Warner Bros (2024)
The legacy sequel has almost become a genre unto itself at this point. I have enjoyed most of the ones that I've seen with a few notable exceptions, like The Matrix Resurrections and Clerks 3, but this film is a new experience for me.
I've been very familiar with the source material for most of the legacy sequels that I've seen, but I was extremely late to the party when it comes to Beetlejuice. The first time I watched the movie in its entirety was at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater in October 2021. I loved it, but since I didn't see it until my early 40's, it doesn't hold the same nostalgic glow for me that I'm sure it does for most moviegoers who are around my age. I was looking forward to seeing how a legacy sequel would land for me when it's only a few years removed from my introduction to the original.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was a lot of fun, but I feel like they tried to cram three movies worth of plot devices into a single film which made each of the stories that it told feeling rushed and not as fulfilling as they could have been. The piece that I think should have been removed altogether was the Rory character. It would have been a stronger film if Lydia's story was focused on connecting with her daughter and coping with the loss of her father and the reintroduction of Beetlejuice in her life without the dopey fiancé storyline continually eating up screentime. Removing Rory would have allowed time for the Astrid/Jeremy story to breathe, and it could have allowed for a bit more of a satisfying ending to the Delores character. She's built up throughout the film as an incredibly cool foil to Beetlejuice, but their confrontation at the end is almost handled like an afterthought.
I don't mean to suggest that this is a bad movie by any means. The story is overflowing with dark humor and bizarre visuals. Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, and Catherine O'Hara play off of each other perfectly, Michael Keaton did a great job bringing his character back to life, Willem Dafoe was absolutely incredible as he always is, and the Danny Elfman score was the glue that held it all together. It's a very good movie that is definitely worth seeing, but it could have been a great movie if the screenwriters would have cut Justin Theroux's character in an early draft and spent more time on the rest of their ideas.
The cross-promotional campaign for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has approached Barbie levels of saturation, and I am absolutely here for it. It's shown up in the soda aisle with Fanta in special packaging that features Beetlejuice (haunted apple), Astrid (orange), Lydia (strawberry), and Delia (pineapple).
The orange, strawberry, and pineapple are just regular Fanta flavors in special packaging, but Haunted Apple is a new limited edition spiced apple flavored soda. It's very good, but it's exactly the kind of flavor that is best when it's a limited edition or seasonal product. It's the kind of thing that I think I'd get sick of pretty quickly if I drank it more than a few times.
Keebler has released Fudge Stripes dark chocolate cookies with vanilla stripes that were inspired by our favorite bio-exorcists' suit. It's a pretty clever cross promotion, and they're damn good cookies.
We stopped at Denny's for dinner as soon as we left the theater and both had Beetlejuicy Burgers and Cookies N' Scream Shakes. The burger is a triple bacon provolone cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato, onions, and pickles, and a smoky sweet sauce.
The Beetlejuicy Burger is pretty damn tall, so unless you can unhinge your jaw like a python, you're going to have to come up with a strategy to eat it. Some might settle for the knife and fork approach, but this tubby middle-aged gentleman made a makeshift bun out of the french fries to eat one of the burger patties before tackling the rest of it as a very tasty double cheeseburger.
I think I got cheated out of the crushed Oreo Cookies pieces in our Cookies N' Scream Shakes. They're in the picture on the menu and mentioned in the menu, but the only cookie pieces in ours was mixed into the vanilla ice cream. It's all good though. It was still tasty, and the last thing that my belt needs to contend with right now is more cookies.
