That opening line about Pilates instructors, etc was some jarringly clunky and poorly delivered dialogue. Fortunately, the rest seemed better.
Conveniently avoiding having to explain why and how ghosts aged 35 years.
She’d been holding that one back waiting for the right moment. We all do it.
The strange thing is that shrunken head Beetlejuice seems to be still around and co-existing with normal Beetlejuice?
Loved the original.
Not sure how I feel about this thing. I’ve watched the trailer 3 times now, the last two back-to-back just before writing this post.
Everything now is so meta. The filmmakers almost have to have a checklist of easter eggs and expected call-backs ( not the same thing, of course ) to appease those who want to see a new twist of the old movie.
Since I don’t actually go to the movies any more, I’ll surely watch this when it streams. But I’ve got low expectations.
Yes, Tim Burton helmed it. That IS encouraging.
Well, that’s less of an obstacle than it used to be, but I just think this is going to be a much more Beetlejuice-centered storyline, and they no longer need a ghost couple to navigate alongside the audience.
Apparently they found a loophole. 
. I just saw it today and loved it. Beetlejuice was a childhood favorite of mine, to the point that I don’t actually remember the first time I saw it. I loved the sequel. It’s surprising how much funnier the Afterlife Bureaucracy scenes are as an adult, especially one who’s worked in customer service. 
My wife and I caught a matinee today, with low-ish expectations on my part, and I have to say I really enjoyed it as well. Yes, there were callbacks and Easter eggs, but not to the point it got too full of itself. Just a fun story, well told and well paced, I thought.
The practical, non-CGI effects were pretty darn impressive, to the point I wondered if Burton maybe did sneak a bit of CGI in there. The sand worms, however, were pure old-school Harryhausen.
Almost 100% definitely. It’s always a melange.
Huh. I thought I had read that Tim Burton refused to use any CGI in his movies. But according to this article:
Even the stuff that’s CGI is designed to look practical, with smooth computer animation given janky little quivers to seem more like traditional stop-motion.
For some reason for the last few years there has been an insistence from studio execs to lie about CGI in movies, because they perceive it as an audience negative. The truth is that almost every single shot in every single movie, even a drama, likely has some kind of CGI or digital visual effect applied to do something minor or major. This is doubly true for a fantasy/sci fi/action movie, and all of Tim Burton’s movies fit one of those moulds.
I think that guy is the African Explorer who was in Hell’s Waiting Room in the 1st film.
Are you referring to Bob? If so, RIP.
So MsFins and I went to see it tonight. We bought tickets at an independent theatre that has the fancy full reclining seats, got there early enough to pop into the grocery store and buy better snacks that we smuggled in. Settled in, watched the previews, and were deep into the movie at about the 75 minute mark.
All of a sudden, a loud beeping starts coming from the building but nobody moves. A voice comes on to tell us that the fire alarm has been triggered and standby for instructions. House lights come up, movies pauses, we grab our stuff and head out into the lobby where we are told to evacuate. This is the sub basement of a condo building, so we bound up 3 flights of stairs and decide to call it a night rather than wait for a (potential) restart.
So now I’ve seen the first 80% of the film and am betwixt and between not having seen the conclusion!
Nitpick, the of the afterlife we see is neither Heaven nor Hell. Both of which apparently exist, along with the Great Beyond and the Elysian Fields. It’s interesting that the Deetzes got to move on right away without haunting anything.
Watched it last night. It was kind of slow and bland. It would never have became a classic like the original. Also seemed unnecessarily complicated with up to four antagonists with different agendas (Beetlejuice, ghost kid, overzealous ghost cop, fiance). It made me realize how tightly written the original was, with very little screen time that something wasn’t moving the plot or action forward. BB has long dry segments that just drag, though.
It definitely felt overstuffed with everything that was going on and it felt like it was a disservice to the story having Beetlejuice, ghost kid, overzealous ghost cop, fiancé, and everyone else needing time in the movie. Narratively, there was a lot – maybe too much – going on. That being said, I enjoyed watching the movie and hearing the theme at the beginning just pulled me right back in.
RIP Bob.
I liked the movie just fine, but I also thought the Lydia-real-life-fiancé plot was completely unneeded, and the Cult Ex-Wife plotline was totally wasted after a great entrance. I also really disliked how wimpy they made adult Lydia.
It did make me realize that I imprinted on the Beetlejuice cartoon (where they are all friends) more than the first movie as kid, so I was expecting more of a mischievous buddy adventure. I need to rewatch the first movie, I don’t think I’ve seen it since the mid 90s.
They had a good setup going for that. I thought that’s where they were going to go when they had Beetlejuice press the button sending ghost kid to the afterworld hell, with Delores still out there and looming as a final villain. They could have easily gone in the direction of the Deetzes teaming up with Beetlejuice and Ghost Cop to take down Delores.
Count me in as thinking there were too many things going on. As one example, it seems like they were going to develop some kind of storyline with the French graffiti artist that fell into a manhole. Then that storyline just disappeared.
I missed mentioning one of the antagonists in my earlier post, so there were five, not four: Beetlejuice, ghost kid, overzealous ghost cop, (Lydia’s) fiance, and Beetlejuice’s ex.