RECENTLY VIEWED: BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE

This past weekend, I had the chance to revisit one of my boyhood movies I saw - Beetlejuice! Decades after the original film, a sequel is out, which is pretty entertaining. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is an American dark fantasy comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. 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 has received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $145.4 million worldwide. The model village was built by Curvature Group.

Even right after the orignal film came out, sequels were announced. Even absurd titles like Beetlejuice Goes To Hawai were thrown around, but nothing came of it through the years In February 2022, a sequel was announced again, this time produced by Brad Pitt's studio Plan B Entertainment, alongside Warner Bros. Burton stated in October 2022 that he was not involved in the project, but backtracked days later, saying "nothing is out of the question." Burton ultimately returned as the film's director and tried to strip everything from the story to go to the basics of working with "good people, actors and puppets," feeling that the project made him reflect why he liked making movies. Burton came up with the film's story upon thinking about Lydia Deetz, a character of his with whom he connected as a teenager, wondering what could have been of her life after the first film's events and how her family life could have developed, turning from a "cool teenager" into a "f—ed-up adult" who hosts a popular medium-related show titled Ghost House with Lydia Deetz whose daughter hates her, Burton credited the years of his life since the original film's release as the reason he couldn't do Beetlejuice Beetlejuice until then, having experienced many of those things himself, finding the project a very personal movie starring a weird family in a family-friendly and emotional story of three generations experiencing basic things everyone feels in life when growing up. Burton and Keaton agreed to not use excessive amounts of technology, and sought to make the film feel "handmade".

Filming wrapped in November of 2023, and it was really well made. There were a lot of storylines going on. Some worked and some seemed unneccassary like the story line with Beetlejuice and his ex-wife. Danny Devito makes a fun cameo appearance, and the whole movie was fun and definitely worth the trip. My daughter and I had a great time!

MY RATING: 8 out of 10