Bruno’s review published on Letterboxd:
“The juice is loose!”
You can always trust on Beetlejuice to let the juice loose. Here he does it for a second time whilst giving us viewers an experience for the ages and a trip through the afterlife that introduces new characters and a more convoluted world compared to the original. That’s acceptable because Tim Burton delivers an extremely fun film, a family film filled with moments that try to bring back the juice that its predecessor seemed to have and I’m a fan. Although, this does lack the overall quality of the first and to me that one is better without any comparison but Burton is able to expand on this universe and bring us closer to these characters. Here we have Lydia Deetz and her daughter Astrid Deetz returning home to the legendary house of the first film and from then on it turns into an adventure fueled by Beetlejuice himself who’s out to try and find the love of his life. This here is a pretty nice plot to start with but the film does add a good amount of side plots that make this a rather flawed experience.
“Spill your guts. Who wants to go first? Alright, I will.”
The whole story is fun but it does take a while to get going, the first hour or so is just a bunch of catching up on our leads but at a pace I’d consider to be slow. Nonetheless, once we enter the afterlife and Beetlejuice himself becomes the center of attention it’s like the film switches gears and off we go. The afterlife looks as good as ever, the production design is immaculate and an upgrade from the first film. The score is exciting and we get delivered some absolute classics from the original.
“I swear, the Afterlife is so random.”
Certain characters I feel as if are pointless, mainly Dafoe’s and Bellucci’s characters. Both of them are unique and fun in their own ways, I especially enjoyed Dafoe as always and you can tell he was having the most fun but I must admit he’s kinda useless. Delores played by Bellucci has a set of very unique killing traits but I wished we saw a lot more of that being used. On a much more positive note, Michael Keaton is so BACK!! He loves playing this character and you can sense every bit of fun he had whilst making this, he plays Beetlejuice like he’s never left the character. The humor is still there, the mannerisms and the voice are iconic as ever. We also get Bob back so that’s a massive W, loved the little plot they had going on with Bob. Jenna Ortega delivers as Astrid, she’s always someone you can count on and she does her thing here. Winona Ryder delivers a memorable performance as well. With an ensemble like this you are bound to get great fun out of this.
“Never seen that chick before in my life. Or afterlife.”
I personally was all in for Beetlejuice himself, that’s all I wanted to watch. I loved the singing sequences of the film, that Italian part was definitely an highlight. There’s a lot of exploring and adventures throughout that make it for a pleasant watch but it also becomes a lot at times and you easily lose track of what’s happening. I still had a blast and enjoyed majority of the scenes, that ending scene and the wedding are excellent and I have to praise the cinematography as there were some very good shots throughout. Tim Burton is back and better and despite not creating something as great as the original, he’s able to show of his creativeness and how legendary of a director he is. Hopefully we can get Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and enjoy some more of that juice being loose.
