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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

September 9, 2024 Cassandra Morgan

Thirty-six years after Tim Burton released Beetlejuice, the sequel - Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - hit theaters. A lot of people are looking forward to it but it might be a little too difficult to live up to the popularity of the original. Let’s take a look.

Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), now an adult, has recently learned that her father, Charles, has died. She goes back to Winter River with her stepmother, Delia (Catherine O’Hara); her estranged daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega); and her television producer-boyfriend, Rory (Justin Theroux) to bury her father and sell the house from her childhood. Once the family is back in the house on the hill, Lydia’s visions of Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) get worse. Thinking her mother is either a liar or insane, Astrid runs away into town, where she meets Jeremy (Arthur Conti) after crashing her bike through his fence. Meanwhile, Rory is doing everything he can to get Lydia to marry him as quickly as possible. What Rory doesn’t know is that Betelgeuse also wants to marry Lydia. And when Lydia finds out that not only Jeremy is a ghost, he also murdered both of his parents before he died, she calls on Betelgeuse to help her save Astrid. Of course, Betelgeuse is all to happy to help…once he gets Lydia to sign a contract stating that she will marry him in return for his help. As Betelgeuse and Lydia run through the afterlife in search of Astrid, they are chased by Betelgeuse’s ex-wife, Delores (Monica Bellucci), and actor-turned cop, Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe). Surely this will end happily for everyone. Right?

Let me start by saying I didn’t hate this movie. But I didn’t love it either. There were way too many unnecessary characters that could have been cut in order to make this a better movie. I have no idea why Delores is in this (other than the actress is dating Tim Burton currently). She barely has any lines and she just kinda floats from scene to scene with no real motivation. The same can be said for Wolf Jackson. I’m sure they were looking for a replacement for Juno, the caseworker that helped Adam and Barbara in the first movie. However, he never seemed to have any real power or ability to actually enforce the rules of the underworld. Finally, all of the scenes involving Charles after they explained his death could have been cut. No reason for any of them.

There were also a few scenes that went on too long. I actually got bored during the big song scene. I shouldn’t have gotten bored during that scene. That scene could have easily been cut in half and accomplished the same thing.

Unfortunately, this means I can’t really recommend going to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in theaters. It might be fine to watch once it reaches the streaming services but I don’t think it’s worth spending the money to actually go to the movie theater. Which makes me sad because I did want to enjoy it more than I did.

Rating: D

In Movies Tags Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, movie, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti
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X | Movie Review

September 30, 2022 Cassandra Morgan

My husband and I watched X awhile ago. Originally, I wasn’t planning on writing a review for it, but then the sequel came out and I figured I might as well review them both.

The year is 1979. A group of filmmakers travels to a farmhouse in Texas to film a new pornographic movie. Their movie, The Farmer’s Daughter, is directed by Wayne Gilroy (Martin Henderson) and stars Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) and Jackson Hole (Scott Mescudi). Wayne’s girlfriend, Maxine Minx (Mia Goth), will also appear in the film. However, Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) is only there to help her director boyfriend, RJ (Owen Campbell). That is, until she gets drawn in by the allure of the sex scenes. Then she wants to take part as well. Meanwhile, Howard (Stephen Ure), the owner of the farmhouse, is rather mean to the group. But it’s his wife, Pearl (Mia Goth), that they really need to avoid.

Like most A24 films, X is an unusual type of movie. Even though there are movies about making porn movies, they don’t quite follow the same format as X. We do see sex scenes (there is only one scene of full frontal nudity and it’s not related to The Farmer’s Daughter) but, for the most part, they don’t come across as sexy. They come across as almost robotic, which is probably pretty accurate for the porn industry. Something that needs to be done in order to become a rich and famous star.

In addition, the villain in this slasher film isn’t someone who can chase young adults across a farm in order to murder them. And still, most of the cast still ends up dead. It’s an interesting twist on the slasher genre of horror movie that definitely keeps you on your toes. Just when you think that the killer can’t possibly do something, that something happens anyway.

While I want to recommend X, it’s a difficult movie to actually recommend. It’s one of those movies that people will either love or hate. It is A24, after all. With that said, this is the middle film of a trilogy. The prequel, Pearl, came out on September 16 and the sequel, Maxxxine, will be coming out next year. You might want to wait until all three movies are out before watching this one.

In Movies Tags A24, X, X movie, Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, Kid Cudi, Scott Mescudi, Martin Henderson, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, horror, movies
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