Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

There's been 36 years til Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice 2 aka Beetlejuice Beetlejuice does not feel like a cash-in but a really feel-good movie.

They had the most fun doing it, I had most fun watching it.

In short, It Rocks !

Also Tim Burton's back. With a Bang. He seemed to have got his Juice back. C'mon, from Dumbo (2019) he didn't do any film for the big screen, he directed some episodes of Wednesday in Romania (4 actually!). Also Dumbo? Why? His last great film for me was Sleepy Hollow in 1999, Big Fish being too pretentious (they thought is Oscar material, like a more fantastic Forrest Gump...), I have a soft spot for Dark Shadows (2012), which I saw again 2 years ago and accepted it as it was. Sweeney Todd is grand guignol but Burton didn't fulfill his early promises that became with the shorts animated (Vincent & Frankenweenie) went into Beetlejuice, his 1st "Burtonesque" film. Pee-Wee was just an essay ;). That's what made us (me and some buddy) say in the mid 2000's that Burton is the most overrated director. Well, make room, there's plenty who took that place ever since. So, take it as you please, BB is Tim Burton's comeback film, a fun to watch, fun to make, roller-coaster of sandworms and a true Burton-o-rama.

Warning, this is for the fans of the original, it got all the ties so if you haven't seen the 1988 original, pls. do. Now it's streaming on Max, they were smart enough to put it in today. 

BB opened the Venice film festival and opened worldwide on 6.9.24 or the American way -9.6.24, all reversed adds up to 6.6.6 but that is another story.  

Michael Keaton (who just got 73!!!) is even wackier than in Beetlejuice, and he looks exactly the same!

Winona Ryder looks great as grown-up (& still haunted) Lydia Deedz.

Ctaherine O'Hara is back as Delia Dee.

And Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) is in as Astrid, Lydia's daughter /less troubled teenager than Winona was in the original.

They got rid of Jeremy Jones -Charles Deetz-(who's now a known sex offender :( in a very classy and smart way (the stop motion animation sequence is a blast!) 

Monica Bellucci is an addition to the cast as Delores (a sort of Corpse's Bride), with nods to Mario Bava in an insane Italian B & W sequence, she is now Burton's partner (lucky Tim ;)

Justin Theroux is Rory, Lydia's producer & manager.

Also Burn Gorman (The Offer) is Father Damien (!).

Willem Defoe is here in his 1st part on a Burton film, as Wolf Jackson, he's great ("Keep it real") but I can't think of how it would have been if Christopher Walken would have accepted this part as he was offered it initially (at least that is what I read). 

Oh, and that excellent Danny de Vito cameo...

Groovy soundtrack (Songs by Donna Summer, Richard Harris-yes, that Richard Harris !, The Bee Gees, Scott Weiland, Sigur Ros, Richard Marx-!-), fantastic musical scenes (MacArthur Park, Tragedy, Day-O choir), and a great score by Danny Elfman (& Steve Bartek), with all the riffs of the old one. 

There's also a riff on a classic Brian De Palma film that I won't spoil here ;) , i spotted the Monty Python fattest man in the world riff (from Meaning of Life), but hey...

Probably the most fun film about Death and the Underworld !

7 out of 10/ 3 1/2 out of 5.  

It's a seven for me because it's too light in its darkness, and some character scenes are really just expository and you don't feel the suspense or the weight of death upon life or life upon death. But then again, you have Bob in it...