.png)
1 month ago
12 ARTICLE AD
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice had its world premiere this evening as the opening film of the Venice Film Festival.
The film’s stars were out in force with Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, Justin Theroux and Catherine O’Hara treading the carpet alongside director Tim Burton.
The sequel’s synopsis reads: “After a family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her teenage daughter, Astrid, accidentally opens the portal to the Afterlife.”
The original 1988 film, in which Keaton played a malicious spirit sent to drive out an unwanted family from their new home, was a comedy cult breakout garnering $75M at the domestic box office off a reported $15M budget.
But what are critics saying about the sequel?
Deadline’s Damon Wise is a fan, describing it as “funny all the time” and “a blast to watch”: “The first Beetlejuice in 1988 captured imaginations because it was new, unlike anything else and deliciously tasteless while being, to be honest, pretty clunky. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is not clunky. Yes, there are plenty of animation joins that haven’t been smoothed over by CGI. Some of the props look like tat Burton bought in a flea market. But it also has a proper plot, full of twists and turns; a terrific cameo characters supporting the impeccable main cast; a meticulous spoof Italian horror film in the middle of it all; and a climactic musical number…”
He concludes: “Thanks to TB and his merry band of pranksters, the afterlife really does seem like something to look forward to”.
The BBC was similarly enthusiastic: “Arriving 36 years on, this follow-up to the director’s classic supernatural comedy is a gleefully zany farce packed with knock-out punchlines and great practical effects.”
The Radio Times described the film as “a rambunctious sequel with some delicious moments.”
The Playlist praised Burton’s direction but claimed the film is far from one of the filmmaker’s classics: “The faint scent of intellectual property looms a little too large over Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to call it a true return to form for Tim Burton. But it’s unmistakably a return to joy for a legendary director, and that goes a long way in making this film stand out in a sea of ill-conceived sequels.”
Total Film gave the movie three stars, calling it “inventive fun, but Tim Burton’s belated sequel won’t live too long in the memory.”
Empire magazine also gave the film three stars, noting: “Fun, if a bit messy, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is at its best when it lives up to the promise of the word “Burtonesque”. Michael Keaton has never been Beetlejuicier.”
Time magazine seemed to capture a general mood when it summarised: “This sequel to Burton’s 1988 cracked pop masterpiece Beetlejuice doesn’t strive for greatness, or even your garden-variety over-the-top fantastical vision. Instead, Burton has just allowed himself to be silly and have fun.”
IGN called the film a “charming if unnecessary legacy sequel”: “While it features a whole lot less story than the original – which got by on its wry tone and imaginative production design despite being narratively insubstantial – each decision Burton makes here is simply geared towards cartoonishly macabre fun in the vein of its predecessor. It’s fine – at times, it’s even charming – and it doesn’t need to be much more than that.”
However, the UK’s Guardian gave the film only two stars, saying “Burton’s game attempt to bring the 1980s horror-comedy back from the spirit world is full of gaudy set-pieces but fails to add much to the original.”
Vanity Fair was unimpressed, deriding the movie as “yet another legacy sequel that serves as a sad testament to the original film’s ingenuity,” and the UK’s Daily Telegraph also wasn’t a fan, calling it “nostalgia bait of the worst kind…Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara return to the franchise, but even they don’t seem enthusiastic about this messy, pointless follow-up.”
The Warner Bros film will roll out stateside from September 6.
