BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE Review! - Is it a Worthy Sequel? (Spoilers)

Beetle Juice Beetle Juice Beetle [Music] Juice hey welcome back to screen Crush I'm Colton Ogburn and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is finally here and hey it only took 30 years that was fast we're going to review the film and tell you guys everything we loved and maybe didn't love discuss comparisons to the original and theorize on the possibility of a third installment and a little later I'm going to be joined by my friends Whitney van laningham and our own Briana Mardy to get their thoughts on the film but first let me share mine my turn my turn I'm a pretty big fan of the original Beetlejuice I watched it a lot on VHS as a kid I'm a huge Michael Keaton fan I love Katherine O'Hara and I'm also a big fan of Tim Burton's recent series Wednesday starring Jin Ortega so safe to say I was pretty damn excited for this sequel now let me be clear I did have a good time at this movie but I do however have some complaints but first let me share some love this movie feels like Beetlejuice and that's thanks to the fact that they got Tim Burton back to direct the wacky and quirky nature of this film and its determination to not take itself too seriously was a great way to honor the original film I also really like that wiona Ryder's character Lydia Deets was the star of the film I assumed that Jor TGA and Beetlejuice would take Center Stage but Lydia really is the main character of this movie and I think that was the right choice Winona Rider of course doesn't miss a beat and it was so great and of course nostalgic seeing her back in the role of Lydia the same of course goes for Katherine O'Hara asilia and Michael Keaton's portrayal of Beetle Juice is in my opinion better than ever the juice is loose and I am so glad that Michael Keaton didn't get burned on this one like he did with his return to Batman he of course returned to play Batman in the Batgirl movie that got canned and The Flash movie that got panned I liked it so I'm glad that this iconic return to a role from his past is shaping up to be beloved now having said all that I do have some complaints and I know it feels a little silly to get into critiques of a movie as wacky as Beetlejuice but bear with me the movie has a serious villain problem in the original film Beetlejuice was the villain and I was all for this sequel having him be more of an anti-hero and helping Lydia with another ghostly threat but the villains just fell flat for me the whole Beetlejuice had a wife who Wants Revenge is cool but they executed it horribly it's like this concept of her hunting down Beetlejuice was going to be the through line of the movie but then that plot just kind of takes a backseat for most of the film she barely speaks the entire movie and her hunting of Beetle Juice really has nothing to do with the other stuff going on in the story and then she just shows up at the end to be quickly defeated same goes for the murder boy ghost he shows up we get this twist that he's a bad ghosty yada yada yada Lydia pulls as off a train and then Beetlejuice sends him to Hell which I'll admit was an awesome scene but felt super rushed and just I don't know anticlimactic that's it that's it and then there's Lydia's boyfriend who I was totally convinced would also be revealed to be like a a soul sucker like beetlejuice's wife but but NOP just another villain with another completely unrelated motive so my point is is that we have these three completely unrelated villains whose motives could have been great if given a little more time to be fleshed out I personally would have preferred a single focus on one villain or at least have the villains like working together or something I think a bunch of guys like us should team up overall the story just felt really discom and there were too many different things going on at least for me and I have to say it kind of bothered me that Beetlejuice was Betrayed at the end don't get me wrong I know he's a Greek but hey he did help Lydia get her daughter back and save her from being banished to the great beyond but at the end Lydia doesn't hold up her end of the deal which don't get me wrong that's fine because I'm not in favor of a force marriage especially since he's been creeping on her since she was a literal child but I got to say I did think it was kind of dumb how we see Beetlejuice get like this big villain defeat at the end of the movie like he was the big bad of the movie when he wasn't well guys those are just my thoughts now I want to bring on two friends of the show we've got Whitney van laningham of Guardians of the paly fame and our own Bon Mardy I am so excited to talk to both of you about this movie I just shared some critiques I had of the film but overall I I really did enjoy it I had a good time so Whitney I know you're a huge Beetlejuice fan what were your thoughts on the movie overall is it a worthy sequel I'm the Ghost with the most babe so you know I got opinions I got opinions oh my gosh I definitely thought that it was a worthy sequel um the pxy episode episod uh about my thoughts on the o OJ uh original OG Beetlejuice uh will come out later this week but in that I mentioned that the only thing that I wanted for this movie like the the only thing where I was just like this has to happen or it will suck is that I did not want it to rest too much on the first Beetle Juice I hate it when sequels do that I hate it when they just do only call back lines they don't write any new jokes it's just all you know call backs and stuff like that this was a completely fresh take on the uh the bju as I like to call it uh the Beetlejuice Universe Got expanded we got so much more lore about the department of the recently deceased uh we met a lot of very funky characters I was