Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
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 After 36 years, the juice comes back from the dead.
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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a 2024 American dark fantasy comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay by the writing team of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on a story by Gough, Millar, and Seth Grahame-Smith. A sequel to Beetlejuice (1988) and the second film of the Beetlejuice franchise, the film stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O'Hara reprising their roles alongside new cast members Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Jenna Ortega, and Willem Dafoe.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opened the 81st Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2024, and was theatrically released overseas on September 4, 2024, and in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures two days later. The film received generally positive reviews from critics. A third movie is possibly in development, and Tim Burton and Michael Keaton have commented on the possibility of a third film (and Michael Keaton reprising his role as Beetlejuice)
Plot
In 2024, Lydia Deetz hosts the supernatural TV talk show, Ghost House. She has been estranged from her daughter, Astrid, since Lydia's former husband and Astrid's father, Richard, died while in the Amazons. While taping an episode, Lydia hallucinates seeing Betelgeuse, the ghost who tried to marry her thirty-six years earlier,[b] in the audience.
Shortly after, Lydia's stepmother, Delia, informs Lydia that her father, Charles, has died in a gruesome accident. They and Astrid travel to Winter River, Connecticut, for Charles' funeral. At the wake, Rory, Lydia's boyfriend and producer, pressures her to marry him on Halloween; she hesitantly agrees. Meanwhile, Astrid meets a local boy named Jeremy Frazier, who invites her to spend Halloween with him.
In the Afterlife, Betelgeuse oversees an office of "bio-exorcists", assisted by Bob, an anxious shrunken-head ghost. Betelgeuse is still obsessed with Lydia. Former actor-turned-ghost detective Wolf Jackson warns Betelgeuse that his former wife, Delores, has escaped captivity and gone on a murderous spree, draining the souls of the dead searching for him. The couple met during the Black Plague in Italy, but Delores was a cult member who poisoned Betelgeuse as part of an immortality ritual; he murdered her before succumbing to the poison.
Astrid discovers she has inherited her mother's psychic abilities and realizes Jeremy is a ghost; he asks her to accompany him to the Afterlife to help regain his life. In exchange, she can meet her father's spirit. Meanwhile, Lydia learns from a realtor that Jeremy murdered his parents twenty-three years earlier and died when the police tried to arrest him. Lydia reluctantly summons Betelgeuse and signs a marriage contract in exchange for him taking her to the Afterlife to save Astrid. Betelgeuse blows open a hole between the worlds of the Living and the Dead; he disguises Bob as himself as a decoy. Wolf discovers Betelgeuse has brought a living person into the Afterlife and launches a manhunt for him, capturing the disguised Bob. Delores meets Bob at the police station while continuing her search for Betelgeuse, draining Bob's soul.
As Betelgeuse and Lydia search for Astrid, Jeremy escorts her through the Afterlife's bureaucracy. He admits to tricking Astrid into exchanging her life for his. Astrid is taken to the "Soul Train" to be sent to the Great Beyond, but her father, Richard, spots and follows her. Lydia pulls Astrid off the Soul Train, and they escape through a portal to Saturn's moon Titan, where Richard saves them from a sandworm. While Betelgeuse sends Jeremy to Hell, Richard shows Lydia and Astrid how to return to the Living world. Meanwhile, during a mourning ceremony for Charles, Delia is bitten by two venomous asps that she was assured were defanged. She arrives in the Afterlife and summons Betelgeuse to help find Charles; he agrees that Delia will help him find Lydia.
Lydia and Astrid arrive at the church for Lydia and Rory's wedding. Betelgeuse appears with Delia and interrupts the ceremony. Betelgeuse uses a "truth serum" that forces Rory to admit he never believed in Lydia's abilities until now and uses her for her money. Betelgeuse prepares to marry Lydia when Delores arrives seeking revenge. Wolf also arrives but Betelgeuse freezes him and his comrades to avoid arrest and continue the wedding. Astrid opens a portal to summon a sandworm from Saturn's moon, Titan, and Betelgeuse, which leads it to devour Delores and Rory. Astrid reveals that because Betelgeuse illegally brought Lydia into the Afterlife, their marriage contract is voided. Lydia recites Betelgeuse's name three times and banishes him back to the Afterlife. Delia returns to the Afterlife with Wolf. She is reunited with Charles' spirit as he is about to board the Soul Train to the Great Beyond.
