BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (2024)
4K Ultra HD + Digital
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 104 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1) with Optional English 3
Video: Dolby Vision (HDR10) 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti, Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe
Well, it finally happened, we git a damn sequel to Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1989), with Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder (Stranger Things) and Catherine O’Hara reprising their original roles. We once more return to the Dieetz house in Winter River, Connecticut, this time to mourn the passing of Lydia's father Charles who has passed on. Set 35 years after the original this sequel forgoes anything having to do with Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis) who haunted Lydia in her youth, let's just assume they are resting easy in the Afterlife, shall we? Anyway, we catch up with Lydia who now hosts a cheeseball paranormal talk show called Ghost House, she's dating a conniving hanger-on named Rory (Justin Theroux) who is also the producer of the show, and we learn she is estranged from her teen daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega, Wednesday) who is away at college, a character who seems not far too removed from her portrayal Wednesday Adams, which is fine by me. Astrid thinks her mom is a broken woman, and does not believe that her mom can commune with the dead. Lydia gets a call from her mother, telling her that her father has died, and of course Jeffrey Jones is nowhere near this film because of his sex-offender status in real-life, but we do get a wonderful stop-motion animated sequence showing how Charles Deetz met his end, and it's one of my favorite sequences in the whole film.
As the Deetz are back in Winter River you know that the bio-exorcist Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton, Batman) is not far away, and when he learns that Lydia is back in town he shows up looking for some marital-action! He's not the only one either, Lydia's weaselly controlling boyfriend decides to propose to her during Charles's wake, and even goth-girl Astrid meets a cute local boy named Jeremy Frazier (Arthur Conti, House of the Dragon) who is the proud owner of a Handbook for the Recently Deceased, hmmm, what's up with that?
Meanwhile in the Afterlife Beetlejuice's former flame Delores LaFerve (Monica Bellucci, Irreversible) who died at the end of Beetlejuice's ax during the Black Plague, and looking very much like Sally from A Nightmare Before Christmas has been resurrected, and is a soul-sucking witch looking to get back at her former lover for his indiscretion. Her first victim in the Afterlife is a blue-skinned janitor played by Danny DeVito (Batman Returns), sucking the life right out of him and deflating him in the process, it;s a cool effect. Investigating Delores crime-spree is Afterlife cop Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse) who in life was a b-movie action star who insisted on doing his own stunts as evidenced by his partially exposed skull and brain in the Afterlife! We also get the return of the shrunken head character from the first film, several of them in fact, who are in the employee of Beetlejuice, which was delightful. The estranged mother-daughter relationship was less interesting to me, I though Ryder and Ortega were just fine, I just found their characters relationship troubles, and Lydia's relationship to Rory, were just a bit meh, more interesting was Astrid's romance with ghost-boy Jeremy, and where that takes them... to the Netherworld were we meets her dead dad, who went missing in the Amazon years earlier, his physical state in the Netherworld giving a pretty major clue to his demise. About the only groaner here is the Soul Train musical sequence, but I did like the wedding finale featuring Richard Harris's "MacArthur Park", that was awesome.
I will say that post Sleepy Hollow there are not a lot of Burton properties that have won me over, but seeing him return to this sandbox and just having a blast with the returning and new cast was quite pleasing. I was smiling throughout the whole film, the shrunken heads were cool, the Netherworld looks fucking amazing, and it's chock full fo practical in-camera special effects and stop-motion animations, including the return of the Sandworms and their dominion. Keaton's return to play the titular bio-exorcist just feels good, feeling like a nostalgia warmed blanket pulled over me to keep the chill away, I loved it. After that it was the delightful Catherine O'Hara's return as the self-obsessed artists is just the icing on top of the cake, who ends up in the Netherworld herself after a ridiculous error of judgment involving de-fanged venomous snakes. It's just a fun romp, very light and breezy, and is a totally fun and bonkers return to this particular Tim Burton sandbox, and I was surprised how much I loved it at the cinema, and even more pleasantly surprised I liked it even better on re-watch with this dazzling 4K release.
Audio/Video: Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice (2024) looks brilliant on the WBDHE 4K Ultra HD disc. Obviously the source looks flawless, its a brand spanking new film from a big studio, and the Dolby Vision color-grade with it's WCG color space offers wonderful color reproduction with deep hues and nuanced color-balance. Blacks are deep and inky, black crush is never an issues, and shadow detail looks spot on. The 4K resolution brings plenty of detail and texture to the image, and the depth, clarity and contrast are extemporary. The Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1) likewise is dynamic, robust and nuanced, with a very solid low-end. Dialogue is nicely prioritized, and the effects and the Danny Elfman score sound absolutely terrific.
We get a solid array of behind-the-scenes extras for this sequel, these include peaks at shots and effect being created, cast and crew interviews, a Commentary from Burton, and discussion of the effects, revisiting characters, the visual design and plenty of peeks at the wonderful stop-motion sequences.
The single-disc release arrives in a black keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork, which is replicated on the slipcover. Inside there's a redemption code for a 4K Digital copy of the film.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary by director Tim Burton
- The Juice is Loose! The Making of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (27:37)
- The Ghost with the Most: Beetlejuice Returns (8:33)
- Meet the Deetz (6:52)
- Handbook for the Recently Deceased (12:07)
- Shrinkers, Shrinkers Everywhere! (6:26)
- An Animated Afterlife: The Stop-Motion Art of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (9:14)
- ‘Til Death Do Us Park (7:54)
- The Juice is Loose! The Making of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (27:37)
- The Ghost with the Most: Beetlejuice Returns (8:33)
- Meet the Deetz (6:52)
- Handbook for the Recently Deceased (12:07)
- Shrinkers, Shrinkers Everywhere! (6:26)
- An Animated Afterlife: The Stop-Motion Art of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (9:14)
- ‘Til Death Do Us Park (7:54)
Buy it!
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