Burton Gets the Gang Back Together for a Sequel That is far From Dead, Much Like the Beloved Titular Character Embodied by Michael Keaton.
DIRECTED BY: TIM BURTON/2024
36 years after we last left the ghost with the most, Beetlejuice re-emerges from the underworld with an all new scheme to free himself from the shackles of death. While this sequel promises opportunities for nostalgia for those who loved the 1980’s classic film Beetlejuice, this latest installment is strongest when it embraces the modern story it is telling and gives itself over fully to fantastic ensemble cast that appears in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Once that happens, we find that Tim Burton is firing on all cylinders once he starts really playing in the sandbox he first introduced us to, nearly four decades ago.
Michael Keaton is back in the titular role of Beetlejuice and he is clearly enjoying his return to this character. Like the original film, his presence is felt all over the film despite only clocking in about 17-18 minutes of actual screentime. This is nearly the exact amount of time he appeared in the original film. This is something Keaton mentions was important to his return as he felt it better serves the overall story. Given the make up that helps create Beetlejuice’s undead appearance, Keaton looks and acts like he hasn’t aged a day since the original film. This allows him to continue to rapid-fire one liners across his screentime that mostly hit more than they miss.
Returning with Keaton from the first film is Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz, the former teenager who could see the ghosts of Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) Maitland from the original film. Baldwin and Davis’ characters have moved on to their final destination and thus don’t appear in this sequel. Instead Ryder portrays Lydia as a 50-ish year old mother who is still dealing with the grief of her former husband, as well as the trauma of her original encounter with Beetlejuice when she almost had to marry him to save the Maitlands. Over the years this has affected her relationship with her daughter Astrid (played by series newcomer Jenna Ortega) who is a girl struggling with her own grief from the loss of her father. To make matters worse, her mom, Lydia, can see ghosts…except for her father, whom she longs to re-connect with. Also returning is Catherine O’Hara as Delia Deetz, Lydia’s step-mother who is continuing to pursue her art, which funds her excessive philanthropy.
The glaring absence is that of Jeffrey Jones who played Charles Deetz, the husband of Delia and father of Lydia. His character is given a cleaver narrative in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice that allows for Burton to continue the character without a true recast and to not include the original actor in the film given his sex offender status stemming from a 2003 arrest. Charles is given an off-screen death that includes a stop-motion animation re-creation that leads our 3 generations of Deetz girls to have a catalyst to deal with their grief and bring them back to the house from the original film which will bring them back to a face-to-face encounter with Beetlejuice himself.
The times Beetlejuice Beetlejuice tries to pay homage to the original film just for fan service of those who remember seeing it when it first debuted are the times where this film stumbles. It slows things down and keeps the new story from firing on all cylinders. When the script from Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Seth Grahame-Smith clears the cobwebs of the past from this current story, things begin to move forward at a fun pace. Fortunately, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has much more of a new fresh story than wasted nostalgia, so the end result is a ridiculously fun sequel 36 years in the making….in those times it is allowed to be its own thing apart from the first film.
Willem Dafoe has the most fun in this new sequel playing Wolf Jackson, a former action actor, who leads the investigative Police force of the underworld. He is clearly relishing this role and shows a comedic timing throughout the runtime of the film when he is featured. Monica Belluci stars as Delores, the ex-wife of Beetlejuice, is also a standout in this sequel. Also joining the cast is Justin Theroux, and Arthur Conti in pivotal roles for this story (which I won’t go into for plot reasons). Danny DeVito has a fun cameo as he reunites with Tim Burton once again.
Shrunken-head Bob will be the big hit of the film, serving a role that is similar as the loveable minions in the Despicable Me series. Fans of the series will also like the fan-service inclusion of Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” from the original film, as well as what is done with Donna Summer’s “MacArthur Park” in this sequel. Overall, Burton & company have put together a fun film that continues the 36-year old story of Beetlejuice, that when allowed to run away from the nostalgia of the original film actually surpasses the beloved 80’s film, though just slightly. If interviews are to be believed, we shouldn’t expect a Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sequel in the future. Besides, as we’ve learned, we don’t want to say his name a third time, and risk the destruction that will come. Box Office returns can always change this of course, but Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a fine sequel and a fitting conclusion to the story of the Deetz family and the ghost with the most. For now, as the titular character declares, “The ‘juice’ is loose” and after the long 36-year wait, it is a welcomed return.
