Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a shockingly good name with not-so-pleasant implications for the franchises’ future, is a passable but ultimately route rehashing of another IP better left in the 80s. Finally free from the depths of the animated picture grind, Tim Burton (Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Alice in Wonderland) attempts to return to his original roots of off-kilter, humorously macabre projects through the resurrection of one of his classics. But reanimating the corpse of your favorite creation in this day and age is only a recipe for diminishing returns. The film’s fresh ideas, while reminiscent of some of Burton’s best work, are too few and far between to lift this film out of the shallow grave of nostalgia.

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Micheal Keaton returns to reprise his off-the-wall performance as Beetlejuice, and we once again follow the Deetz family and their run-ins with the dead. This time, with a new strained mother/daughter relationship in the form of a grown-up and sellout, Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) and her daughter Astrid Deetz (Jenna Ortega). Following the surprise death of the Deetz patriarch, the family is forced to return to the town of the original movie and, alternatively, back into the clutches of an ornery Beetlejuice still sour from their first meeting. While this structure doesn’t reinvent the wheel, the quality of the sets and the unique vision, unlike anything in theaters today, is still worth seeing.

Another bright spot would be the addition of Dolores (Monica Bellucci), Beetlejuice’s corpse bride ex-wife chasing him down to exact her revenge from when they were both alive. The black-and-white retelling of their history is inspired and original, reminding me of some of the best moments and visuals from the first. It is too bad her inclusion feels completely separate from the rest of the film, only sharing a scene at the end with our main characters where she is unceremoniously jettisoned from the movie. Much like William Defoe’s TV cop Wolf Jackson, her inclusion is a breath of fresh air that isn’t utilized nearly enough.

Instead, the film is filled with callbacks and references to the first that never reach the same quirky weirdness as the original. A prime example is during the climax when the forced possession singing number (think Banana Boat from the original film) swaps shrimp for a wedding cake but lacks the novelty of the first. Not much more can be said, as this movie serves to give you the same ideas repackaged for a modern audience.

As far as sequels go, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a passable attempt at creating a legacy sequel with some new ideas to justify its inclusion 36 years after the original film. There are some truly inspired moments here, particularly in set design and with practical effects, which alone might be enough to entice some fans to revisit Tim Burton’s version of the Afterlife again. However, fans of the original film’s creativity and spunk might leave the theater feeling a little disappointed.