Before watching this sequel in cinemas, I decided to rewatch the original Beetlejuice (1988), which I hadn’t seen in over a decade. During that rewatch, it dawned on me just how original, quirky and full of imagination that movie was. It got me thinking how difficult it would be for the sequel to recapture the magic of this almost accidental cult classic. So when I sat down, I hoped for the best but braced myself for the worst and surprisingly, it wasn’t bad at all…?

It took me probably the entire first act before I got into Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as the movie starts big. As opposed to the original film, we begin in New York; we need to establish a couple of details (like why Jeffrey Jones‘s character had to die; if you don’t know, I recommend reading his “trivia” section) before we get back to Winter River and the house we all know and love. The movie definitely gets better once we have all the remaining, not-so-problematic pieces of this puzzle back together, and we follow three generations of women trying to cope with everything.

The youngest is Jenna Ortega, the new “it” girl. I don’t think you could have picked a better daughter for Winona Ryder‘s character, Lydia. I am saying that as someone who believes she doesn’t have much to do in this movie. Don’t get me wrong, Jenna is in many scenes, but her story is a B plot that serves as a throughline for other stories.

The second generation is the already mentioned Lydia Deetz, as portrayed by Winona. I thought it was great to see grown Lydia having to deal with many things, including her daughter not believing that she can see and speak to ghosts. That mother-daughter conflict didn’t feel forced, especially once we learn the reason Jenna’s character is sceptical and doesn’t like her mom; it made total sense to me and felt right. Also, it’s great seeing Winona back in the cinema.

Someone who almost stole this movie for me was Catherine O’Hara. I love seeing her career renaissance; ever since she struck gold with Schitt’s Creek (2015 – 2020, my review here), she seems to be in everything, reminding us she is one hell of a comedienne. Her character was as chaotic, extra and funny as I remember, but it was never in the “we didn’t know what to do with her character, so here is what you loved but more” vain. There was some growth, where you could see her be unapologetically herself and living her best life.

The reason I said “almost” is there were two surprising characters I loved every time they appeared on the screen – Bob and Willem Dafoe. Firstly, I loved how much more time they gave to Bob and his… friends? It was the ultimate example of how to do so much with so little as Bob and others don’t speak; they just emote. I did enjoy every scene they were in. As far as Willem goes, talk about someone who seems to be in every movie now, replacing Samuel L. Jackson as the hardest-working actor in Hollywood. Anyway, for some reason, his actor character, who plays a cop even after he dies, was the highlight of this movie. I think it was his dedication mixed with the fact that his performance was tipping on the “self-awareness” scale, where he almost winked at us once or twice, but he never does and instead gives us this character his all and has a blast doing it.

I thought Michael Keaton as the titular Beetlejuice was fine, but given his manic state, there was no real growth, so this was “more of the same” as the original, but with his character, it made sense. Who I thought was totally underused was Monica Bellucci. Look, if I were Tim Burton and managed to date Monica, I would also cast her in my movies. But then give her something to do! Her introduction sequence was fun, but afterwards, she spent most of the movie walking because she was on a quest to find Beetlejuice. And without going into spoilers, the end of her storyline was underwhelming. I would also go as far as to say that we didn’t need Justin Theroux‘s subplot in this movie, and he doesn’t fit here. I like the guy, but it would be fine if his role had been completely cut out.

I wonder how Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will work when I eventually rewatch it because, during the movie, there were moments I was struggling to be in it, as mentioned above. But the movie makes some interesting twists and turns I didn’t expect, so I appreciated that. Also, it seems to find its footing as it goes. Even though I had an issue with Monica’s character “end”, I thought the end was great. Especially, I loved seeing practical effects, sets and not green screen, you know, all that good stuff. Looking at Tim’s directorial credits, this seems, by far, to be his best movie in a while (I haven’t seen Frankenweenie (2012) or Big Eyes (2014)), but that doesn’t mean as much as it used to. I need to give Tim some credit as this movie seems the most “Tim Burton” he has been in a while, but part of me thinks it will be so hard to go anywhere near what he used to do, especially in the ’90s. I hope I am wrong.

Overall, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a much better legacy sequel than I anticipated. The movie definitely struggles at times, I am not sure whether we needed the producer subplot at all, but I left the cinema in a good mood, hopeful that the success this sequel has will light a creative fire under Burton’s ass, and we may get something excellent out of him again. This movie was a step in the right direction.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

Ever since I watched the first trailer for Alien: Romulus, I was in. I liked the vibe, the grittiness, and when the name Fede Alvarez popped as the director, I knew I would be checking it out in the cinema. He did the remake of The Evil Dead (1981), simply called Evil Dead (2013), which I loved. He also made Don’t Breathe (2016, my review here), which I respected; you could even say I liked it. The thing about him is that he seems to be a very “back to basics” director whose movies feel real, gritty, and raw, and he isn’t afraid to disgust you a bit (sometimes, a bit more). So I hoped he would bring those elements to the Alien franchise, and luckily, my hopes were answered. This movie is almost everything I wanted it to be and then some.