As everything returns to normal, Lydia ends her Ghost House show to spend more time with Astrid. However, Lydia has recurring nightmares about Betelgeuse, knowing that he will never give up his obsession with her.
Why It's Still The Ghost of the Most
- First and foremost, the best thing to say about the film is that it's nice to see another Beetlejuice film after 36 years of the previous film, and it's great to see this one make a comeback and capture the original, and what made them great.
- Much like its predecessor, the stop-motion in this film is still impressive, even for 2024 standards, especially for Charles Deetz's death and the sandworm.
- Great acting, thanks to Michael Keaton (who previously portrayed Bruce Wayne/Batman from the Batman duology, and The Flash (2023), Jason Hudson in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Morbius, and voiced the 2010 film incarnation of Ken from Toy Story 3,) Winona Ryder, and Catherine O'Hara reprising their roles as the titular character, also known more commonly by Betel Geuse Jr. (Beetlejuice), Lydia, and Delia Deetz from the previous film respectively, Jenna Ortega (who portrayed Wednesday Addams and her ancestor Goody Addams in Wednesday (2022), and Tara Carpenter in the Scream series), Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe (who portrayed Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy and the 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: No Way Home, Marcus in John Wick (2014), and voiced Nathan Dawkins in Beyond: Two Souls), Arthur Conti, Santiago Cabrera, Burn Gorman, Danny DeVito (who portrayed the Penguin in Batman Returns, Frank Reynolds in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and voiced Swackhammer in Space Jam), and the other new actors are also great in their roles.
- Many hilarious moments like Beetlejuice drop the f-bomb (albeit censored) after being confronted by his ex-wife Delores.
- The soundtrack here, like the first film, is still amazing as it was composed by Danny Elfman (who also composed the first film's score,) because the original motion picture soundtrack features well-known and memorable songs, such as (and especially) "MacArthur Park" by the late Richard Harris (original) and the late Donna Summer, "Tragedy" by Bee Gees, the main theme from Carrie, Alfie Davis and the Sylvia Young Theatre School Choir's cover of "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", etc.
- The Maitlands made cameo appearances in the opening scene.
- The cinematography is excellent when it's done by Haris Zambarloukos.
- The lighting is great and manages to be a massive improvement over the original film, especially since the original film came out in 1988 and the lighting is pretty bright.
- Beetlejuice is just an amazing and entertaining character as he was in the previous films.
The Only Quality That Is Still No Ghost of the Most
- Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin did not return, which may be disappointing, especially for 1980s kids and audiences who watched the first film.
Reception
Box office projections
As of October 2, 2024, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has grossed $254 million in the United States and Canada, and $123.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $377.8 million.
In the United States and Canada, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was released alongside The Front Room and was projected to gross $100–110 million from 4,200 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $42 million on its first day, including $13 million from Thursday night previews. The film went on to debut with $111 million, registering the second biggest opening of September (behind It), the second biggest for Burton's career (behind Alice in Wonderland), and the third biggest opening of the year (behind Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2). Around 7.7 million admissions, 73% of the weekend's box office earnings, came from the film alone. The opening weekend gross surpassed the original film's $74 million run, unadjusted for inflation. The film then grossed $51.6 million in its second weekend (a drop of 54%), and $25.9 million in its third weekend (a decline of 49%), beating newcomers Speak No Evil and Transformers One, and finishing in first for three consecutive weeks. It was eventually dethroned by The Wild Robot in its fourth weekend, grossing $16 million.
The film debuted with $36.2 million from 69 markets internationally. It had the biggest openings in the UK ($9.6 million), Mexico ($6.5 million), Australia ($2.6 million), Spain ($2.5 million) and Italy ($1.7 million).
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 77% of 340 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "Michael Keaton's devious poltergeist still has plenty of juice left in this madcap return to form for Tim Burton, marrying charming practical effects and ghoulish gags to provide a fun fun time." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 62 out of 100, based on 61 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, up from the "B" earned by the first film, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 81% overall positive score, with 68% saying they would recommend it.
Trivia
- Jeffrey Jones was reported to reprise his role as Charles Deetz from the original film. But he was not involved and was replaced by Mark Heenhan and Charlie Hopkinson due to legal issues Jones had in the interim and the controversy surrounding films he has made since the early 2000s due to his status as a registered sex offender.
- Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito were previously both in Batman Returns, another film directed by Tim Burton.
Videos
External Links
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice at the Internet Movie Database
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice on Rotten Tomatoes
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice on Metacritic