September 7, 2024 • 7 mins
ICYMI: ‘Later, with Mo’Kelly’ Presents – Mark Rahner’s review of Tim Burton’s return to the world of the undead in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the sequel to the 1988 cult-classic which starred Michael Keaton as the devious, mischievous poltergeist “Beetlejuice” in ‘The Rahner Report’ - on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI,
a M six forty pop culture ron Report with Mark.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Ronner Kelly, Mark Runner, take it away tonight. We're talking
about beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Now, cut me some slack if this
sounds like a shaggy dog story. But when I think
of Tim Burton, I think of a scene from an
(00:40):
old Sam Peckinpalm movie called Ride the High Country. Hear
me out and aging cowboy says he'll testify for one
of the men he's bringing in and things shouldn't be
too hard on him. What about the other guy he's
bringing in? Nope, Well why because the other guy used
to be his friend. How that relates to Tim Burton
is that he did some incredible singular work as an
(01:00):
odd ball artist, followed by years of diaper gravy. Now,
if that diaper gravy had then perpetrated by any old
hack like Rob Zombie, I wouldn't care. But it was
done by Tim Burton, the guy who gave us ed
Wood Mars Attacks. That's the guy who went on to
give us a big screen Dark Shadows that was so
offensively bad and off the mark that I got furious
(01:21):
all over again rewatching it the other night. That's the
guy who gave us a more or less worthless and
silly Planet of the Apes remake with Marky Mark No less,
the guy who gave us Peewee's Big Adventure and the
really underrated Sleepy Hollow. He turned around and splattered us
with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Okay, I don't want
to get into Batman because I could take up a
(01:42):
whole show, and my feelings about it are complicated. So
you'd be forgiven for dragging your feet to see a
sequel to a movie you made back in nineteen eighty
eight that I think is pretty universally beloved. Does the
Burton family need a new pool? Did he tie up
all his money in Twitter and or Tesla Stock. Here's
a bit of the trailer for Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Here's a preview. Be warned, it's intense. I can't believe
Grandpa is dead. That's as hard. Yeah, sometimes I think
(02:26):
life is harder. When I was a teenager, a trickster
demon and terrorized our entire family and tried to force
me to marry him. I believed he was gone forever
(02:48):
until you found this in the attic. Now here's Beetlejuice.
You don't ever say that name Beetlejuice. I am serious.
He will appear Beatles.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
The juice is loose.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I'm gonna make you so happy. I think I've reached
that Pavlovian stage where just hearing Michael Keaton in the
Beetlejuice voice makes me laugh. And I'm not going to
drag this out like one of those clickbait stories on Facebook.
Here's the deal about the first two thirds of Beetlejuice.
Beetle Juice, I thought, well, it's not disappointing, and the
final third I was one hundred percent in and laughed
(03:32):
out loud a few times. There are moments in that
first two thirds that drag and I could have used
more Michael Keaton, who was just great fun again as
the demon Beetlejuice. And you can kind of decide on
your own that question, that age old question of whether
you say, like more Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the
Lambs would have lessened his impact. But I know that
character has got a little extra baggage lately for reasons
(03:53):
I'd rather avoid here. Every minute Keaton's on screen is fun,
and that Beetlejuice makeup pretty much negates the fact that
he's seven. Now, after watching Keaton and Knox Goes Away,
which I know MO also saw recently, I'm starting to
think this guy can do no wrong, and that's when
they let you down. That's when they screw you. The
original Beetlejuice is such a classic that we don't really
(04:13):
need to spend a lot of time playing catch up here. Briefly,
Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis played a dead couple who
wanted to scare away the family that's just moved into
their house, and they enlist this mad cap reprobate demon
named Beetlejuice, and things get nuts after that. Among other things,
Beetlejuice wants to marry the new family's goth daughter, who
(04:33):
was played then by young Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,
which I'm just gonna call it B two now where
it's going to get irritating. Winona's Lydiadits is middle aged
and she's got her own daughter who doesn't like her
very much. The ghost couple's long gone, maybe because one
of them's on trial in New Mexico for shooting someone
and old beats now working in the afterlife civil Service
(04:54):
bureaucracy from that first movie with a punch of colleagues
who have tiny, shrunken heads. But your screenwriting teacher wants
to know what are the inciting incidents? Well, I'm glad
you asked. Lydia's dad dies and everyone has to go
back to the old house for his funeral. Now that
dad was played by Jeffrey Jones in the first movie,
and Jones later wound up in some fairly serious legal
(05:15):
trouble that landed him in the sexual offender database, which
it turns out can be a bit of a career
speed bump. He's not in the movie, and the way
he isn't is pretty creative and funny, and I'm not
going to spoil it for you. It turns out there
was once a Missus Beach. She's played by Monica Balucci.
