I can recall my reaction to the first trailer I saw advertising the Beetlejuice sequel. I loved the original film. The preview scenes blew my mind. Tim Burton teaming up again with Michael Keaton (along with Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara)? How could this possibly go wrong?
Defying all the odds in its favor, it somehow did.
Granted, the beloved cast and characters were back, with the notable exception of Jeffrey Jones (as the dad) due to some real-life issues that landed him in trouble with the law. As you might guess, Burton and his writers found a clever way around that by killing his character off and using that plot twist to kick the story off. In true Beetlejuice style, he shows up later in the film in ways that only a creepy, crazy comedy like this could allow.
It seemed that Burton and his team had worked out all the snags that could have been problematic, but as the movie gets underway, it is clear that the writers struggled to find the storyline. Their solution was to create multiple storylines with multiple romantic connections in the hopes that more would be more. But that never really happens in Beetlejuice Beetelejuice. More just turns out to be too much. Way too much.
The first one or two reels of the movie are devoted to laborious set-up, with characters being introduced or re-introduced and relationships being defined or re-defined. None of the first half hour of the movie is very funny.
There is a sequence introducing Beetlejuice’s wife, Delores (Monica Bellucci) who he had hacked to pieces many years before. Upon reassembling herself-- by stapling herself back together-- she’s intent on revenge.
Burton fans will immediately recognize the stitched together female character prototype. Recall Sally (voiced by Catherine O’Hara) from The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Burton seems to have a ghoulish Bride of Frankenstein fetish. In this case, with the drop-dead sexiness of Monica Bellucci, it works. As always, she’s great, but here, she pretty much gets lost in the shuffle.
There is just too much going on in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. The original story focused largely on the young, recently deceased couple played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, struggling to deal with sudden, accidental death and the comedic complexity of the afterlife. The sequel is far less streamlined, going off in multiple directions.
While Keaton faithfully recreates Beetlejuice, the character seems a little less obnoxious and annoyingly horny than he was the first time around. He’s still funny, but he seems to be trying much harder to make us laugh.
Danny Elfman’s music instantly creates the soundscape that connects the sequel to the original. Further, music underlies one of the funniest sequences of the movie, set to Jimmy Webb’s classic McArthur Park. It’s the perfect application of one of the strangest songs ever written, set to nightmarish images of a monstrous wedding cake and rivers of sweet, green icing running down. It’s brilliant.
Apart from that, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice spends a lot of time recycling gags and elements from the original. The famous shrunken head guy scores a much bigger role, ostensibly back by popular demand.
What is amazing here is that in the 36 years following the success of Beetlejuice, not many fresh new comedy ideas gestated or took form. You might think that Burton and Keaton and company might have imagined that based upon the popularity and financial success of Beetlejuice, there would inevitably be a sequel somewhere down the road. Less popular movies have spawned sequels. With that in mind, one might imagine that they would have been jotting down some funny jokes and gags over the span of almst four decades.
That is apparently not what happened here. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice seems to be a script that was banged out in matter of weeks or months after someone suddenly greenlighted the project and got Michael Keaton to sign on the dotted line.
Yes, there are funny moments, but not nearly as many as you might expect. You have to try hard to like it.
And, no, there is no post credit scene at the end to give you one last poke in the ribs or suggest that there could be a Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Oh, God, did I just say that three times?