Top Gun (1986) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022) weathered a 36-year gap that did no harm: The sequel was bravura action filmmaking that produced something fresh but familiar, moving the story forward rather than rehashing the past. The same number of years haven’t been as kind to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the new sequel to the 1988 original, with a title name said twice, like “New York, New York.” Is Beetlejuice Beetlejuice double the fun? No. Not even close. Give filmmaker Tim Burton, the auteur of both, points for at least trying to remain true to the attitude and the spirit (if you will) of the original. Then deduct those points for the repetitive, emotionally hollow spectacle on display.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Maitland on Movies to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.