Title – Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Director – Tim Burton (Sleepy Hollow)
Cast – Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe
Plot – The Deetz family including Lydia (Ryder), Delia (O’Hara) and Astrid (Ortega) are once more reacquainted with the devilishly devious Beetlejuice (Keaton) when a family tragedy brings them back to their old home of Winter River.
“The juice is loose!”
Review by Eddie on 10/02/2025
One of 2024’s most surprising success stories, both from a relatively positive critical reception and box office haul point of view, the long-talked about Beetlejuice sequel finally arrived on our doorsteps to provide us with one of Tim Burton’s most tolerable films in years, even if overall this follow-up leaves little to get excited about in the long run.
Arguably his best feature film since Sweeney Todd in 2007 or 2012’s Frankenweenie (which in reality isn’t saying a whole lot), Burton gets the old gang back together for a colourful return to Winter River and the antics of Michael Keaton’s wide-eyed ghost/all round trouble-maker Beetlejuice and the Deetz family as this oddly convoluted tale gives us more of what came before in the 1988 cult-classic.
The undoubtedly unhinged yet enjoyably simplistic set-up of Burton’s original film is in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice replaced by a strangely unfocused narrative that is unsure whether it wants to explore Keaton’s Beetlejuice’s dealings with Monica Bellucci’s lead villain Delores, Winona Ryder’s battles against the past and fresh personal battles with her boyfriend Rory (an underused Justin Theroux), Jenna Ortega’s experiences in the afterlife with Arthur Conti’s mysterious Jeremy or just typically insane Burton worlds of headless cadavers or the years most second rate sandworms.
Racing across its 100 minute running time, Burton’s sequel rarely pauses for a breath and while there’s a sense of fun and frivolity prevalent throughout the escapade there’s nothing that ever feels overly thought out or allowed to have a time to properly gestate, making this a throwaway experience that lives and dies off its onboard and game cast and old school filmmaking that Burton once made his whole brand thrive around.
Bringing back old collaborators such as Ryder, Catherine O’Hara and of course Keaton brings out a lot of good in Burton with all three lead performers and Wednesday alumni Jenna Ortega giving Beetlejuice Beetlejuice a good sense of playfulness and good intentions even though none of these talented performers ever really get ample time to showcases their various skillsets, unless you count Keaton busting into a rendition of Macarthur Park as such a spotlight moment.
Almost as if making up for lost time and appreciating the fact this is highly likely the last time the stars will align for everyone involved here to be available to bring the Beetle universe alive on the big screen once more, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice feels like a feature busy for the sake of being busy, jam-packed with half-baked ideas and briefly explored concepts, there’s a lot for old and new fans to enjoy but little too hold onto once the dust has settled and the juice is no longer on the loose.
Final Say –
Fun to a point, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is far more enjoyable than it had any right to be but that doesn’t mean it comes close to peak Tim Burton or the cult-likability of the beloved original.
3 name tags out of 5
Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys) 
There’s a few interesting theories over the post-production addition of Monica, as much as I love the idea of the character, as even at the time I though her inclusion felt always separate, and if you note, almost every scene is a different part to the rest of the film. And I don’t really know why it was there? Also, I think Jeremy had a different story before that Monica addition, it just feels like there was something else there!
Anyway, that aside, yeah, good fun still – and thankful for that!
That’s a great point actually, there were certainly plot elements and characters here that really didn’t need to be included ha.
I was genuinely surprised this film ended up being as successful as it was. Hope Burton can really strike gold again soon.
E
Enjoyable Ed. But wasn’t something we asked for. I wish the story was done differently.
I think they could have made a far better story or created a far more interesting reason to justify its existence.
Still overall a lot better than I expected but nothing I’d ever care to see again.
E
Not that bad for a new juice. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Burton in that shape. But what is Monica doing in that maze ?
Post-production addition! We think, anyway… it was so very random (even though I loved the design)
Random is right. I wonder what Burton will come up with next, I suspect he may look to plunder one of his older properties again some time soon.
E
It was nice to see Burton emerge from his creative funk even in such a minor way. As Dan was saying in these comments it seems as though Monica was almost an afterthought character.
E
I Think Jenna Ortegawould be good choice as Victoria Frankenstein In a film adaptation of Universal Epic Universe Dark Universe Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment
Good review. I felt that the movie was just okay. It had its moments, but the story felt too jumbled and not as cohesive as it should’ve been. However, it I did like Ryder and Keaton back in their iconic roles.
It was absolutely better than I expected, I was thinking a massive bomb when it was all first announced but yeh overall totally forgettable and not sure it was worth the decades of waiting.
E