Winona Ryder returns as Lydia Deetz, this time as a middle-aged mother and TV psychic.
There is no other director like Tim Burton. The man whose imagination gave the world “Scissorhands,'' the timeless Batman movie “Edward Scissorhands,'' “Ed Wood,'' and “Corpse Bride,'' among many must-see movies, has done it again. His sequel Beetlejuice, 63 years after the 1988 original, is doubly amazing.
Whenever a sequel is made, no matter what the creators do, it will always be compared to its predecessor. In the case of “Beetlejuice,'' enough time has passed that “Beetlejuice'' has been around for about two generations, or a little more than that, many of whom have seen Michael Keaton in the first movie. is played to the bone, oblivious to the genius of the manic and trouble-making demon who is reenacted. The second case is accompanied by the same hyperactivity of gargling and choking with a slap in the face.
Speak the shoo-wah and walk the doo-wop
It's been a long time since she last danced with Beetlejuice, so Winona Ryder returns as Lydia Deetz, this time as a middle-aged mother and TV psychic. Although she still wears 18th century clothes, she is no longer a feisty teenager.
Rather, she is a mother who is vulnerable and scarred by life. Her daughter, played by Wednesday, also known as Jenna Ortega, is a rebel and funky new generation of Gen Z.
Of course, Lydia also has a narcissistic boyfriend who is also her manager. He talks with schwer, walks with doo-wop, but believes only in money and self-love. Dysfunctional but Burton style.
A family tragedy brings everyone back to the Dietz home, where Beetlejuice first climbed or descended, depending on how you look at it. This is the culmination of a whole host of plots and subplots. Beetlejuice sees the family gathering as an opportunity to finally marry Lydia into the underworld, like the world of the dead. The investigation is led by the wonderfully funny and quirky Willem Dafoe as Inspector.
Willem Dafoe has made a remarkable turn into a star.
And Lydia's mother, Mrs. Dietz, adds a plethora of color and frilly gaiety in her eager pursuit of eccentricity. During this time, Monica Bellucci's body parts are separated from several boxes in the warehouse of caretaker Danny De Vito. The hapless cleaner trips and spills, knocking over the storage box for Bellucci's body parts, and, Addams Family style, she grows back up. Stapled and angry like a hatter. She first sucks the soul out of De Vito's great cameo before going on a hunt to find Beetlejuice because the devil abandoned her at the altar.
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Meanwhile, Ortega falls hopelessly in love with a boy who lives in the neighborhood where his mother lived. The problem is that he is a ghost and after killing his parents and swapping their souls. She is his target because he wants to go back to being alive.
In true Tim Burton style, something completely bizarre and creepy is beautifully rendered in a morbidly fantastical way. Elements from the previous work are sprinkled throughout, and fans will recognize it right away.
Ortega aka Wednesday is amazing
Think Frankenweenie, Corpse Bride, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and Sleepy Hollow. If you observe carefully, you can find them all here. This is a little breadcrumb trail that makes watching the movie so much more fun.
The soundtrack is just as great as the first movie. The Bee Gees are crying about being on screen. Bebop to another beat. Eerie atmosphere is dotted throughout, and the director's trademark pale to washed-out visuals create a mood that's more than subtle and in-your-face. Burton wants his audience to experience his imagination as much as he does.
The 1988 version of Beetlejuice was Burton's second feature film. The first Pee-wee's Adventures was produced three years later. Since then, his library of sublime filmmaking has grown exponentially. And some critics have slammed this movie for recycling some ideas and concepts from the first movie, but hey, you get the idea. It's a sequel with the same story but a different starting point. Filmmaking is not about winning a Nobel Prize. It's about entertainment. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice provides plenty of that.
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