I watched Bettlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to the original film from the 80's, because I had literally nothing else to watch that evening (not really a fan of slapstick horror.) It's as campy as the original, and while seeing Winona Ryder in her fifties is always mildly distressing to me (she's eternally young in my brain) it's okay.
The premise: Now the host of a paranormal ghost show, Lydia Deetz begins seeing Beetlejuice, the demon from her past, and must battle a smarmy leech of a romantic parter, her narcissistic mother, a life-snatching killer ghost and make a hellish trip through the afterlife way station to save her estranged daughter who is still mourning the loss of her father.
Problems: not really a lot. It's basically a sequel that relies heavily on the first film, and all the jokes from it are pretty much repeats. Keaton is as offensive as the first time around. Winona Ryder looks bored (and sounds like she has laryngitis) most of the time to me. Oddly the actress playing the daughter looks about thirty years old the way they make her up (she's 22, I checked.)
My one beef is personal; I dislike the depiction of violent death as entertainment because I've seen the real thing and it's not funny. But that's what happens when you work in a busy ER.
Bettlejuice Beetlejuice isn't a bad film, and evidently it did quite well. It just didn't do anything for me. Available on Netflix.
Comments