A "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" Review… Review

(photo courtesy of Warner Bros.)

 September 6th, 2024 marked the release of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to the cult classic Beetlejuice. VIRIDIAN Entertainment staff give their review of the movie.
by Lochlan Chastain and Robert Arizmendi

Our expectations going into the movie were that it wasn’t going to be as good as the original. The movie was bad. It had a weird plot and wasn’t as well made as the first movie. The whole movie has all these “A stories” and “B stories” that clash together at the end but not in a good way. 

The movie has Wyonna Ryder’s character return as Lydia who hosts a talk show. Her daughter Astrid, played by Jenna Ortega, is often ignored due to the talk show and because of her father’s death. Beetlejuice returns as a “bio-exorcist” and runs a team of ghosts. Bob, the shrunken head guy from the first film, also returns but they didn’t use him as anything more than a joke. We are not a fan of jokes returning for the same laugh; we prefer the joke to come back and evolve into something more than what the original was. Bob was just him returning but no evolution, just a silly character.

We also didn’t like most of the new characters. They are thrown into a world where they feel out of place or like they’re trying too hard to blend in, that they stand out. It just isn’t the original movie, it can bring back anything from the first movie but it will never be it. We are both tired of the recent trend of bringing classic movies back for nostalgia and not focusing on the plot or dialogue.

​The movie felt rushed and the scenario that played out felt like it didn’t need to happen. The story just made us say, “Who cares?” because I was so disinterested in the plot and the characters. We both were sort of forced by the movie into making fun of it and critiquing it while watching instead of being able to enjoy it. Even the returning characters had nothing interesting about them. For example, Lydia who was neglected as a child, neglects her child when she is older. Why would she do that when the first movie had the ghosts raise her to be better? The movie is lazily constructed and was only made to make the fans of the first movie feel nostalgic. We don’t like when movies get sequels for no particular reason, other than the obvious. This movie is just a “cash grab”.

This movie is just another addition to the growing pile of terribly made movies that have been released in recent years. It feels like studios don’t care anymore as long as they bring a famous actor in or a movie title that carries weight like the name, “Beetlejuice”.

​The movie was boring and unappealing. We give the movie a 1.2 out of 5 shrunken heads.