truly obsessed with uh the fact that there was an entire character whose whole job was handing Willam defo cups of hot coffee that he could spill in Anger uh I thought that was just like the greatest bit ever did that character need to exist no if they cut William defo out of the movie it would have been exactly the same movie that character was completely unnecessary and I loved him I don't give a pour more William defo into my veins uh so I I really enjoyed this movie how about you guys well Whitney I have to say I loved your little slip up there the OJ OG yeah I did whoops juice is loose Brianna I I've been wanting to ask what your thoughts on this this were but I I I've been holding back for the talk back so I I'm anxious to hear what did you think I really liked it I think it was a worthy sequel I think it had some pacing issues I feel like recently movies have even knew this thing where they're super long or they really condense their material I wish this had been like 15 minutes longer because there was so many cool characters I loved Williams ofos character I even loved the wife but I wish we had gotten to spend a little more time with them so they felt more integral and important to the world especially with the wife that was like my crique we need more Dolores immediately that is what I'm sure that they're making a third one though and I I really think that the third one's going to be all Dolores all day baby so because she was cool I won't say the title or he'll show up to this podcast and then we'll all die but no I really liked it uh I love that it kept the feel of the old movie I was really worried that was going to be lost cuz like to me I was like is that just cuz it's like an 80s movie is that like part of the feel but like no it totally kept it I love the return to form for Timber and and I loved how creepy it was like this is such a small detail but one of my favorite details was the cat lady whose cat was eating her like she was that was sick dud I laughed so hard at that and at the burnt Santa Claus because I was just like oh implications of this waiting room right now are that these people had a bad night I enjoyed it you know but my number one complaint with it and you kind of touched on this a little bana it had a serious villain problem we get introduced to this this wife character which seems really cool I thought her introduction was awesome coming out of the box yeah but then I don't know just the whole movie they they cut to her like every 30 minutes or 20 minutes like soul sucking somebody and then she has like hardly any dialogue and the story didn't really tie in at all I I thought that the the concept of the boy that J Ora's character was with finding out he's a ghost and all that that was a really cool concept that I thought they didn't really give a lot of time to thought like they introduced that little Arc and then it was done like Beetlejuice sents him to Hell which was awesome I thought that was really cool the the the singular use of the word in that moment was chef's kiss perfect died laughing my my wife actually leaned over to me because you know he F bombs later in the movie and they B bleeps it yeah yeah and they were like oh they bleep that one I'm like well actually it's PG-13 and they only get one just let you know I also agree that they they just the was so many story lines and each of them were so interesting and I also really really wanted to stick with them more uh unfortunately Dolores does not pass the beell test she spends the whole time only talking about getting her getting her husband back to suck out his sweet sweet dirty nasty disgusting grotesque Soul um so I I agree with that I loved the ghost twist I definitely saw coming a mile away but I also uh am a person who for a living and analyzes every single frame of a movie uh compulsively and uncontrollably so I was like oh he's ghost like the second that I saw him but I think that if you are like and this is not an insult by the way to any of our viewers out there if you are a viewer who is not obsessively checking every frame of a movie you will be surprised by this twist and that's what I really like I really liked that like if my mom watched this movie my mom would have never guessed that he was a ghost you know I didn't get that he was a ghost at first but I I knew something was off when they introduced the parents and didn't show their faces I was like something's going on here like and when they when uh astd first meets him and he talk goes into their house and all that there was great details with him too like one actually TI me off was obviously the parents but then when they go into his room it's all 90s stuff it's completely he has a Daniel Johnston Hi how are you poster that I have in my living room and I was so excited I was like Ghost Boy and I have the same exact Daniel Johnston poster The Devil in Daniel Johnston and now the devil is in whatever the that guy's doing in hell now so I loved that I thought that was really cool um especially because yeah the name of the album is the devil and Daniel Johnson and then he goes to hell at the end that was a sick sick 90s grunge band reference and I am here for it and Brian am I being too analytical like part part of me thinks there were a lot of really cool elements here that just didn't get enough attention they should have focused on one I talked about that a little earlier and personally for me if if I were making this movie I I would have had it to where the the whole wife Beetlejuice wife thing I would have scrapped that I would have focused on the Ghost Boy element introduced that earlier and I wouldn't have had Beetlejuice come in until Lydia realizes that she needs the help of Beetle Juice and summons him I I think that should have been the first time we saw him on camera move it up a little