I've worked the morning shifts before, but this one is kicking my booty. Normally I work 4:00 AM - 12:30 PM. It's not ideal, but I can work with that. Because I've been filling in for the past two weeks due to vacation coverage, I'm working 1:00 AM - 9:00 AM which is worse. My sleep schedule is way off; I take a nap when I get home and then go to bed around 9:00 PM and wake up at midnight. I do not recommend! But I'm managing! So yeah, let's talk about...
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
I watched this movie with the family as a double feature at the drive-in, with the other film being The Wild Robot (I loved it.) I spent a whole lot of my teenage and early adult years at a movie theater, from working to watching movies, but there's something different about drive-ins. I absolutely adore how they're rooted in the past, from the feel, the scenery and the old-time animations that play during the intermissions, it's like walking into a time capsule. I think it's only fitting that I watch a favorite from my childhood at a place that hasn't changed its look since before I was born. Let me say, it will be a sad day when we lose drive-ins.
The first Beetlejuice was one of those movies that always made you scratch your head. It was awesome, was a hit and even spawned a cartoon that went for four seasons; but for some reason, it never got a sequel. There was always talk about another movie; one of the ideas had Beetlejuice go to Hawaii and win a surfing contest, but nothing ever came of it. Still, there's always enough smoke about a sequel so I expected to see a fire at some point. Because of that, I wasn't too surprised when a sequel finally happened, no matter how long it took. Happy, yes, but not surprised.
So, would it live up to almost 40 years of anticipation?
Eh. It's fine. The movie picks up decades after the original and the characters that we know and love are doing their own things. One thing I liked, and it was a breath of fresh air from what we've seen out of other beloved franchises today; they were all successful in their own ways. Lydia hosts a stable ghost talk show and her stepmom, Delia, is a successful artist, no matter how off-the-wall her art is. It's a nice change compared to the Star Wars stuff where it's, "Hey remember those super cool heroes that literally saved the galaxy multiple times? Yeah, now they're all losers!"
So, let's meet the team. Lydia has a daughter, Astrid, played by Jenna Ortega who has the same rebellious spirit as her mother, just channeled differently. She hates the ghost stuff until she gets caught in the web of one of them. Lydia is in a toxic relationship with a guy manipulating her while seeing visions of Beetlejuice everywhere. Delia is dealing with the death of her husband Charles, the actor, Jeffery Jones, was not asked back due to a real-life sex offender scandal. Beetlejuice is pining for Lydia while on the run from the afterlife police and an ex-wife hot on his trail trying to steal his soul.
I give you that whole paragraph to illustrate my main problem with the movie, it tries to cram in way too much. Any of those things could have anchored the movie, except for Delia's problem, but the film wanted to have all the things. You could cut Beetlejuice's ex, Dolores, from the movie and you wouldn't have lost anything outside of the scene where "Tragedy" by the Bee Gees plays while she's murdering Danny Devito. On top of having too much stuff going on, they're able to dispose of the antagonists with relative ease. It seems they show up, appear to be some huge threat and then ope!, goodbye. Beetlejuice is even undone in a fairly easy manner as well. The movie also tries to recreate the magic of the "Banana Boat" scene at the end but falls way short.
One thing that puzzles me that I'm not sure was intentional or just a huge miss from everyone involved. In the movie, Astrid dresses up as Marie Curie in the early stages of radiation poisoning when going to visit her beau. When explaining the costume, she says Curie was a famous French physicist, when actually, she's one of Poland's most famous scientists. I wonder if it was intentional to knock the character down a peg, but she's not corrected so I wonder if no one making that movie knows who Marie Curie was outside of her name and how she died.
Still, it's not bad by any stretch, like I said earlier, it's fine. Michael Keaton is clearly having a blast as Beetlejuice and I'm happy he got to play the role again because he loves it and he's a lot of fun in it. Catherine O'Hara is a treasure and makes everything better and to the movie's credit, it has a lot of the same charm as the original but in smaller doses. I didn't come in with expectations; I knew it would be impossible to live up to the heights of the original, but it fell a little flat for me. I think most people will enjoy it, but I don't see it having the cultural impact of the original. It left open the option for a sequel and I'd be down for it. Wynona Ryder has said she sees the endgame being Lydia and Beetlejuice getting together, and you know what? I don't hate it. This movie softened a bit of Beetlejuice's edges and shows he sees Lydia as more than just a ticket to the living world again. Plus, with the damage and trauma she's faced, maybe he wouldn't be a bad option for her.
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