Movie Review: Bring Your Global Entry Card — ‘Beetlejuice’ Sequel’s a Soul Train Ride to Comedy Joy 

US actor Michael Keaton arrives for the UK premiere of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" at the Cineworld Leicester Square in London, Britain, 29 August 2024. (EPA)
US actor Michael Keaton arrives for the UK premiere of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" at the Cineworld Leicester Square in London, Britain, 29 August 2024. (EPA)
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Movie Review: Bring Your Global Entry Card — ‘Beetlejuice’ Sequel’s a Soul Train Ride to Comedy Joy 

US actor Michael Keaton arrives for the UK premiere of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" at the Cineworld Leicester Square in London, Britain, 29 August 2024. (EPA)
US actor Michael Keaton arrives for the UK premiere of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" at the Cineworld Leicester Square in London, Britain, 29 August 2024. (EPA)

“I have global entry!”

Now, does that sound like a funny line? Of course it doesn’t. Whatever in the history of mankind and airport lines could be funny about global entry?

But put it in the mouth of comedy goddess Catherine O’Hara, and place it in the singularly inventive world of Tim Burton and that wacky afterlife waiting room from “Beetlejuice,” and it may become the one blessed time in your life you'll ever guffaw about global entry.

It likely won't be the only thing you'll guffaw about. Burton is back — and, more significantly, he is BACK — with “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” 36 years after the original. And for once, the question “Why a sequel?” is moot.

Not because we know the answer. (Do we?) But, who cares? It’s funny. It may even make you feel better about, well, death, though not “death death.” And Michael Keaton somehow looks exactly the same as he did in 1988 (to be fair, it helps that his character was already dead.)

Returning to his tale of Keaton's ghostly, fiendish “bio-exorcist,” director Burton brings back much of the team behind the original, including, alongside O’Hara and Keaton, the still-lovely Winona Ryder as Lydia the Goth Girl (also, Bob the shrunken-head guy).

And we've gained Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, and for the younger generation, Jenna Ortega, who, as a relatively normal figure, serves as an appealing anchor, her story moving the plot along.

Speaking of plot: if you didn’t see the original, not to worry. It all gets explained (as much as it should be) in time. We begin in Winter River, Connecticut, still home to Lydia Deetz (Ryder), who came as a teenager with batty stepmom Delia and dad Charles, only to learn her new house was haunted by the recently deceased Adam and Barbara (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, alas not back).

Lydia looks much the same — dressed all in black, with spiky bangs and pale skin — but is now a widowed mother, a psychic mediator, and host of a cheesy reality show, “Ghost House,” in which she sees ghosts and asks, “Can the living and the dead co-exist?”

But one day she sees something in the audience that scares her: visions of Beetlejuice, who wrought havoc when she was a teen and who, when we last left him, was wasting away in the afterlife waiting room (apparently, HE did not have global entry.)

Waiting just off set to comfort Lydia after this terrifying vision is her manager and boyfriend, Rory (Theroux), who has a little ponytail almost as smarmy as himself.

Lydia then gets a concerning message from Delia (O’Hara), an artist of questionable talent and unquestionable ego, who’s mounting a gallery show in which she herself is the canvas. There, Delia tells Lydia that she’s lost Charles. “Is he divorcing you?” gasps Lydia. “What a horrible thought!” replies Delia. “No, he’s dead.” (Such lines are catnip for O’Hara, a genius of comic timing).

Lydia calls her daughter, Astrid (Ortega), at boarding school. Astrid lists Lydia in her contacts as “Alleged Mom,” which tells you much of what you need to know about their fraught relationship.

But let’s pause this account of the living, because we also have to catch you up on the dead. Down where Beetlejuice is stuck, where the dead live — but not the “dead dead” —- Delores, Beetlejuice’s ex-wife, has escaped from the crates (emphasis on plural) in which her body has resided. Watching the glamorous Bellucci literally staple herself together is just one of the glorious creative moments Burton and crew give us here. Alas, Delores doesn't have much else to do, but this is rather spectacular.