She's back from the dead and wants revenge, and sort
of predictably, the daughter, who is played by Jenna Ortega
(05:36):
from Wednesday, which was also a Tim Burton trynt, gets
into some supernatural trouble of her own and she needs
to be saved. And there we are back in business.
Justin Threux shows up. He plays Lydia's sleazy heel fiance
and it's such a broad rote jerk part that all
I could think of was how outright and credible and
hilarious he was playing g Gordon Lyddy in White House
(05:58):
Plumbers last year. I haven't seen that. Just know that
I don't get paid enough to lie to you. I'm
no Tim Poole. B two has its flaws, but it
does something that good movies can. There's an insane, chaotic,
cartoonishly surreal scene augmented by one of the most just
batcrap songs of the sixties. And I'm not gonna spoil
that either. And I thought, in that moment, all right,
(06:19):
you've reeled me all the way back in all is forgiven.
Maybe I'll even go back and watch the rest of
that Big Eyes movie. But not Dumbo. Dumbo can take
his huge cgi ears and fly himself to hell. Are
we clear?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Mo?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yes, we're clear. But I have to say that was
a very nice shout out to Alec Baldwin in there.
I caught I like to make the pop culture references
that the young people appreciate.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Oh no, cameo from Jeffrey Jones.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Huh, well, no, no, he's not in the movie, but
I don't want to spoil There's some really creative stylistic
touches in it. It's like the old wacky Tim Burton
that we loved when we younger. He's backed. This movie
is so much fun. Okay, all right, I will definitely
check it out on the strength of your review, Mark Ronner,
it's important, Mo that you especially believe everything I say. Well,
(07:09):
I want to be able to blame you if I
don't like it. That's what Yether's that issue. If you
hate it, you can put it on me. Well, I'll
do that anyway.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI,
a M six forty pop culture ron Report with Mark.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Ronner Kelly, Mark Runner, take it away tonight. We're talking
about beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Now, cut me some slack if this
sounds like a shaggy dog story. But when I think
of Tim Burton, I think of a scene from an
(00:40):
old Sam Peckinpalm movie called Ride the High Country. Hear
me out and aging cowboy says he'll testify for one
of the men he's bringing in and things shouldn't be
too hard on him. What about the other guy he's
bringing in? Nope, Well why because the other guy used
to be his friend. How that relates to Tim Burton
is that he did some incredible singular work as an
(01:00):
odd ball artist, followed by years of diaper gravy. Now,
if that diaper gravy had then perpetrated by any old
hack like Rob Zombie, I wouldn't care. But it was
done by Tim Burton, the guy who gave us ed
Wood Mars Attacks. That's the guy who went on to
give us a big screen Dark Shadows that was so
offensively bad and off the mark that I got furious
(01:21):
all over again rewatching it the other night. That's the
guy who gave us a more or less worthless and
silly Planet of the Apes remake with Marky Mark No less,
the guy who gave us Peewee's Big Adventure and the
really underrated Sleepy Hollow. He turned around and splattered us
with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Okay, I don't want
to get into Batman because I could take up a
(01:42):
whole show, and my feelings about it are complicated. So
you'd be forgiven for dragging your feet to see a
sequel to a movie you made back in nineteen eighty
eight that I think is pretty universally beloved. Does the
Burton family need a new pool? Did he tie up
all his money in Twitter and or Tesla Stock. Here's
a bit of the trailer for Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Here's a preview. Be warned, it's intense. I can't believe
Grandpa is dead. That's as hard. Yeah, sometimes I think
(02:26):
life is harder. When I was a teenager, a trickster
demon and terrorized our entire family and tried to force
me to marry him. I believed he was gone forever
(02:48):
until you found this in the attic. Now here's Beetlejuice.