earlier like at the very end of the First Act or something like that but am I being too picky here should I be more giving you know for a a Beetlejuice movie A Tim Burton movie I mean I think it's a very wacky movie and I will say one thing I actually did love about all the plot lines was how they kind of were jumping around and like coalescing at the very end I actually thought that was really fun with some of the like as much as I wish we gotten a little bit more I love that it was so quick at the end in terms of like all of the plot lines just like crashing into each other literally my I actually love seeing Beetle juu um early and I like that he was still pining after Lydia but part of this is um something you said earlier in your script where he is still the villain and in my opinion he was always the villain I liked that he like at the end was like treated like a villain and part of it is because he's still pining after a 14-year-old girl and that's creepy like seeing that her high school photo on his desk weird and and speaking of that uh addressing the elephant in the room just really quick I was very uncomfortable with the fact that they kept showing a disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Jones's face every five minutes I was like whoa there I I really enjoyed they bit his head off with the shark but I thought that the actual gravite portrait of him was a little much and they showed it repeatedly and I was like please don't give that any more screen time I already feel gross rewatching the first Beetle Juice but uh I did love that they had him die such a brutal vicious I thought that that was very funny and when they just did it in clamation if that was all that they did with like Jeffrey Jones's character in terms of like showing him I would have been fine with that I I loved that they had him die an awful Grizzly death in clamation thought that that was great I could have done without the the gravite portrait I thought that that was a little weird I agree and I feel like there was a really easy fix for that with um Katherine O'Hara character being an artist I was like oh well why didn't they just make like a painting or or like a wacky sculpture that doesn't really look like him but like an abstract thing that was made by you know deia I thought yeah that would have been so much better in my opinion yeah but speaking of Katherine O'Hara she killed it she was so funny absolutely love you one of my favorite Parts was when she's just like normally I think it's a little bit funny when you torture your mom because of what she put me through but not today as a huge was like I'm dying that would be so embarrassing also I felt so bad for I was like I would actually have to leave that that's way more embarrassing than your mom being on ghost house which is the dumbest name for aing show I that also made me laugh so hard just the fact that it's called ghost house and she has the same haircut she had at 14 Whitney speaking of creepy men um I agree that yes when I when I saw the teenage picture of her on his desk I was like that's weird but I at the same time I Beetlejuice was a yes he was the villain in the first movie he wasn't the villain in this one I didn't think I he he saved um ASD from being sent to the afterlife so I and you know he he drops that guy into hell I thought that was all pretty cool and while I I'm not supporting like a forced marriage here but I thought it was a little weird that they like gave him the big like villain ending when really he he was a hero I think in this movie am I wrong either of you take that tell me where I'm wrong uh I definitely think he wasn't the villain in this movie in terms of like yes he was not the one who was trying to get asured to hell I still think he was a villainous lecherous guy and I think he actually kind of in a weird way paralleled Lydia's like almost husband like he was willing to kind of like help her but it was like for leechy grosseries and then at the end he can't even just marry her like a normal person he's like no I'm going to possess every single human here and make you do your stupid little dance like she's trying to speak over him and he mutes her like he mutes her like they're in a zo H so he's still gross um and I think that it was and she also has like obviously come kind of PTSD like they touch on that so I was fine with that because I was like yeah like he did save astd but really in my opinion Lydia saved ASD by using Beetle Juice as her own tool after he tried to use her many times okay I'm swaye that that's a fair point I agree with that I I very heavily with that uh interpretation of it because that's also how I saw it I thought that he was still the villain because he was still like I mean yeah all of his motives were completely ulterior like he just wanted to remarry his high school sweetheart and when I say that I mean she was in high school not him gross gross gross gross however allow me to play BJ's advocate for what second I do not condone this however probably to him he's like 600 years old so age is just a number and he knows that Lydia's come into the Afterlife at some point anyway and then he's gonna make his move gross me out though gross me out but I also I understand suspending disbelief for movie purposes I get that yeah not great okay yeah so sequel I'm not going to say the title of the sequel are we going to get one do you want one should this be a you know a oneandone type thing I I think it's important that if they do a sequel it' be directed by Tim Burton I'm not sure that I'm interested in a sequel for sequel sake yeah bana do do you want a a third Beetle Juice I would actually love a third Beetle Juice that was more focused on astd I really like that Lydia seemed to get like the actual kind of closer closure she needed with Beetle Juice this um in