Some hits defy logic. After all, who initially expected a wacko horror film to turn into a family classic or in another instance, a song about a melting cake to successfully re-emerge decades later? But 1988’s Beetlejuice fought the odds under Tim Burton’s visionary direction that blended a sense of oddity and normalcy for ghosts, demons, plus people under a spell that forces them to perform “The Banana Boat Song,” a.k.a. “Day-O.” Twenty years earlier, before transforming into Harry Potter’s Dumbledore, Richard Harris used his Shakespearean trained voice to reach number two on Billboard charts with “MacArthur Park.” Switching out “MacArthur’s Park” for “Day-O”, Beetlejuice doubles its name for a sequel. With Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a trio of writers--Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Seth Grahame-Smith—springboard from the original conceit (by Michael McDowell, Larry Wilson, and Warren Skaaren) acknowledging the passing of years by letting a teenage Winona Ryder grow into the sequel’s mother figure. Familiar with Stranger Things, Ryder easily suits a character who makes a living by seeing dead people. So good in the first and more popular than ever after the Schitt’s Creek television series Catherine O’Hara returns and enhances the sense of fun. Youth appeal arrives in the form of Jenna Ortega, who beautifully embodied an Addams family member i
n Wednesday. But the real glue comes from Michael Keaton, reprising the title role that solidified him as a comedy star. Manic delivery and jittery gestures make him fascinating to watch as he pulls off a character who stays likeable despite nefarious intentions. Those bad goals include a wedding and a nod to the original’s absurdity once that MacArthur’s Park song starts playing. Combining loyalty to the past with a modicum of story progression provides a recipe that makes the Beetlejuice sequel an enjoyable return visit to a wacky world that makes little sense but supplies dumb reasons to laugh.
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