You don't ever say that name Beetlejuice. I am serious.
He will appear Beatles.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
The juice is loose.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I'm gonna make you so happy. I think I've reached
that Pavlovian stage where just hearing Michael Keaton in the
Beetlejuice voice makes me laugh. And I'm not going to
drag this out like one of those clickbait stories on Facebook.
Here's the deal about the first two thirds of Beetlejuice.
Beetle Juice, I thought, well, it's not disappointing, and the
final third I was one hundred percent in and laughed
(03:32):
out loud a few times. There are moments in that
first two thirds that drag and I could have used
more Michael Keaton, who was just great fun again as
the demon Beetlejuice. And you can kind of decide on
your own that question, that age old question of whether
you say, like more Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the
Lambs would have lessened his impact. But I know that
character has got a little extra baggage lately for reasons
(03:53):
I'd rather avoid here. Every minute Keaton's on screen is fun,
and that Beetlejuice makeup pretty much negates the fact that
he's seven. Now, after watching Keaton and Knox Goes Away,
which I know MO also saw recently, I'm starting to
think this guy can do no wrong, and that's when
they let you down. That's when they screw you. The
original Beetlejuice is such a classic that we don't really
(04:13):
need to spend a lot of time playing catch up here. Briefly,
Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis played a dead couple who
wanted to scare away the family that's just moved into
their house, and they enlist this mad cap reprobate demon
named Beetlejuice, and things get nuts after that. Among other things,
Beetlejuice wants to marry the new family's goth daughter, who
(04:33):
was played then by young Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,
which I'm just gonna call it B two now where
it's going to get irritating. Winona's Lydiadits is middle aged
and she's got her own daughter who doesn't like her
very much. The ghost couple's long gone, maybe because one
of them's on trial in New Mexico for shooting someone
and old beats now working in the afterlife civil Service
(04:54):
bureaucracy from that first movie with a punch of colleagues
who have tiny, shrunken heads. But your screenwriting teacher wants
to know what are the inciting incidents? Well, I'm glad
you asked. Lydia's dad dies and everyone has to go
back to the old house for his funeral. Now that
dad was played by Jeffrey Jones in the first movie,
and Jones later wound up in some fairly serious legal
(05:15):
trouble that landed him in the sexual offender database, which
it turns out can be a bit of a career
speed bump. He's not in the movie, and the way
he isn't is pretty creative and funny, and I'm not
going to spoil it for you. It turns out there
was once a Missus Beach. She's played by Monica Balucci.
She's back from the dead and wants revenge, and sort
of predictably, the daughter, who is played by Jenna Ortega
(05:36):
from Wednesday, which was also a Tim Burton trynt, gets
into some supernatural trouble of her own and she needs
to be saved. And there we are back in business.
Justin Threux shows up. He plays Lydia's sleazy heel fiance
and it's such a broad rote jerk part that all
I could think of was how outright and credible and
hilarious he was playing g Gordon Lyddy in White House
(05:58):
Plumbers last year. I haven't seen that. Just know that
I don't get paid enough to lie to you. I'm
no Tim Poole. B two has its flaws, but it
does something that good movies can. There's an insane, chaotic,
cartoonishly surreal scene augmented by one of the most just
batcrap songs of the sixties. And I'm not gonna spoil
that either. And I thought, in that moment, all right,
(06:19):
you've reeled me all the way back in all is forgiven.
Maybe I'll even go back and watch the rest of
that Big Eyes movie. But not Dumbo. Dumbo can take
his huge cgi ears and fly himself to hell. Are
we clear?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Mo?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yes, we're clear. But I have to say that was
a very nice shout out to Alec Baldwin in there.
I caught I like to make the pop culture references
that the young people appreciate.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Oh no, cameo from Jeffrey Jones.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Huh, well, no, no, he's not in the movie, but
I don't want to spoil There's some really creative stylistic
touches in it. It's like the old wacky Tim Burton
that we loved when we younger. He's backed. This movie
is so much fun. Okay, all right, I will definitely
check it out on the strength of your review, Mark Ronner,
it's important, Mo that you especially believe everything I say. Well,
(07:09):
I want to be able to blame you if I
don't like it. That's what Yether's that issue. If you
hate it, you can put it on me. Well, I'll
do that anyway.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty
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