We're approaching spoiler territory, so let’s just say that things really get complicated when Astrid goes home to Winter River for her father’s funeral. There, she watches as Mom accepts a marriage proposal from smarmy Rory. Racing off to escape, Astrid runs into a cute young guy reading Dostoyevsky.

A relationship begins, one that will lead to unexpected mayhem. Let’s just say Lydia will need to call upon — gasp! — Beetlejuice, who will exact a fearsome price for his services, as he is wont to do.

And he appears none too soon. Keaton, in his white caked makeup and blackened eyes and hair that looks like he is perpetually sticking his hand into a plug in the wall, slips remarkably smoothly into his old role. “The juice is loose,” as he likes to say.

But you know who’s also got the juice flowing? Burton. It’s his inimitable energy that infuses this movie — a joyously rendered sequel that sometimes makes sense, and sometimes doesn’t, but just keeps rollicking. Among the ridiculous delights along the way: A “soul train” in the afterlife, which is not only literally a train of souls, but a replica of the variety show “Soul Train,” with people in Afros dancing their way to wherever they are going.

And if we don't have the lip-synced “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” from the original, we do have a lip-synced “MacArthur Park,” the Donna Summer version. “Someone left the cake out in the rain,” go the ridiculous words of the disco classic. “I don’t think that I can take it, ’cause it took so long to bake it, and I’ll never have that recipe again.”

In the Burtonian spirit, let's just say it took a long time to bake it, yes, but the director has recovered the recipe — at least enough to make us smile, chortle, even guffaw, for 104 minutes. And we can be happy with that.



Joyful Musical ‘Titanique’ Puts Celine Dion Center Stage

Canadian Singer Celine Dion performs at the Eiffel Tower at the conclusion of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on July 26, 2024 in Paris, France. (Reuters)
Canadian Singer Celine Dion performs at the Eiffel Tower at the conclusion of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on July 26, 2024 in Paris, France. (Reuters)
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Joyful Musical ‘Titanique’ Puts Celine Dion Center Stage

Canadian Singer Celine Dion performs at the Eiffel Tower at the conclusion of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on July 26, 2024 in Paris, France. (Reuters)
Canadian Singer Celine Dion performs at the Eiffel Tower at the conclusion of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on July 26, 2024 in Paris, France. (Reuters)

Imagine if singer Celine Dion had been on the Titanic, survived, and wanted to revisit her version of events. That is the premise of the musical "Titanique" that has opened in London's West End.

Featuring Dion’s back catalogue, the show's light-hearted tone is a break with previous more somber accounts of the story of the ocean liner that hit an iceberg and sank in 1912.

It blends elements from the plot of the 1997 movie version, which starred actors Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as lovers Rose and Jack, and other pop culture references.

Tye Blue, who directs and also wrote the musical along with actor and writers Constantine Rousouli and Marla Mindelle, describes it as "a joy machine".

The story is told through the eyes of the character Celine Dion, played by Lauren Drew.

"This is very much a love letter to Celine Dion....paying homage to her and her craft and her strength," Drew said after coming off stage. "It's completely embodying her kookiness, her craziness and her talent. So I just I love that I get to do that every night."

Blue said Dion's team came to see the show after it opened in New York and that "they loved it" and "kind of unofficially gave us their blessing".

Last year Dion returned to the live stage with a performance at the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris.

The 56-year-old singer said in late 2022 that she had been diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder called stiff-person syndrome that causes muscle spasms.

The music from the show includes ballads such as "Titanic’s" award-winning hit "My Heart Will Go On" and Eric Carmen’s "All by Myself" that Dion released in 1996.

"Titanique" is playing at the Criterion Theater until March 2025. Other versions of it are playing in Sydney, Toronto and Montreal, and another is set to open in France in April.