MOVIE TIP

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”? Disappointing disappointing. I so wanted to love this very belated sequel to the 1988 film, which melded horror, comedy and quirkiness in a way that only director Tim Burton could. But this new release lacks the original’s liveliness (yes, the movie about the deceased was lively) and inventiveness (this update too often does callbacks to familiar scenes, most notably with characters possessed to lip-sync to “MacArthur Park,” as opposed to “Day-O” in the classic dinner scene). The story is a bit of a hodgepodge. Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), who still sees dead people, is hosting a ghost-house TV series, and her questionable beau is the show’s producer (Justin Theroux). Lydia keeps espying apparitions of her old nemesis Beetlejuice. Lydia’s teenaged daughter (Jenna Ortega), who is as sullen and disaffected as Lydia was at that age, gets into trouble, and Lydia must save her. The best things here? Not surprisingly, they are the performances by Michael Keaton as the fast-talking, wise-cracking Beetlejuice and Catherine O’Hara as Lydia’s eccentric artist mother.

— Kristina Dorsey

The Perfect Couple

Netflix

A big Nantucket wedding weekend barely gets off the ground when one of the guests is discovered dead the morning of the ceremony. Based on the Elin Hilderbrand novel of the same name, the series is similar in style and substance to “The White Lotus” and “Big Little Lies.” Nicole Kidman is perfect as Greer Garrison Winbury, an enormously successful author and the family matriarch who has her hand in everything. Liev Schrieber is her husband, Tag (of course that’s his name), who comes from old money and is happy to smoke pot all day while hitting golf balls into the ocean. He has perpetually perfect stubble and is seemingly without a care in the world. Eve Hewson (Bono’s daughter) plays Amelia, the would-be bride of Benji, the middle of three Winbury sons. Everybody is extremely good-looking and otherworldly rich. There are some pretty heavy themes — wealth and class issues, sex and drugs, the role of police on a very well-to-do island — but it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the cheeky dance sequence during the opening credits serves as a reminder that this isn’t “Schindler’s List.” It’s supposed to be fun, and by successfully pulling off the tricky tightrope of being heavy and light at the same time, it is.

— Owen Poole

Food Tip

Mango Danish

Flanders Donut & Bake Shop

I frequently drive from our home in New London to East Lyme and the intersection of Flanders Road and I-95. I can’t resist the fun of the ne’er ending construction and traffic idiocy and I just drive back and forth between Costco and Stop & Shop, living it up. When I get tired, I stop by Flanders Donut & Bake Shop for a rewarding Mango Danish or six. I didn’t know folks MADE a “Mango Danish” till I spied it in the Flanders display case! It seems an odd cultural juxtaposition. A “Danish” connotes the icy north countries like Sweden or Norway or — WAIT! Denmark! A mango is a fruit indigenous, I believe, to India, and its tang and sunset coloring present a tropical association. In any case, some Flandery world traveler, perhaps inspired by back-to-back trips to Copenhagen and Mumbai, lovingly placed a huge dollop of fresh mango on a traditionally chewy and sweet Danish and two worlds blissfully collided. The Mango Danish runs a reasonable $2.80 each, so order 50.

— Rick Koster