This is good clean fun, something of a return to form for Tim Burton. I laughed a lot more than I thought I would (Catherine O'Hara, perhaps unsurprisingly, stole the show and got most of them), and the whole affair has a rather cartoony, brightly patterned nonsense energy, complete with fanciful sets and that Goth-nostalgia he's known for. Honestly, it works. It's less "reverence for a classic" and more "fuck it, let's do another whackadoodle adventure". My screening was the full spectrum of viewers: a person who hadn't watched "Beetlejuice", a person who watched it 20 years ago (me) and vaguely remembers it, and a big fan of the first. All three of us had a good time, we laughed at different parts and at various parts, enjoyed some of the creativity on display (the claymation sequence is both fun, and a good way to not have Jeffrey Jones in your movie...), and the cast are having fun: Jenna Ortega fits well into the Burton-verse with her big eyes and Goth girl pout; Winona Ryder is always good, Beetlejuice is not overused; Burn Gorman gets some very "Corpse Bride" lines as a priest; Justin Theroux has a blast as a new age shitbag ex-husband; and Willem Dafoe is a bizarre but delightful addition as a movie-star turned cop. Bellucci is underused, and the plot takes a while to get going, laying a lot of groundwork and spinning a lot of plates.
It's a fun film, it doesn't have anything to say and is rather disposable, but it's not trying to be anything else. It's enjoyable, competently made, and does well with its lunatic bouncy energy.
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