Comments on: PI-NO-THANK-YOU, TIM BURTON

By: Mike Flynn

Mike Flynn — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:06:40 +0000

Let me just add that Burton USED to be one of my favorite directors. Probably had one of the best track records of subsequent great movies in a row of all time: Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, and Ed Wood all one after the other is still some kind of massive achievement.

Mars Attacks! is an unadulterated mess with a few amusing moments but seems like just a gratuitous exercise in wanting to kill its entire cast violently. That was the first misstep; Sleepy Hollow is imperfect but quite good. Planet of the Apes is, well, a joke. I'm not a huge fan of Big Fish. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at least felt like somewhat of a return to the guy who made Pee-wee and Beetlejuice but it's marred by its overemphasis on the baroque and has a balls third act. Sweeney Todd has the inner workings of a success, but I've never felt compelled to go back to it.

Alice in Wonderland was a film I saw hungover and was half-asleep during and I still felt like I'd been shaken down. It would take a lot to explain its problems, but they at least won the Richie Cusack Honorary Award for having a wacko like Burton somehow make Crispin Glover boring.

I've got a bad feeling Dark Shadows isn't going to be that return to form we were all waiting for either, but at least Eva Green's hotness, reuniting with Pfeiffer and the presence of Jackie Earle Haley is going for it.

By: BermudaMan

BermudaMan — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:46:15 +0000

BIG FISH and SWEENEY TODD are debatable, but it’s hard to argue that Burton’s had a complete home-run since the days of THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and ED WOOD.

By: Erix Antoine

Erix Antoine — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:22:42 +0000

Loved the in-jokes.

That being said. Fuck Tim Burton. I can't believe what a complete 180 I did on him, but there it is. Every new project that is announced just makes me cringe.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 22:18:48 +0000

Absurd. He’ll get Depp to mo-cap Monstro the whale.

By: jasonatrent

jasonatrent — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:07:10 +0000

Burton became a brand and he started phoning it in. It’s like with Lucas. He hires the people who grew up liking the way his movies look and everything is design. To paraphrase “Barton Fink”: ” Who else can give you that stripey, corseted, goth feeling better than Tim Burton? We all can, but since I am Tim Burton, I have it in spades.”

By: JetpackNinja

JetpackNinja — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:55:29 +0000

He nailed Sweeney Todd and Big Fish after Apes. So there’s still something there.

By: Paulomatic

Paulomatic — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:08:03 +0000

He’ll probably get Depp to mo-cap the fucking puppet.

By: BermudaMan

BermudaMan — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:24:12 +0000

What the hell happened to Tim Burton? It’s as if somewhere between SLEEPY HOLLOW and PLANET OF THE APES, the man simply gave up.

By: gregking

gregking — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:38:11 +0000

I can see tim in the meetings. Lets do ‘titanic’ but we do it all Burton like, you know overuse black and put depp in there somewhere. Tim Burton has become a hack director with no original vision since Big Fish.

By: Archipelagos

Archipelagos — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:03:46 +0000

Aw hell no. After the disaster that was Alice he should stay far, far away from classics.

By: Nardo

Nardo — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 13:32:05 +0000

“Reportedly, Downey is seriously interested in the money and money with money (and his production company is set up at Warner), but scheduling conflicts may nix his money.”

Fixed.