Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] The juice is on the loose, and he's back and ready for more. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of movie Deputy Reviews, where we are interrogating movies for their plot and their content. And hopefully you caught yesterday's show where, yeah, that one just kind of goes off the rails a little bit, but in a fun way. We brought to you Beetlejuice yesterday, the original from 19 88, 36 years ago. And today we are talking about none other than Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice two, the long awaited, much anticipated, much desired sequel to the original. Now, the first one is so bad, it's good. This one is almost so bad. It's bad, but it's still good.
[00:00:52] This one is a conundrum. That's kind of fitting that I mentioned a conundrum. It was two months ago today that my life got uprooted heavily. My 50th birthday for those who got that episode was two months ago today, the day that I found out that I have cancer.
[00:01:13] Not the light mood that I wanted to keep with today's movie. But I just couldn't help but think about that when I was sitting down recording this for you guys today.
[00:01:22] So let's get back into a healthier thing here. Now, if you didn't catch yesterday's program, and there was something I actually forgot to mention is, you know, I was talking reminiscing about all these classic movies and stuff back from the 1980s. I really didn't focus on one thing. There's a big character in this movie that I forgot to mention, and that is the sandworm. What is it with eighties movies and worms? I mean, we have Poltergeist and you have the worm, and then you have this one. You have the sandworms, and then you have the original dune and you have those sandworms. And it's like, what is it with worms in the eighties? I mean, seriously. But of course, yes, we get the sandworms again in this movie as well. So.
[00:02:05] But yes, of course we get Beetlejuice back after 36 long years. Now, you may be wondering, okay, is it really the same? Well, I don't know what it took to get Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder and all of these great stars back.
[00:02:22] A surprising amount of the original stars came back for this one. Now, this one does not play out in the way you might think. Lydia is now all grown up. And don't worry. What I'm about to tell you is not actually a spoiler for the movie. Cause it's right in the very beginning of the movie. But it kinda touches on the other one as well. But she is all grown up now, and she can still see the dead, but now she takes medication, so she doesn't see the dead. I. But she hosts a program on tv, and I don't. I think it's just a tv program. I don't think it's radio too. But it's called Ghost House. Now, why is that relevant? Well, that was almost the title of the original movie. That was actually the original working title before they changed to Beetlejuice was Ghost House. Now, why did they change? I don't know, but it's just kind of interesting that they're paying homage, kind of, to the original one with Lydia's show in this movie. So she is like this talk show person and talks about the paranormal and, you know, like, all the paranormal programs and stuff we have nowadays, kind of similar to some of those. But in this one, she's kind of estranged from her daughter. Her daughter is Astrid. Now, if you are at all familiar with Netflix or the tv show Wednesday, that's. Or Netflix show Wednesday, that that is her daughter in this one. And so this kind of just plays out. They're kind of estranged from one another, and they're coming up on just a bunch of different things that are happening in life. And her dad just recently died. Now that's kind of an important thing to touch on, too, is I talk about all the characters returning from the original in this one. Well, Charles Dietz does not come back, and it's kind of important to touch on why he doesn't come back. This one. He doesn't come back because, specifically, Tim Burton did not want him back because he was convicted of multiple counts of underage photography, underage photographs and such materials. I'll let you kind of fill in the blanks of that part of your imagination there. So he did not come back for this one.
[00:04:30] We see pieces of him, not necessarily in the typical way. We see animation that is reminiscent of the eighties with some claymation for part of this movie. And ultimately, we see kind of everybody coming back to the house. Delia still is the totally weird art, just plain weirdo.
[00:04:53] So that part doesn't change. Betelgeuse is still beetlejuice. Like, full on Beetlejuice, except just there's a few little differences to it. And the afterlife is very similar. You still. There's a lot of references to the first movie in this one, but all Astrid wants to do is to get to the afterlife. And so Betelgeuse tries to help her find a way to do that. And then Lydia. Lydia's life is spiraling out of control. Delia's life is just.
[00:05:24] If you thought she was dramatic in the first movie, wait till you see her in this one. Like I said, it's so.
[00:05:30] It's so bad. It's entertaining. I mean, this one, it doesn't have quite the magic of the first one, but it's still entertaining. There. There's so much that is going on in this one. They're back in Winter River, Connecticut, which, if you don't know, it's a fictional town, but that's the name of the town in the movie. And that was. They're back at the original house and they're so. I'm trying to think how to really, like, touch on so much of the stuff that's going on.
[00:05:59] They're trying to connect with certain loved ones that have crossed over.
