I sit in with hosts John Moore and John Moore on NewsTalk 1010 to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about the “ghost with the most” in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the head bangin’ “Deaner ’89” and the haunting “The Front Room.”
I join “CTV News Atlantic at Six” anchor Todd Battis to talk about the “ghost with the most” in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the head bangin’ “Deaner ’89” and the haunting “The Front Room.”
I join the CTV NewsChannel anchor Renee Rogers to talk about the “ghost with the most” in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the head bangin’ “Deaner ’89” and the haunting “The Front Room.”
I joined CP24 Breakfast to have a look at new movies and television shows coming to theatres and streaming services. Today we talk about the ghost with the most” in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the haunting “The Front Room” and the Disney+ movie “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat.”
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show to talk the new movies coming to theatres and streaming including the “ghost with the most” in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the head bangin’ “Deaner ’89” and the haunting “The Front Room.”
I join the national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” to have a look at the big entertainment headlines and then suggest the perfect cocktail to enjoy while taking in the happy hauntings of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.”
Listen to Booze and Reviews HERE! (Starts at 21:10)
Listen to entertainment headlines HERE! (Starts at 11:00)
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to tie a bowtie! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the “ghost with the most” in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the head bangin’ “Deaner ’89” and the haunting “The Front Room.”
Betelgeuse, the bio-exorcist made famous by Michael Keaton in the 1988 film of (almost) the same name, thinks of himself as “nightmare material,” but for fans of the much-loved original movie, his reunion with director Tim Burton is a dream.
The new film, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” returns to Winter River, and three generations of the Deetz family, wacky artist Delia (Catherine O’Hara), mother of goth TV personality Lydia (Winona Ryder)—”The Living. The Dead. Can they coexist? That’s what we’re here to find out,” she says— and grandmother of the rebellious Astrid (Jenna Ortega), who thinks her mother’s clairvoyance is a sham.
Brought together by the passing of Deetz family patriarch Charles, (originally played by Jeffrey Jones), the trio becomes a quartet when Astrid opens a portal to the Afterlife, releasing the ghostly presence of Betelgeuse (Keaton). “The juice is loose!”
Lydia, now engaged to greasy television producer Rory (Justin Theroux), must reckon with her past betrothal to Betelgeuse—“When I was a teenager, a trickster demon terrorized our entire family and tried to force me to marry him,” she says—while the rambunctious spirit has marital troubles of his own. His ex-wife, the soul-sucking Delores (Monica Belucci) has pulled herself together—when we first see her, she’s reassembling her dismembered body—and looking for revenge.
Flip flopping between past and present, our world and the otherworld, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” explores Astrid’s crush on emo local boy Jeremy (Arthur Conti), the adventures of b-movie-action-star-turned-ghost-detective Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe) and the power of the “Handbook for the Recently Deceased.”
A sequel to a movie released when Ronald Reagan was the President of the United States, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is in some ways a back-to-basics Tim Burton movie.
A return to the pop pastiche style that made his name, it’s an eye-popping collection of influences. From the German Expressionism of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” and classic 50s kitsch to exaggerated dreamscapes and the gothic “Gashlycrumb Tinies,” his energized visuals will make your eyeballs dance. It’s a welcome return to the marvellously macabre window dressing that defined the original and made it so much fun.
But sequel culture, being what it is, means that the follow-up to a beloved hit must be bigger than what came before. So, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is longer, louder and unrulier than the original. In its attempt to recreate the magic of the first film, it tries too hard, stuffing the story with side-stories, new characters and callbacks to 1988. It’s a new “Day-O” for Betelgeuse, and the effort is evident, but the extra stuff doesn’t do much in terms of freshening up Mr. Juice’s mouldy corpse.
Still, although bigger is not better, it brims with humor and heart, courtesy of a handpicked cast of Burton regulars. Keaton has an expanded role—he only appears for 17.5 minutes in the original—and goes for it. The character isn’t exactly subtle, but both Burton and Keaton use restraint, so the wild-and-wacky “ghost with the most” doesn’t overstay his welcome.
The Deetz family dynamic, the film’s beating heart, is well represented in the relationship between Ryder, O’Hara and Ortega. National treasure O’Hara is reliably hilarious, stealing every scene she’s in, while Ryder and Ortega do the dramatic heavy lifting.
You may not have the time of your afterlife at “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” but it’s far from a dead end for Burton and Company. It doesn’t have the charm of the first film, but does deliver enough laughs, fan service and new ideas to cast its spell.