College Humor destroys Tim Burton!

[JacksonArcher]

Burton's early works were great. I love Beetlejuice, Batman, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood. But recently he seems to have ran out of juice. I admired his remake of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory but Planet of the Apes was dull and contrived. Sleepy Hollow was muddled and quite hollow. Big Fish was interesting, but shared a lot of the same themes and ideas from Edward Scissorhands and later on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I have absolutely no interest in Alice in Wonderland. I got my "fantasy Burton" fix with Charlie, and Alice looks almost like a retread at least aesthetically speaking. I know that's a hollow argument (I love puns), but the recent scathing reviews haven't been much of a confidence builder, either.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I like Tim Burton's movies. He even makes musicals somewhat sufferable for me, which is an accomplishment. I only wish he hadn't let Disney castrate his vision of Alice in Wonderland.

 

[dru]

Ed Wood was great. Batman was good for the time. Batman Returns was only half good (Catwoman). Mars Attacks! was a let down. Never been able to watch all of Beetle Juice. Lacking preconceived notions I thought PotA was ok except for Abe Sapien (oops, wrong franchise) at the end. I couldn't be less interested in his Alice film. His other films I can't talk myself into sampling.

 

[1001001]

I like Tim Burton a lot, but yeah...that was funny.

Especially the Danny Elfman bit.

 

[TheBrew]

He peaked with "Big Fish" IMO. I can't ever hate him because of that flick, but he hasn't excited me in a long time.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I always joked that with the new fad of turning board games into movies, Tim Burton would be the top choice for a dark and twisted Candy Land. Of course, maybe that'll actually happen now!

They are making a Candy Land film, but, unfortunately, Depp won't direct it. I personally wouldn't mind seeing Johnny Depp as the evil Lord Licorice and Helena Bonham Carter as, uh (looks at Candy Land board), let's go with Queen Frostine. Seriously, though, that's a game that's begging to be turned into a Tim Burton movie. With anyone else, it would just be retarded.

 

[Caligula]

I look at this picture and right away it makes me think, "Oh shit! Superman's been assimilated by the Borg!!"

 

[John Picard]

No one has mentioned The Nightmare Before Christmas

 

[Ethros]

That was great.
I personally fucking hate Tim Burton, and his little bumboy Johnny Depp.
I went to the MOMA in New York last week, and they have a whole section of his works. I nearly puked up a lung.

 

[Kegg]

The problem with the parody is it's scarcely an exaggeration. Concerning Elfman, just listen to the beginning of this bit of the Alice soundtrack.

I liked the Johnny Depp/Helena Bonham Carter phone, though.

No one has mentioned The Nightmare Before Christmas

It's been name-dropped, but as it featured neither Helena Bonham Carter or Johnny Depp, and is generally well liked (generally) and also wasn't directed by Burton, the comments have been less.

Anyway, I'm not really inclined to see Alice, given the mixed reviews. I like, even love Burton when he's good, but that 'when' is important (and Ed Wood is one of the best celebrations of the filmmaker as auteur that comes to mind also.)

 

[wamdue]

is it wrong that I already want to see Tim Burtons "The Pied Piper" ?

 

[Aragorn]

So how messed up would a Tim Burton "Twin Peaks" look?

 

[ALF]

I'm just going to venture an opinion... I like Tim Burton.
But his films are always GOOD and never GREAT.

 

[Reverend]

I have to agree, Burton's at his best when he's doing something original. His adaptions on the other hand...well what can I really add to what's already been said? They're generally bad. As a child of the 80's I'll always have a soft spot for his Batman films (made oh so much better then the two that cam after them) but I can still be objective enough to see that he got half way through the first movie and had no idea how to finish it (or just knocked off early for lunch, who can tell?) while the second was a pretty shallow affair saved only by Michelle Pfeiffer and to an extent, Walken. Danny DeVito turned in a good performance too, it's just a shame it wasn't of The Penguin.

I didn't mind Sleepy Hollow so much, but then I was only vaguely aware of the source material so I suppose any deviation is easier to accept at face value. I have to say though, his adaptions are getting increasingly predicable. I mean first Charlie, then Alice? Who wants to bet his next adaption with feature a certain Dorothy from Kansas?

Though I don't really have a problem with the man, I can't help but agree with the observations of the video and this little altercation with Kevin Smith appears to betray a certain arrogance and ego I hadn't really cottoned to before. That is assuming Smith is on the level of course.

 

[Kegg]

is it wrong that I already want to see Tim Burtons "The Pied Piper" ?

I wouldn't turn it down. I'd like to see Tim Burton do swarms of rats.

 

[wamdue]

I see it as an animated film like Nightmare Before Christmas (& the awful Corpse Bride) than a live action 3d affair like Alice in Wonderland.

 

[Yoda]

Though I don't really have a problem with the man, I can't help but agree with the observations of the video and this little altercation with Kevin Smith appears to betray a certain arrogance and ego I hadn't really cottoned to before. That is assuming Smith is on the level of course.

I liked a lot of Burton's older stuff, the Batman movies included. I liked Sweeney Todd. Haven't seen Big Fish, but it's on the to do list.

Honestly I almost never enjoy Kevin Smith films, but he always comes off as pretty funny in videos like that. I probably wouldn't be able to handle 5 minutes in a room with a weirdo like Burton. Funny how that works.

 

[Too Much Fun]

It's hard for me to say much bad about Tim Burton because "Ed Wood" is one of my top 10 favourite movies of all-time, but I agree he has really dissolved into self-parody in the last few years. After he ruined the classic story "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by bringing his 'daddy issues' into it and turning the previously wonderful character of Willy Wonka into a grotesque creep, I gave up on him. I was excited about that movie and felt he'd tricked me after I went to the movies to see it. NEVER AGAIN. The special effects and songs were an improvement over the original, but the lack of a good Willy Wonka sank the whole thing and overshadowed its good points.

Again, I share a lot of the opinions about Burton becoming more of a hack over the years as he goes through the motions of the style he's created, but "Ed Wood" beckons me to cut him a lot of slack. I relate to Ed Wood's passion about movies so deeply, and I appreciate Burton, Depp, and the writers who worked on that movie for presenting it so sweetly, with such humour and affection.

Unfortunately, most of his other movies don't hold together as well. The only one that I think doesn't have any major flaws is "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure", which is one of my favourite examples of a 'whimsical' movie. "Big Fish" is charming, but too slight to be seen more than once. I enjoyed it the first time I saw it, but it's not something I feel the need to ever see again.

"Edward Scissorhands" starts off promisingly, but its villain is pitifully one-dimensional and its ending stinks. "Batman" and "Batman Returns" were cool when I was a kid, but now I just find them painfully shallow. At least Nicholson and Pfieffer's performances are still delightfully over-the-top, but there's little else I can enjoy in those movies since superhero movies have matured so dramatically since those primitive incarnations of them.

 

[Kirkman1987]

Ed Wood is a masterpiece, perhaps the best bio-pic ever made.

 

[Capn Flukie]

Beetlejuice is one of my favorite movies. I can understand the criticism though, he really should do more original material.

Tim Burton on Ambien, hmmm...