this sequel but I did feel like astd wasn't characterized as heavily as she could have been I think a lot of her character was just in opposition to her mom and to be fair teens do that I probably did that too but I did feel like her character could have been a little bit like more rounded out especially she had a lot of like Punk influences in her dressing style and I wish they had like kind of full scent with that more um but if they did sort of like the like the dream sequence Montage thing I would like love to see that more explored and have like ased like 10 years in the future um um and she's like just had a baby and something like that I think that would be like a cool way to like sort of bring this up um or her dad starts appearing to her there's like a lot of things they could do that I think would be cool with her character I really appreciated the fact and that Lydia was the star of this movie I I thought that astred yeah I I thought you know with Jenna Ortega being a hot name right now I I thought she would be the lead of this movie I I was glad that she was more of a secondary character and yeah for a third film I think think jorga could take the spotlight I mean she fits in this universe perfectly Whitney do do you want a third Beetle Juice I want all the beetle dry in my life uh I I don't yeah I definitely want a third one I think that that ending gave us a lot to explore um I do think that it was very interesting that like during the whole like the wedding scene at one point Beetlejuice says I love a dream sequence and I was like but wait this isn't a dream this is actually happening what do you mean by that and then he like inceptions her with a dream sequence at the end and I was like oh Beetlejuice you sneaky little I love you dude uh so I think that I think that there is going to be something where he's going to be pissed that she found a loophole to send him back and she's he might be haunting her he might be haunting astd he might be coming back he might have because he did impregnate he did impregnate Winona with the creepy baby so I don't know I don't know does that have last effects like you know how like when like a normal non- Beetlejuice woman gets pregnant the baby's cells like become a part of her and she takes on the baby cells and the baby cells take on her cells did that happen did real science happen in the Underworld help because that would be a whole other ball game what if she really is related to oh my God it was so horrifying I would kill I was like alien has nothing on this like the alen has nothing on this I'm glad you bring up that scene because I also was like am I taking this too seriously right now and then I was like okay calm down it's probably just like an illusion but yeah actually you make some good points of especially an illusion where you impregnate a woman against her will is kind of messed up kind of messed up y'all pretty messed up and she has like the Eraser head baby I couldn't I know oh my God oh my God oh my God I will say that I did like that this movie didn't dial it back at all like they they didn't try to adjust it for our current times at all they were like we're going freaking weird with it and I I did appreciate that Beetle Juice is still going to be problematic as hell let's go like it was it was great I I did like that they stuck they kept him sleazy kept himey they kept him Breezy and I really liked that and they kept it gross I feel like one thing I've seen or felt a lot with like someone who really likes Timberton um a lot of his Disney films uh have really gotten sanitized and like you can tell that like Disney was like let's draw back I espcially in Alison Wonderland sequel I was like okay she climbed heads in the first one what is this but I feel like they did just let Timber and be like just go just just do whatever you want whatever weird little thing comes up in your mind whatever weird gross thing happens we're fine with it just they gave him a bag of cocaine like it was the 80s and they told him to go nuts they said Burton do your worst let's let's get them again but that is why I really enjoyed it cuz I do feel like they actually expanded on the world without ring on the they still made us feel like we were in the world of the first one without making that the central focus of the movie of being like ha hey remember remember this line remember the Ghost with the most line everybody ha he said it again I hate like that I love that all of the jokes were new and fresh I love that they didn't do another shake shake shake Sonora scene The Banana Song during the funeral was great I loved that as like a little homage but I'm so glad that they didn't just like repeat the same exact beats over and over again yeah I agree because we we are in a situation in the film industry where uh sequels and reboots and you know that that seems to be all the all the craze right now so I did appreciate that Burton brought some originality to it I appreciated that the studio let him bring some originality to it didn't say hey carbon copy the first one that's what we want I was glad that he kind of did his own thing well simultaneously you know threw in a few member berries which I appreciated all right well I want to thank both of you so much for joining me Whitney van lanningham you can check her out on her socials we'll have those uh linked below as well as Guardians of the paly terrific podcast that she does with Friends of the channel Mt and Tommy beckles and of course we have bana mcclardy our very own ban mclardy she writes she edits does lots of great stuff here at screen Crush so be sure to check her out now if you're new here be sure to subscribe smash that Bell for alerts and let us know your thoughts down in the comments below regarding Beetlejuice beetle juice for screen Crush I'm Colton oord [Music]