Director of the Month-Tim Burton.
Films I’ve seen by this director- Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Ed Wood and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Tim Burton is definitely one of the quirkiest directors in the history of modern cinema, his films are filled with visual wonder and surrealism-galore! In this special edition of The Mick Take, I’m going to review every piece of wonder that has spawned from the most artistic mind in Hollywood.
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Beetlejuice, 1988
Beetlejuice is a hilarious and excellent little black comedy, full of great gags, obscure characters, and a lot of weirdness. Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis are the Maitland’s, a young couple who are killed in a car crash, they instantly find themselves back in their picturesque (and highly-wanted) country house, and become suspicious where they discover that outside of their house, is a surreal desert landscape occupied by menacing sandworms, that and also the fact that a book titled ‘The Handbook For The Recently Deceased’ has landed in their possession, they soon realise that they are now in the afterlife, and are ghosts. Meanwhile, a New York estate agent Charles Deetz (Jeffrey Jones), along with his slimy sculptor-wife Delia (Catherine O’Hara), along with his goth daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) from a previous marriage, have moved into their house, Charles has intentions of taking a break from his hectic city life, whilst the obnoxious and demanding Delia has intentions of making the house her own sculpture, whilst Lydia finds herself more content within the city. The Maitlands try their best to scare off the Deetz family, but ultimately fail when they realise that the family can’t see them, however, Lydia had an ability to see the Maitlands (after coming across the Handbook) and befriends them.
The film is exceptional, but then it gets better with the introduction of Michael Keaton’s slimy, perverted, and disgusting Betelgeuse, a ‘freelance bio-exorcist’ who is seemingly the only hope for the Maitland couple. They visit their ‘Afterlife Social Worker’ (in a hilariously over-the top place where all workers have committed suicide) who tells them not to, but they decide to go by their own ideas and summon him by saying his name three times, all hell breaks loose from herein, but for me to go into detail would ruin the magic of this excellent movie, Danny Elfman’s score is great, and the movie is both hilarious and visually gorgeous, an entertaining film for all the family, even if it is slightly graphic in some scenes
4.5 out of 5
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Batman-1989
This is the movie that inspired every superhero movie of the past 21 years, Batman is an excellent little piece of entertainment, it’s quintessential, and it also pulled Batman out of the rocks of campiness and into a whole new dimension of gritty darkness, Michael Keaton does an exceptional job of playing Bruce Wayne/Batman, proving the protesting fans who criticised his casting wrong and also opening up a new batch of opportunity for the once typecast-in-comedy actor.
Jack Nicholson of course, is the show-stealer as the sinister Joker, in an over-the-top and comedic performance that’ll freak the hell out of you, the only let-down exists in the corny song contributions by Prince, which age the movie. But the epic score by Burton-regular Elfman saves the movie from fading into 80s obscurity. The darkness of the movie is noteworthy as it is incredibly impressive and the direction by Burton is of a high quality, the action is top-notch and the movie is worthy of a viewing
4 out of 5
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Edward Scissorhands-1990
