Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

September 6, 2024 9:14 PM

After a family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia's life is turned upside down when her teenage daughter, Astrid, accidentally opens the portal to the Afterlife.
posted by neilbert (11 comments total)

Took a while for this to get to the bananapants part, but was not disappointed.
posted by RakDaddy at 11:22 PM on September 7 [1 favorite]

That was good fun! Still bonkers enough.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 1:15 PM on September 12

this was SO. MUCH. FUN. not on the scale of princess bride, but that I could even think to compare the two should give you an idea of how great it was. it was definitely a sequel that matched the first film.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 8:21 PM on September 13 [1 favorite]

Just got out of this and I found so much joy during the whole experience! I’d been side eyeing this movie since I heard it was in production, but I’m so glad I gave it a chance. While I loved the movie as a kid, my true love was the cartoon series, because I loved seeing Lydia and Beetlejuice going on wacky adventures. I think this film had just enough of that vibe combined with the tone and aesthetic of the movie and it worked brilliantly.
posted by haplesschild at 11:49 PM on September 13

I was a little wary going into this, but really enjoyed it. Liked how much it was its own film and not a "tribute" (retread) of the original, and that Lydia was still the main character. It threaded the needle well between horror and hijinx while investing me in the human-level plot.

And the Astrid's love interest plotline didn't overstay his welcome. Conversely Beetlejuice's ex seemed to be disposed of pretty much as soon as she entered the A-plot. And I feel like all the major plot beats would have happened much the same without her. Loved her intro sequence though.

Least favourite part - pregnancy body horror. Squick.

Favourite part was the implication that the original film's sandworms weren't stop motion - the sandworms of Titan are just like that.
posted by Lorc at 9:54 AM on September 22

Saw it and enjoyed it. It was faithful to the spirit of the original. Michael Keaton hasn't lost any of his steps.

Looking at it critically, though, I do think that the Dolores storyline and the Jeremy storyline needed more time. Dolores needed to develop more of a sense of menace; Astrid needed to develop more of a rapport with Jeremy, and/or we needed to get the sense that something was Not Right with him. I suspect there's a cut of the film out there that's 30 minutes longer where both of these things are true. The Charles storyline was kind of a distraction.

I am curious why Jeffrey Jones didn't reprise Charles. He's still around, and has continued working. Looking at his wikipedia entry, I see he has an unsavory episode in his past that might have made someone on the cast or crew rule him out.
posted by adamrice at 5:26 PM on September 22

I am curious why Jeffrey Jones didn't reprise Charles. He's still around, and has continued working. Looking at his wikipedia entry, I see he has an unsavory episode in his past that might have made someone on the cast or crew rule him out.

That is precisely why he was not included (except for his animated likeness) in this one; His arrest on child porn charges (found by police while investigating an accusation against Jones of sexual misconduct with a minor) is likely the reason why the LAPD also hassled Paul Reubens (also part of Burton's circle of actors) about his vintage erotica collection. It turned out that Reubens' collection (mostly vintage muscle and nudist magazines) DID NOT contain CP materials but the whole thing led a lot of people to believe otherwise. I can believe that Burton might have cut off Jones due to that entire situation and the resulting blowback.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:41 AM on September 23

"Unsavory" is an understatement. He pleaded no contest to soliciting a 14-year-old for explicit pictures. I'm not sure how he's working at all.
posted by praemunire at 12:56 PM on September 23 [1 favorite]

MacArthur Park was a *choice* for a musical number. I have never been a fan of that song but it was absolutely worthy of that sendup. To me the funniest part of the movie was the passport stamp, because it is absolutely on brand for Beetlejuice and it was so perfectly executed, the delivery and the timing were great. It was Looney Tunes-esque. Winona Ryder was great, and you can tell Keaton loves loves loves playing this role. Monica Belluci was a good casting choice; Dolores reminded me of La Catrina makeup that you’ll see for Dia de los Muertos. Best movie of the year, well, no, but it was quite entertaining.

But one thing I have to mention is that all these years later, it felt so good to be in a theater and have that theme music start up again at the beginning of the movie.
posted by azpenguin at 6:17 PM on September 24

I'm not a hardcore lifelong fan of the original or anything, so I kind of watched this in a "well, kinda want to watch a movie, so why not I guess" kind of way, and it delivered to exactly that sort of level for me. I like when a movie is a tight 105 minutes nowadays, though it did also seemingly wind up meaning that it felt like it really could have used, like, two or three fewer main characters. The way that the storylines get abruptly cut off (like Ghost Boyfriend at the station with the trap door) feels so jarring that I kind of automatically expected there to be some sort of payoff coming later, that never came. Also the part where Beetlejuice just kind of dies by having someone say his name three times in the chapel or something felt like maybe I had missed some sort of crucial exposition about how the rules work?

I did enjoy the way that the sandworms kept their low-frame-rate æsthetic (presumably in CGI meant to ape stop-motion), and Willem Dafoe at the end gave me my only real laugh-out-loud moment with his casual but very serious advice about not forgetting to keep it real. And of course they had a lot of fun with Beetlejuice's general Looney-Tunes-ness.

Probably wouldn't bother watching it again, but I didn't hate it! It did kind of make me think about how the original kind of heavily leans on the special effects for most of its charm. Overall: my initial reaction to hearing about the sequel existing was "I can't imagine what it might have to offer," and after watching I still kind of feel the same way, heh.
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:31 PM on October 14

This was fun, but despite having watched it yesterday, I am already busy forgetting all about it.

Burton is a desiccated husk of the talent he once was. While the whole thing had "Tim! Burton! Style!" it had it in the way that Disney+ Star Wars shows have "Star Wars" style. It treats that style as a bag of signifiers and production choices that professional nerds who grew up loving the original material can recreate, if they are skilled and fastidious. But I couldn't point to a single thing in the film that had Burton's pre-mid-1990's verve, not one thing that was truly surprising.

So what we're left with is a sort of fan service sequel/competently rendered IP extension. And I am a fan of Beetlejuice, so I had fun, basically. But whereas the original was 100 minutes of delightful what is even happening, this was 100 minutes of additional things happening in a universe I like, that didn't color outside of the lines.

Jesus Christ, that "MacArthur Park" number went on way too long.

And wow did Monica Bellucci get the Official Tim Burton's Girlfriend Who Doesn't Have Much to Do Role. Those used to go to Lisa Marie Smith, but Burton is a lifelong believer in the Louis Prima school of constantly looking for a chance to trade up.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:03 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]