Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
Beetlejuice Returns to the Box Office
let's check in with jason nathan send a_b_c_ news entertainment correspondent in los angeles where all those movies and tv shows are made and jason of big ones opening this weekend and it's he's back and afraid to say his name though you can say twice and he won't appear and that's the the title of the movies actually beetle juice beetle juice so don't say it one more time or he will appear or you could say three times it because i think people want him to appear right they want to see be able to you so say it as many times as you want and this is a movie that's been thirty six years in the making the original came out in nineteen eighty eight tim berten introduced us to this wild magical mystical world of the undead that was just so cool and original and so fresh and this one you have michael keaton obviously is back as beetle juice and you have winona writer who originally was the surly angsty teen in the original film now she's grown up she's got a surly angsty teen of her own played by jenna or tega capitol hera is back as her stepmother as well and then you also have some new characters Justin Thoreau plays winona writers fiancee monica belucci plays beetle juices ex-wife and so wait a minute did you say beetle juice has an ex-wife yes yes is an ex-wife and you get the whole back story in there as well here's a thing them i loved the original movie right it was so grabs eleven i think when it came out i saw them theaters then saw it so many times after that again on cable and rented it blockbuster and you know it just it was fantastic going back to that world there's always a danger there that it's gonna feel nostalgic and unfortunately this does but not for me in a great way because the enemy of originality and freshness and surprise is nostalgia and in the original film all this new stuff that you never seen before the world of the undead you know all the rules now so when they're in the waiting room and they just die we've seen that before right we've seen the sandworms before there's a big musical number you know kind of like the dao scene in the original one and it just feels like i've seen this before which you know it's just it didn't work for me because i i never felt surprised michael keaton is great as beetle juice he's always a lot of fun and he's doing his best here kathara hara steals every scene she is in just in thorough is pretty fun as well the monocle belucci beetle juices ex-wife the whole plot line could be literally lifted out of the movie and we'd never know it was there it's so kind of disconnected from the rest of everything else it it makes no sense to me i was surprised to hear that in the first movie michael keaton as beetle juice was only in what seventeen eighteen minutes is he in just a limited amount of this film no i think there's a lot more of him for me it took a little too long to get to him and winona writer's character together and get them into the world of the undead that's what you're waiting for and when that starts that's when the movie kind of picks up a little bit i actually did not know that that he was only in seventeen or eighteen minutes of the original one because that's surprising as well he's in a lot more of this one but again it's like when the rolling stones come out with a new album you listen to it and you go okay that was fine i'm gonna go back and listen to the stuff in the sixties and seventies you'll have a better time watching the original as far as i'm concerned for me it's a six point three out of ten that said i did see it in a screening with a lot of people fans like a fan screening wasn't just critics and they were all dressed up and they were all very excited they seem to be having a good time i don't know if they loved it i don't know if they had a great time but they seem to be having fun and from what i've seen from the audience review scores on ron tomatoes people seem to be liking it a lot more than i did so my hope is that you go and have fun and enjoy it i always want people to enjoy their time in theater just for me it didn't work we're talking with jason nathanson he is the if you see news entertainment correspondent and jason what about reagan i've talked to a lot of people they've seen the movie they loved it they loved dennis quaid interesting i hated it and i seem to be in line with a lot of the critics on ron tomatoes it is twenty one percent frustrated from critics it is ninety eight percent frustrated from audiences so there's a huge disparity there wow and i get that and we see that a lot often in faith-based films that are usually made for a particular audience and it's not going to be something that you know ninety percent of people are going to go see but that hardcore ten percent is going to go see and i think this is made for that hardcore ten percent of conservatives and reagan fans and taking politics out of it it's not the politics of the movie that i have any problem with although it is hagiography i mean it really makes reagan look like the second coming but to me it was just a poorly made movie it looks like it was shot on an iphone it felt very low quality i thought tennis quaid was like an s and l version of ronald reagan you're kidding yeah there's this weird framing of it's told through the eyes of a former k_g_b_ agent who never existed played by john voit with a very thick russian accent and it's all about it's framed as reagan fighting communism throughout his whole life and wanting his whole goal and his whole life basically was to take down russia from the early days of the fifties straight through his presidency that was the one big driver in his life it's an interesting kind of thought game there to to go with something like that uh but for me overall it just felt like a hallmark movie not like a hollywood movie i would like to see a high quality version of the reagan story i think he's a fascinating character a fascinating person and a fascinating president but for me that was a 3.4 out of 10 and you wouldn't have dennis quaid play him in your version probably not all right let's turn to streaming i love nicole kelman and she's got a new netflix is it a series or is it a single film yeah it's a series and this is kind of a cottage industry that she has been a part of now murder mysteries where she plays kind of a wealthy woman at the center of things and this is the latest of that it's adapted from a book that was pretty popular it's called the perfect couple nicole kiddman and leav shryber star as a wealthy couple on nantucket their son is getting married at the family compound and it's a wedding weekend and somebody shows up dead oh no and they have to figure out what happened was this a murder and then you know all the lies and the sex and everything starts to unravel this is a highly bingeable series it was made to be binge it's fun it's campy it's very summery so it's i'm kind of sad it actually it's coming at the end of summer where i know it doesn't feel like summer for a lot of people they call things a beach read i believe the book was probably a beach read i think this is like a beach series it's a little cheesy in parts and it doesn't always work but when it does it's fun i'm halfway through it i'm binging it i'm looking forward to finding out who did it it was a seven point two out of ten for me it's always fun to go to a wedding when you don't have to bring a gift all right finally jason this i think is fascinating because years ago mohammed molly believe it or not had to do a comeback i mean we think of him as the boxer of all time but they've now put together a film based on a real life story yeah this is actually it's a series and it's on peacock it's called fight night the million dollar heist and it's set it says it's based on a true story but it's like loosely based on true story and it's not necessarily about mohammed allie but it takes place at this time in atlanta in 1970 when he is doing comeback and focuses on a hustler known as chicken man played by kevin heart uh he has um a party celebrating mohammed allie's return and a wealthy crowd at the party and then an armed robbery takes place so that's kind of like the setting of everything and then you have samuelle jax and don cheetall taraja p hensen terrence harrod a great cast here four episodes of that are on peacock it is streaming now i didn't get a chance to see it unfortunately but it's getting decent reviews so if you don't want to go to the movies this sounds like you can stay at home and stream some at least interesting series jason nathanson from abc i can't thank you enough for joining us this morning sure thing take care