40/49
Beetlejuice: I think it was Dostoevsky who said
Story
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. Jenna Ortega, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Justin Theroux, and Monica Bellucci share why filming Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice was an experience they’ll never forget. Tim Burton said he would only make this movie if Michael Keaton returned to reprise his role. Keaton said in March 2014 that this is the only sequel he is interested in doing.. Lydia informs Astrid that Rory wants to get married at midnight on Halloween night. That would make November 1st, since midnight is the start of a new day, and thus it would no longer be Halloween..
Later, the damn
SPOILER: There is a dedication in the closing credits to Bob the Skinner, who died in the film.. Featured on Late Night with Seth Meyers: Michael Keaton/Connor O'Malley (2024). MacArthur ParkWritten by Jimmy WebbPerformed by Donna Summer Courtesy of Island Def Jam Music Group Under license from Universal Music Operations Ltd. Full 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. CastKeaton, Ryder and O'Hara all return, unfortunately Baldwin & Davis doesn’t. However, I fully understand Burton’s reasons for not including them.
Could the characters survive?
Also along for the ride are always great Ortega, Dafoe, Theroux and Bellucci, although she is absolutely wasted here. Devito gives us a memorable cameo appearance and Burn Gorman gives us some scenes. VerdictBeetlejuice 2 is one of those sequels that people have been talking about for decades, including countless rumors, fake news, and even fan-made trailers, but I never expected to happen. When the trailer came out, it was officially, undeniably, and I was both excited and hesitant. You see I’m of that generation that saw the original movie when it first came out and loved it, but 36 years later I got a sequel! Could it live up to expectations? Well, the answer is a very mixed bag.
Ryder delivered and was fantastic, this was a great return
Three and a half decades on, the logical thing to do was to play nostalgia hard, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice surprised me how little it did. Yes, there are nods here and there, yes there are throwback scenes and yes there is a certain song that returns, but for the most part they are really making a movie here for a new generation that probably didn’t see the original more than Beetlejuice. The fans and I personally didn’t appreciate this and found it a baffling choice. Next in the cast, Keaton as Beetlejuice didn’t feel the same way, I’m not sure if it was him or the writer, but he wasn’t the engaging character we love and know from the 80’s. Lydia? O'Hara was very much Delia again, but we remember that Delia is a deeply annoying character, right? So that much screen time compared to the original movie was definitely not a good thing.
And when we have the Beetlejuice scenes, they are very, very lackluster
Theroux was excellent, Ortega was brilliant, Dafoe was his usual crazy self and Bellucci was…….well, she was there. You see I love Bellucci but in the end she was set up as the films antagonist, she is barely on screen, contributes nothing and even the characters swansong is rushed and frankly terrible. You see the plot is very tired and extremely generic, it needed that nostalgia, it needed Beetlejuice, it doesn’t have much of either.