BeetleJuice BeetleJuice: Tim Burton back to basics.

⭐⭐⭐

Rob Ryan

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice brings Tim Burton back to his roots of practical effects, eye popping sets, stop motion animation and insane cartoon logic. It's easily his best looking film in over a decade and is probably the shake up he needs after selling out to ugly CGI and unconvincing green screen. The movie like the original begins with a scatterbrained plot with too many characters and too much going on that I almost lost interest, but mercifully once the film finds its footing at the 40 minute mark, it builds to an immensely funny romp that manages to overcome the huge scale of it's world building and wrap up all of it's many plot threads in a surprisingly satisfying way.

To talk about the plot would require me to split it into chunks, as there is a lot going on. Story No.1 Lydia Deeds (the always fabulous Winona Ryder) has grown up and has used her ability of ghost hunting to good use, she has her own TV show in the style of Elvira crossed with Ghost Adventures where she speaks to the deceased of her fellow guests, The very nice dead couple from the first film "The Maitland's" have moved on but the image of world bending demon, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) Still haunts her. (After nearly becoming his child bride over 30 years ago I can't imagine why) She gets a call from vane and self obsessed step mother Delia (Catherine O'Hara who could play this role in her sleep) who tells her that her dad, Charles has died in a plane crash and needs to attend his funeral back at their old house from the original. All the while she is dealing with her agent boyfriend (Justin Theroux) who wants to exploit her for financial gain.

Story No. 2 In the afterlife, a long lost love of Beetlejuice named Dolores (Monica Bellucci) has been revived and now wants revenge for betraying her centuries ago. Story No 3. Lydia now has a daughter (Jenna Ortega) who like a lot of kids in movies hate their mother, her biological dad is out of the picture and she doesn't believe in any of that Ghost crap, she then meets a nice boy (Arthur Conti) who's meet cue will have you rolling your eyes at first. You think this is the obligatory love interest but they manage to do some interesting things with this character then you would initially expect. There is also an afterlife cop (Willem Dafoe) who used to be an actor before dying due to performing his own stunts.

All of these characters and storylines create some problems in the first half as the movie spends a lot of time on one thing that you completely forget about the other, it creates a structure that is almost repetitive and plodding as it keeps cutting away from one plot line to the next without any felling of momentum, but once it finally kicks into gear, I began laughing loudly and consistently. Some of the body horror is kind of out there for a mainstream release, the film doesn't take itself seriously, it has a great sense of timing and it has a good spirit about itself that keeps the tone feeling infectious. I was also impressed how it's many plot points don't wrap up in a way that you would think, for example I was braced for an overly serious conclusion to Lydia and her daughter that would undermine the wackiness and sweetness of it all but the film unlike a lot of big budget revivals of well loved classics, doesn't spend too much time overcompensating on sap or nostalgia and is right back to being funny.

The dynamic between Lydia and Beetlejuice manages to feel a lot less creepy then the first film, partly because Lydia is no longer a child, but mostly because the film is a bit more knowing on what being placed in a forced marriage by a world bending demon, would do to her in the long run thus making her story arc all the more compelling, it also helps that the chemistry between both actors is sensational, Keaton especially couldn't be having any more fun.

The presence of Gena Davis and Alec Baldwin is for sure missed but the film makes up for it by everything else, although I do find it odd that more time was more time was spent explaining why Jeffrey Jones who played Charles is not in the picture than why the Maitland's are gone, especially considering that anyone who knows about why Jeffrey Jones didn't return (Look it up) would probably feel a bit weary having to be reminded of him every 10 minutes. Fans may also be disappointed that the climax of the movie as it mimics the elements of the original but when the smile on my face is so big that my cheeks began to hurt, it didn't matter. The movie is a fun ride once it finally gets there, although there where quite a few kids in my showing despite it being a movie for people over 12 and if you are considering taking them this week, maybe reconsider when it comes to this movie as it may either disturb or bore them. One family left during the first half before it even got going, I can't imagine what they would have thought of the rest of it.