Nerdly » Venice Film Festival 2024: ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Review

29th Aug2024

Venice Film Festival 2024: ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti, Santiago Cabrera, Burn Gorman | Written by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar | Directed by Tim Burton

There’s a great scene in 1993’s classic time-loop comedy Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray’s character experiences a near-perfect day with Andie MacDowell’s Rita, but messes up right at the end, missing his chance to kiss her. On his next loop, he tries to recreate their perfect day for a second chance and fails miserably because all his efforts feel forced and desperate. That’s pretty much what it feels like to watch Tim Burton’s long-awaited Beetlejuice sequel, which tries extremely hard to remind you why you loved the original 1988 movie, but ends up feeling like an incoherent mess, frantically shouting, “Remember this bit? What about this bit?”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice joins the characters 36 years after the events of the first movie. Former Gothic teen Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) still wears her hair in spiky jet-black bangs and is now the host of a paranormal TV show called Ghost House. She’s also a widowed single mother to teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) and is in a relationship with her New Age bullshit-spouting producer Rory (Justin Theroux) – Astrid, for her part, disapproves of both her mother’s job and her mother’s choice of boyfriend.

When Lydia’s father dies in a shark-related incident (rendered in stop-motion, a clever way for the film to avoid bringing back convicted sex offender Jeffrey Jones, who played the part in 1988), she returns to her home town of Winter River, Connecticut and reconnects with her mother, successful artist Delia (Catherine O’Hara). Once back in her old house, Lydia is increasingly troubled by the spectral presence of demonic bio-exorcist Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), but when Astrid gets into trouble as a result of a relationship with a seemingly innocent local boy (Arthur Conti), she needs the help of her former suitor, even if she has to promise to marry him again to get it.

Meanwhile, Beetlejuice himself has his own problem in the shape of vengeful ex-wife Dolores (Monica Bellucci), who’s stalking him through the underworld and draining the life force of anyone she comes across (which kills you even if you’re already dead, or something). She, in turn, is being doggedly pursued by afterlife cop (and former actor) Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe) and if you’re thinking that that sounds like a bit too much plot, then you’d be right.

Unfortunately, as that overcrowded synopsis suggests, the film is a total mess. It feels rushed, chaotic and poorly thought-out, especially during the frankly insulting climax, which casually disposes of two of its three main plot strands in such a lazy way that it feels like actual contempt for the audience.

On a similar note, the fan service here is off the scale, even by the standards of other recent IP sequel-slash-reboots, like the new Ghostbusters movies. Indeed, woe betide you if you decide to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice without having seen the 1988 film, because it assumes you know the original inside out and doesn’t even give you so much as a recap to get you up to speed.

To that end, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is packed with poorly strung-together rehashes of the original movie. You liked Shrunken Headed Bob? Here’s loads more of Shrunken Headed Bob, but also there are lots more Shrunken Headed Bobs for some reason. You liked the Sandworms? Well, here come the Sandworms – never mind whether it makes sense or not. Liked the waiting room in the afterlife? Oh yes, that’s here too. And so on.

Even the material that’s original to this movie smacks of half-formed ideas and lazy execution. For example, why have Dafoe’s character as an actor who used to play a policeman, rather than just have him as a weird policeman? That extra layer brings nothing and it’s not like Dafoe as a weird cop would have seemed out of place. Also, given that it’s clearly established that you can summon Beetlejuice by saying his name three times, why does Dolores spend the entire movie looking for him rather than just, you know, saying his name?

It’s fair to say that Bellucci and Dafoe’s subplot should probably have been cut completely. Bellucci’s role ends up being the textbook definition of putting your girlfriend in your movie (she’s Burton’s current partner) and while her initial introduction is a lot of fun (essentially stitching and stapling herself together from broken body parts), all her subsequent scenes are dull, repetitive and ultimately pointless, having zero impact on the plot.

That said, there are a few high points. The production design is faithful to the original film and Ryder is a joy to watch, especially if you have a long-harboured fondness for Lydia. Similarly, Ortega (who also stars in Wednesday, by the same writers) makes the most of her part – indeed, her relationship with her mother and the initial development of her story with Conti’s character are the best parts of the film.

In addition, it’s always a treat to watch O’Hara do her thing and she’s on good form here, while a small handful of the reprises from the original film do actually work, mostly the entire cast lip-synching to “MacArthur Park”, the way they did to “Day-O” the first time round. As for Keaton, he’s barely in the film, considering his character’s name is in the title twice, and he doesn’t really do enough to make his presence felt – to that end, the film lacks the charming originality of the first film, the idea of an supernatural exorcist whose job is to rid haunted houses of humans rather than the other way around.

In short, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice remains watchable thanks to Ryder, Ortega and O’Hara and if all you want is a repeated ticking of your nostalgia boxes then you may have an okay time, but the end result is undeniably disappointing and it’s hard not to imagine how much better it could have been with a less frantic, more thought-out script. Rewatch the original instead.