When I saw "The Flash" last year, there was one thing that stood out in that complete pile of dog poo; Michael Keaton. His performance as Batman/Bruce Wayne was surprisingly great. After that performance, I was less worried about the sequel to "Beetlejuice." I thought that if he could bring that to the character of Beetlejuice after so long, the movie stood a chance at success.

After her father dies, Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega), and her stepmother Delia (Cathrine O'Hara) return to Winter River. When her daughter accidentally opens a portal to the Netherworld, Lydia reluctantly calls on Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) to help get her back.

I had a ton of fun with this movie. Keaton effortlessly brings the chaotic trickster demon back. Seeing "The Juice" back to his antics is fun, sowing terror and chaos wherever he goes. That being said, the true star of this movie is O'Hara. If you have seen her in the original or her brilliant work as Moria Rose in "Schitt's Creek," you should. She has been a comedy legend for decades, making everything 10 times funnier just by being in the movie. Keaton and O'Hara are having an absolute blast in their respective roles, and that is just fun to watch.

My one problem is that there were too many storylines going on: Beetlejuice's ex-wife, Deloras (Monica Bellucci), is hunting him down; Astrid meets a boy, and they have a whole subplot; Lydia has stuff going on with her boyfriend, etc. It's a lot. You could have excised a few of them and not affected the quality. In fact, it might have been a better movie.

We are in a weird time in Hollywood. A lot of these sequels to twenty- and thirty-year-old movies are doing well at the box office and have been decent movies ("Twisters," "Top Gun: Maverick," etc.). However, the industry will not learn the proper lesson: make it a story worth telling. Instead, I feel like we might be in for sequels to barely remembered movies just to make a quick buck. I am having a blast with them, at least for now.

8/10

Rated PG-13 for violent content, macabre and bloody images, strong language, some suggestive material and brief drug use.

1h 45min