When Charles Deetz dies unexpectedly, his wife Delia (played by Catherine O’Hara), daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) and granddaughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) journey back to the old house in Winter River. The family is reluctantly joined by hanger-on Rory (Justin Theroux), Lydia’s TV producer, boyfriend and career manager as they venture home to tie up some loose ends before selling the house. In the meantime, Detective Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe) is trying to help Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) avoid his ex-wife Delores (Monica Bellucci) in the Afterlife. After Astrid accidentally runs into a local boy (Arthur Conti), the two realms become connected and the family is reunited with the mischievous-yet-lovable demon and all the shenanigans that come along with him.
Like it or not, a sequel is always judged against it’s predecessor. And, like it or not, it rarely lives up to the original installment. So while BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE is hardly EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, THE GODFATHER PART II or THE DARK KNIGHT, it does surpass the quality and comedy of the 1988 release.
Ortega is great, Ryder revisits her role with conviction and Keaton is everything you’d hope for but it’s O’Hara who comes away as the star of the show. She’s given comedic line after comedic line and nails each of them consistently throughout, to the point where you find yourself craving her to grace the screen again and again.
On the other hand, the role of Delores was absolutely wasted. The character is introduced as a menacing evil who will stop at nothing to get her revenge but, when her arc comes to an end, the audience has no choice but to say “That’s it?”
While it possesses disjointed storytelling and a lead antagonist that seems to be nothing more than time filler, BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE features higher quality effects, better performances and more laughs than its predecessor. The nostalgia is all there but isn’t required in order to walk away feeling like you had a good time at the theater. It’s the rare “dated sequel” that surpasses it’s original.
JKG SCORE: 7.0
Untitled Film Project 