There’s so many ways this could have gone spectacularly wrong. Decades-later sequels are a mixed bag, and before this I couldn’t remember the last Tim Burton movie I loved. So I’m happy to report this was an absolute blast. Thirty-some years following the events of the original ’88 film, former goth teen Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) is the host of a cheesy ghost-hunting talk show and the mother of her own surly teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega from WEDNESDAY, also a Burton project). When Lydia’s father passes away (in spectacularly silly and horrible fashion, depicted in delightful stop-motion animation), she, Astrid, her artist stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara), and her awful TV producer boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux) head up to Winter River and the Deetzs’ house from the first film for the funeral. The funeral, thanks to Rory’s machinations, soon gives way to a proposed wedding, and in trying to avoid it, a once-skeptical Astrid finds herself ensnared in a trap that may leave her in the afterlife for all eternity without even being dead. With no other good options, Lydia summons skeezy bio-exorcist Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) to try and rescue her. He’ll gladly help out in exchange for the same thing he wanted last time — Lydia’s hand in marriage.
In sharp contrast to another of this year’s decades-later sequels, ALIEN: ROMULUS, BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE’s callbacks to its predecessor never feel particularly heavy-handed; everything seems to flow organically from the story. Nothing seems to have been preserved in amber for thirty-some years — except for, of course, centuries-dead Betelgeuse, who Keaton slips right back into like no time has passed at all. Oh, and the look of the film, which despite being a modern production that obviously uses all the digital trickery we have at our disposal today, still possesses Burton’s weird hand-made signature style. But Lydia’s lived a full life since Betelgeuse last asked for her hand in marriage, and a lot of the movie is about her taking this opportunity to get that life back on track: to fix her strained relationship with her daughter and to, hey, maybe wake up and realize just what a giant piece of shit her boyfriend is. (Theroux really sells the hell out of what a spectacularly punchable faux-sensitive guy this douchebag is.) I mean, hell, at least Betelgeuse is up-front and honest about who he is …
New additions in the wacky bureaucratic afterlife include Willem Dafoe as a former cheesy action star turned ghost detective and, heading up the film’s major B-plot, Monica Bellucci as Betelgeuse’s revenge-hungry (and soul-hungry) ex-wife. It’s still a rules-obsessed land of endless waiting in line and taking a number, but there are new sights to behold, like the delightful pun that is the final conveyance to the great beyond … the Soul Train. Great gag.
So yeah, if you’ve got warm feelings toward the original, you should be happy to hear that Burton, Ryder, Keaton and the rest all stuck the landing here — BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE is a worthy sequel and just a fun movie in its own right.