Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Review

 

What's The Movie About?

Lydia's grownup and has a punk kid of her own, and after her father dies she starts seeing Beetlejuice pop up again. Meanwhile, Beetlejuice's ex shows back up and starts hunting him down, causing him to become more desperate to marry Lydia, and Astrid (Lydia's daughter) meets a cute boy while dealing with the fact her mom can't see her dead dad.

What I Like.

Hoo man, I don't know where to start. Pretty much everything about this movie is great! The returning cast is excellent, Winona Ryder especially hasn't lost her touch. I like the expansion to the original story. I like how Lydia's daughter is all punk which bothers the goth Lydia the same way she bothered her parents in the first moment. There's some pretty nice moments between Lydia and Delia when Lydia is having trouble with Astrid, and I like the resolution at the end. Beetlejuice makes more of an appearance in this movie than he did in the first one, and he is slightly sanitized, but he's still pretty much the same character and Michael Keaton is super funny. He's just no longer groping women. (Which isn't a huge loss because those "jokes" weren't funny. That was the worst part of the first movie.) They actually go over his backstory in the movie, and it was hilarious. I wasn't expecting that scene to be as good as it was. Speaking of hilarity, the movie as a whole is extremely funny. They repeat a couple jokes from the first movie, mostly just physical gags, but the new characters and scenarios are hilarious. Willem Dafoe's character thinks he's in a noir and I loved him. Beetlejuice isn't the only thing they expand on, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice shows off more of the the afterlife and different types of ghosts. Plus, the movie looks super good. The effects are mostly practical, and show the 38 year time gap because they look so much better than the first movie. There's a point where they literally replace Willem Dafoe with a wax statue and I loved it. The story is nice, it has the same family reconnection story that the first one has but with biological family. I think it's nice. The finale is also a lot of fun, I like the song choice and watching everything collide with each other is entertaining. I did mention this movie is funny right? Because this movie is damn funny. There's a lot more background gags in this movie that I was constantly pointing out and laughing at. This movie is so good you guys.

What I Didn't Like.

There's some inconsistencies between the sequel that get handwaved away for kinda dumb reasons, but it's all either to cover-up actors who don't return  (for a good reason *cough cough*) or to set-up the new story elements that I like, so I didn't mind. Honestly, probably only noticed because I was looking for things to nitpick. I wish they didn't ignore what I thought was the funniest joke of the first movie, but it's fine. Also, much like the first movie, it's just stuff happening and it feels random until the various plot points domino into the finale. That's fine, and it is a comedy so the structure is based around telling jokes, but it still suffers compared to 90% of other movies. Also, Tim Burton directs the movie. It has a random racist moment in the movie. The second in inevitable with the first. I dunno, I feel like I'm hand waving a lot of the problems with this movie, but it's coming up on Halloween at time of writing. I was just feeling the spooky spirit and enjoying the laughs. 

Final Summation.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is damn good. It might be the second best movie that has come out this year. Maybe this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to reviews, but I was somewhat surprised on how much I liked it. I like it maybe slightly less than the first one, but it depends on when you catch me. My father, who's a big fan of the original, likes this one more, so take that as you will. Either way, I don't think you can go wrong with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, check it out!