BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (2024)

First off, I must note that I am not the biggest Tim Burton fan. I like my scary to be scary and free from whimsical Danny Elfman soundtracks telling me it’s all going to be okay. As a child I actually preferred the Beetlejuice cartoon to the movie, because, well hell, each episode featured more Beetlejuice than the 17 minutes of screen time Michael Keaton landed in Beatlejuice (1988). That being said, as overstuffed as this sequel is, it’s much more entertaining than the original. The series continues to feature Burton’s bureaucratic nightmare of an afterlife, but the pace is quicker and with sight gags aplenty, he gets the point across without having the audience feel as if they are living through it in real time. Multiple disjointed storylines are in motion with too many that go nowhere (why waste Monica Bellucci after such a gloriously gross introduction?), yet the principle cast make it tolerable and fun. Keaton and Ryder handle the heavy lifting (though Keaton is once again foolishly underused) and Burton’s newest muse Jenna Ortega takes on the angsty teenager role with aplomb. Credit to Burton for doing his best to keep the teen-spooky genre on lock with fair introductions to scary (and gross-out) movies and shows for kids. All in all, not a bad family film, which are hard to come by. 

WATCH OR NOT: WATCH

Additional musings: Is Justin Theroux a necessary addition? And while we’re at it, cut out the entire Charles Deetz character altogether. Clearly the real-life ick factor lead to the masking of Jeffrey Jones, so why not have his death explained with some throwaway exposition and be done with it.