m fine with erasing this film from my memory and sticking to the original.