[00:06:03] It's just they're in these groups of people who are trying to help each other. And of course, we see.
[00:06:12] Sorry about that.
[00:06:14] I don't know if you remember Jane and little Jane. Well, now you have little Jane and littler Jane.
[00:06:19] If you don't remember the first one, you know, I'm talking about on there. And it just, like, it's clunky. It dances around a little bit. There's so. There's so much homage paid to the first movie. And this one is hilarious. Like, the first one will have you chuckling. This one. There are moments where you are literally gonna laugh out loud, your stomach is gonna hurt, but you've gotta sit through the other stuff to get to those awesome parts. And it's. The whole point of this movie is like a mid afterlife crisis. We get to see a rare thing of. We get to actually see Beetlejuice before he died.
[00:07:00] So that that's kind of an interesting thing. And we get to see his previous wife, and there's kind of a big role she plays in this one. And it deals with, like, a call center.
[00:07:13] I know I probably sound very confusing, and I don't mean to, but it's like, you know me, I'm not going to give away too much.
[00:07:21] And this just really is about unpacking life, unpacking death, and not, like, the physical unpacking, like, in a suitcase, but dealing with things and dealing with the fact that pain and suffering are inevitable in everybody's life. Pain and suffering are inevitable. And it's just. There's just so much going on. And there's even references to soul train. Now I'm old enough to remember soul train. If you're not old enough to remember soul train, feel free to google it. It was fun. And there's a lot of references to that. There's a lot of references to 80s. Step in this one above and beyond just the movie itself. And there it. I don't know, it's just. It's a journey now. Like I said, it just doesn't quite have the flow.
[00:08:10] There are parts of it that are better than the original, but the vast majority. I mean, it's definitely worth watching. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely worth watching, but it's just not what you expect.
[00:08:24] And I don't. I don't know what I expected. I. Maybe. I expected maybe a little bit more, but I don't know how they could have done so more. Now, there's. There's a couple scenes, and there's one. And don't worry, I'm not going to be spoiling this for you, but there is a cameo by a certain guest in the early part of this movie, and I will give that away because don't worry, it's not a major. It's nothing technically even really a spoiler, because unless you're really paying attention, you're not even going to notice it's him. But in one of the earlier scenes in the movie, and it's just a cameo. But I just made the note of this is it's. There's very little dialogue, but Danny DeVito drinks Strano.
[00:09:04] No, I'll just let you put that image in your head, and you're gonna have to go to the movie and watch this if you actually want to see this for yourself. And we still get to see the afterlife. We still get to see the waiting room. It's very similar and very different all at the same time. But like I said, it's entertaining. That's one thing it definitely delivers on. It kind of plays on a little bit other types of ideas and a few other ideas from other movies. And I had to knock it for that. Sorry. It's not sorry. I'm just being true to being movie deputy on that. I'm being treated myself. And when we walked out of this, my husband was like, he loved it. He thought he was honestly in the sevens. My first thought when I first walked out of this movie, and that's one of the reasons I don't score a movie right after I watch it, is initially, I was like mid upper fives. And as I sat and it just kind of brewed a little bit on me. I did end up with this one at a 6.25 out of ten on the deputy scale.
[00:10:09] Now, it was a little higher than I was initially thinking, but I got to thinking, it's like, you know, I haven't laughed that hard in a movie like this in a long time. And then just the homage that they paid to all of the original and just kind of everything they touched on and they kind of tied so many things together, but it wasn't confusing in the way that they did it. You just kind of have to follow along. Now, ultimately, I don't know if you remember the wedding scene in the other one, but this one pays its own homage to that in an entirely different way. But it does so in a way that you'll be smiling long after this one is done. Unfortunately, there is no bonus scene at the very end. I was so hoping that there'd be something.
[00:10:55] And we get to see all sorts of new characters. Like I said, we got to see the original Beetlejuice before he was dead. Of course, you know who Beetlejuice is. And believe it or not, we even get to see baby Beetlejuice. Now, are you prepared for that? That you'll have to figure out for yourself in the end? It does pay homage to Bob. It says, in loving memory of Bob. And if you've, if you're super familiar with the first one and if you've gone to see those one, then you know who Bob is. Obviously, Beetlejuice is Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice is getting a guilty rating, if that wasn't already obvious.
[00:11:34] But I hope that you have thoroughly enjoyed and I will be back soon with some other movies for you. And youre just going to have to come back and find out. Be sure to hit the like, subscribe and share so you always get the latest and the greatest movie deputy content. Until later. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