The movie starts on this planet full of people who are effectively slaving away for Weyland-Yutani and hoping to escape it by working hard. But given this megacorporation is as evil as if you mixed Amazon and Apple, they keep changing the conditions, so people stay, work and eventually die there. No inspiration taken from the real world; let’s move on… 😉 And it’s even during this “boring but necessary” exposition I noticed that this movie feels real. It’s a shame that this needs complimenting, but it did feel like they shot this on location and with physical objects rather than being trapped in a green screen studio (or the VFX were THAT good).

I also liked the new group of soon-to-victims/alien birthing chambers. For me, the standouts were a bit obvious – Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson. Their “brother/sister” dynamic at the start worked, and as the events of this film unfolded, I liked how that dynamic changed and got challenged. Whom I always enjoy seeing and who has a tinier but pretty crucial role was Isabela Merced. I think she is sneaky great, and, given a couple of good roles in a row, she could rule Hollywood.

Now, let’s get to the meat of this story – the Alien. You can have the best characters ever, but if your Alien movie fucks up the “Alien” part, you are in trouble. Luckily, Alien: Romulus knows what it wants to do and, more importantly, how to build the tension. There are some predictable things and some questionable things as well (more about that soon), but one thing this movie nailed was the action and horror. Because of its settings (“abandoned” spaceship), we go back to the claustrophobic roots of this franchise, where it seems like Xenomorph or Facehugger can be behind any corner. I also love the shots when, a few times in this movie, the Xenomorph almost blends in with the background, and we can only see it when it moves.

Fede understands this beast very well and makes it (alongside the numerous Facehuggers) scary, ruthless and almost unstoppable, just as we remember from the numerous Alien movies before this one. I also appreciated that this is a dark movie, but I was never confused about where we were or struggled to see any action on the screen. As I always said, there’s a difference between “movies taking place in the dark” and “let’s hide our shitty action/CGI with a lot of shadows and darkness”. Also, Fede does something unique with this franchise, and we have several outstanding sequences. The clear standouts were the zero gravity fight and crossing the room full of Facehuggers undetected.

My only tiny issue with this movie would be the clunky way they bring back someone from the past. I don’t want to mention which movie; I don’t want to discuss spoilers that much, but I don’t know whether it was needed. Especially given who that person is/was within that universe, you could have easily made this movie with some other, unknown character rather than what this movie chose to do. It didn’t pull me out of the film, but it was a weird choice for… numerous reasons. Also, if I was nit-picky, towards the end, they seem to run around this big ship quite quickly, and the timer seemed to be pausing/stopping because, of course, there’s a self-destruct timer, wouldn’t be an Alien movie without it!

But I can’t lie; neither of those two things bothered me as much as to spoil my enjoyment of this twisted film. Especially the last third, where you know some shit will go down and then it happens, and it’s even bloodier and more intense than I thought. And that is why I am fully on board with Fede Alvarez being one to watch out for. Even if he doesn’t do something I would fully appreciate (like Don’t Breathe), I still think his movie has a unique sense of style and grittiness I gravitate towards. We live in an age where many movies look alike, no matter whether you watch comedy, action or a thriller. And his films always have a more “cinematic” look to them. They feel more grounded, and I am including Alien: Romulus in that conversation too, which is saying something.

Overall, Alien: Romulus was a blast. It’s an almost two-hour thrill and horror ride that never bored me. The jump scares (only a few, which is another positive) worked, but what I appreciated more than that was the atmosphere, the willingness to show us something new and Fede staying true to himself and showing us some good old horror fun. I can’t wait to rewatch it and see where this will ultimately end up in my Alien ranking because, at this moment, it’s pretty high. Go and support this movie in the cinema if you fancy a great Alien movie.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

For the first time since The Avengers (2012), we only have one MCU movie coming out in the entire calendar year of 2024, and it is this one. The pressure was on to deliver and, to an extent, prove if people are, in fact, sick and tired of comic book films or whether they just don’t like when movies that don’t do anything new. And by the massive success of Deadpool & Wolverine, it seems clear that people still care; you just need to motivate them to show up in the cinemas. The Marvel Jesus (Ryan Reynolds) did it.

I can’t lie; it’s been a while since I have had such a blast in the cinema. This movie throws everything at you and then some; the cadence is roughly 22.5739 jokes per minute, and there are various quips, quick jokes, and references to many things (mostly pop-culture related), but most landed for me. What I loved is how this movie dealt with the idea of “bringing” Wolverine back, as I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that he died in his last film and Hugh Jackman officially retired from playing him. That was until this movie, where what they did and how this movie opened was brilliant. And the laughs didn’t stop for me for pretty much the entirety of this buddy hero movie.

