“I have Global Entry!”
Now, does this sound like a funny line? Of course not. What could be funny about Global Entry in the history of mankind and airport lines?
But put it through the mouth of comedy goddess Catherine O’Hara, and place it in the fantastically inventive world of Tim Burton and that bizarre post-death waiting room of “Beetlejuice,” and it might become one of the most blessed times in your life you’ll ever laugh about Global Entry.
That probably won’t be the only thing you’ll laugh at. Burton is back — and, more importantly, he’s back — with “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” 36 years after the original. And for once, the question “Why a sequel?” is redundant.
Not because we know the answer. But, who cares? It’s funny. It might make you feel better about death, although not “death death.” And Michael Keaton somehow looks exactly like he did in 1988.
Returning to his tale of Keaton’s haunting, demonic “bio-exorcist,” director Burton brings back most of the team behind the original film, including the still-lovely Winona Ryder as Lydia the goth girl, along with O’Hara and Keaton.
And we’ve got Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, and, for the younger generation, Jenna Ortega, who plays a charming anchor despite being a relatively normal person, her story driving the plot forward.
Speaking of the plot: if you haven’t seen the original, don’t worry. Everything will become clear in time. We begin in Winter River, Connecticut, still the home of Lydia Deetz, who moved in as a teenager with crazy stepmother Delia and father Charles, only to discover that her new home was haunted by the recently deceased Adam and Barbara.
Lydia looks much the same — dressed in black, with spiky hair and pale skin — but now she’s a widowed mother, a psychic mediator and the host of a raunchy reality show, “Ghost House,” in which she observes ghosts and asks, “Can the living and the dead coexist?”
But one day she sees something in the audience that terrifies her: a vision of Beetlejuice, who wreaked havoc on the teens and, when we last left him, was perishing in a post-mortem waiting room.
Waiting outside the set to comfort Lydia after this horrific scene is her manager and boyfriend, Rory, whose tiny ponytail is almost as striking as hers.
Lydia then receives a worrying message from Delia, an artist of questionable talent and undeniable ego, who is organizing a gallery show in which she herself is the canvas. There, Delia tells Lydia that she has lost Charles. “Is he divorcing you?” Lydia is shocked. “What a horrible thought!” Delia replies. “No, he’s dead.”
Lydia calls her daughter Astrid at boarding school. Astrid has Lydia listed as her “alleged mother” in her contacts, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about their strained relationship.
But let’s pause for this description of the living, because we have to tell you about the dead, too. Down below where Beetlejuice is trapped, where the dead live – but not the “dead dead” – Delores, Beetlejuice’s ex-wife, has escaped from the boxes his body used to reside in. Watching the glamorous Bellucci literally piece herself together is one of the wonderfully creative moments Burton and crew give us here. Alas, Delores has nothing else to do, but it’s pretty spectacular.
We’re getting into spoiler territory, so let’s just say that things get really complicated when Astrid goes home to Winter River for her father’s funeral. There, she watches as mother accepts a marriage proposal from the sly Rory. While rushing to escape, Astrid bumps into a cute young boy reading Dostoyevsky.
A relationship begins that will lead to unexpected disaster. Suppose Lydia will have to call in Beetlejuice – alas! – who will charge a terrible price for his services, as he has always done.
And he shows up pretty quickly. Keaton, with his white makeup and black eyes and hair that looks as if he always has his hand in a plug in the wall, slips into his old role remarkably smoothly. “The juice is loose,” as he likes to say.
But you know who really infuses this movie with energy? Burton. It’s his unique energy that pervades this movie – a delightful sequel that sometimes makes sense, and sometimes doesn’t, but just keeps on being thrilling. One of the ridiculous pleasures along the way: a “Soul Train” to the afterlife that is not only literally a train of souls, but a replica of the variety show “Soul Train,” with dancing Africans accompanying the journey.
And if we don’t have the lip-synced “Day-O” from the original, we have Donna Summer’s lip-synced version of “MacArthur Park.” The disco classic’s funny words are, “Somebody left the cake out in the rain.” “I don’t think I can take it, because it took too long to bake, and I’ll never have that recipe again.”
In the Burtonian spirit, let’s say it took a long time to cook, yes, but the director has reworked the recipe – at least enough to make us smile, laugh, even guffaw, for 104 minutes. And we can be happy with that.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “violent content, frightening and bloody images, strong language, some suggestive material and brief drug use.” Duration: 104 minutes. Three out of four stars.
This article is generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.