It’s hard to discuss specifics without going into spoilers because there are some amazing jokes, scenes, and characters who I had no idea were coming. So, before delving into spoilers, I will say that I enjoyed this movie and was on the verge of giving it 5/5 stars. The only thing that stopped me was the nagging feeling of whether some of those scenes and jokes would work as much on my second watch. But other than that, I had a good time with this film, as it’s a pretty poignant farewell to a specific comic book era where things weren’t always going great. It’s a love letter to all the “forgotten” comic book movies, characters and some that never even gotten their chance to shine. I have noticed when people discuss this movie, one of the biggest criticisms is that there is “no story”. I don’t get that at all because this movie is about many things; you just need to look beyond the vulgar humour. It’s about finding your place, fitting in and wanting to be something bigger than yourself. This movie talks about how no matter how super you are, you may never reach the heights you want to, and that’s fine. So, I don’t agree with that notion.

I will also give the movie this – the action scenes and montages were executed well. Unlike many MCU films, the action scenes in Deadpool & Wolverine seemed less edited and more fluent. And the montages, whether it’s the finale or the closing credits one, were tastefully done, and I wouldn’t be surprised if many teared up during either of those. Especially the end credit one, where we see behind-the-scenes footage from many comic book films of the past, made me want to rewatch the X-Men movies as it’s been a minute since I watched the first ones. Anyway, let’s go to spoilers so I can talk about some scenes and characters more freely.

BEWARE, SPOILERS ARE COMING!

I expected more cameos, to be honest, but I will say I am not disappointed by “only” having those we got just to clarify something from the start. I imagined, given the fourth-wall-breaking nature of Deadpool, everyone who has ever appeared in the MCU would be in here, even if in a big group scene for a second (like in Deadpool 2 (2018)). Instead, we get a more sensible approach, and the first hint of that is when Chris Evans shows up, but not as Captain America. Instead, he shows up as Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four movies he made in the mid-2000s. One thing I don’t think people appreciate about this movie is they could have gone for the expected (especially with the subplot of Deadpool trying to join the Avengers) and made him come back as Captain America, but that wouldn’t have worked with the theme of this film. Don’t get me wrong; this movie goes for the obvious jokes when it’s funny. But as far as plot and all these cameos are concerned, they seemed to have more thought put into them than simply: “Hey, we need to bring back this person and that person, just because we can!”

Speaking of which, did I like seeing Jennifer Garner as Elektra and Dafne Keen as Laura back? Yes, I did. Did I expect to see Channing Tatum as Gambit? Absolutely not. The choices they made with his character giving him this goofy… dialect? Accent? Speech disorder? Either way, it worked, and I, yet again, ask for Channing to star in more comedies because he is a low-key underrated and brilliant comedic actor. But, who brought me so much joy and I didn’t know I needed to see back on the big screen was the man, the myth, the tax dodging legend himself, Wesley Snipes. Blade has always been one of my favourite characters ever, and to see him back, be as cool as he was back in 1998 (!) and referencing the fact there is only one Blade (can you believe they announced the Blade movie in 2019 and we still haven’t gotten it?!) just made me so giddy. As much as I loved all the cameos and Deadpool variants, Wesley Snipes coming back in that scene as Blade was something I didn’t know I needed, and it made my day.

What this movie then does with all these cameos is also underappreciated. Sure, Evans is mostly the punchline, but as far as the others are concerned, Deadpool & Wolverine gives them all one last chance to shine, to be cool. And as Gambit himself points out in the movie, it gives him the chance to even exist because his Gambit movie was stuck in pre-production hell for a decade until it got cancelled altogether. And despite making him into “a bit” of a joke, when the action time came, they give him some cool set pieces too where it acted as this glimpse of what could have been. Everyone got the chance to shine in the big battle, and I am glad they didn’t bring them back just to kill them off. Well, except for Johnny Storm, but did you see him shit talking Cassandra Nova? No wonder she did what she did to him.

Speaking of her, Emma Corrin was awesome. Emma goes by they/them, and their character was a nice spin on Charles Xavier’s character. I liked how their journey almost mirrored Deadpool’s, and they also had to live in someone else’s shadow and just wanted to be seen. This film also showcased something we had never seen before – what if Professor X was evil? This movie goes through several things, and they barely manage to stop Cassandra’s character, fully displaying just how powerful someone with those powers would be.

I can’t wait to rewatch it and see how well it plays the second time around. But as far as my cinema visit, I had a blast. I thought MCU desperately needed a hit; they got it, and hopefully, they will understand that they need to mature now. I am not saying every MCU movie from this point forward needs to have this much profanity, but the audience is ready for more mature, darker comic book movies. And if there is one thing Deadpool & Wolverine proved without a doubt, people will show up and make you money, even if the movie is R-rated. If the source material calls for it, don’t soften it; nourish what makes the characters and stories unique.

Overall, Deadpool & Wolverine surprised me with how much fun I had with it. I expected a cameo fest of all the famous people. Instead, we get a few cameos that mean something. I didn’t expect this movie to be a reflection of how far we’ve gotten (comic book-wise) while giving some characters a proper send-off. I think this also will be an amazing time capsule film. In 20/30 years, when you put this on, you will be transformed into 2024, as no matter how much or how little you liked this movie, it is a mirror to the modern pop culture and our current obsession with nostalgia, multiverses and all the other things that make studios money. And sometimes, it’s good to reflect.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

LUke