I, Queue Genius: TIMBURTON, TIMBURTON, TIMBURTON!
January 10, 2008 by El Chico Cesar 
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Have you guys seen Sweeney Todd? Have you?! HAVE YOU!? Isn’t Johnny Depp deliciously evil and shit? I mean, who cares that he’s singing and that it takes him about five minutes to express one thought. Who cares! It’s fun. IT’S FUN! Of course, the man behind the movie is Tim Burton, who whether you love his movies, or not, you can’t deny that there’s nothing else like a Burton movie. So here’s a little IQG on three of my favorite Tim Burton films. And yes, yes, yes, I expect the “you-forgots” and the “what-abouts”. ONWARD!
This week on I, Queue Genius: First, a seriously good movie about a guy who made seriously bad movies, then, I wish Pee Wee Herman was my uncle, and finally, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!
Ed Wood (USA, 1994). Leave it to a guy like Tim Burton to make a guy like Edward Wood, Jr. (”the worst director of all time”) seem charming, fascinating and ostensibly talented. It makes me think that Ed Wood, watching from his grave, would have actually approved of Burton’s vision of the real man’s life behind the camera. Wood was the infamously weird director of such bad cult classics as Glen or Glenda and Plan 9 from Outer Space. Wood was also a tranny and had an uncontrollable fetish for angora sweaters. And women still found him attractive. Tim Burton focuses on Woods life in the 1950’s when the aforementioned movies were made. He assembled a great yet weird mix of actors including Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bill Murray and Vincent Dinofrio to make a great yet weird movie about a great yet weird guy. And that guy, OF COURSE, is played by Johnny Depp. Watch it cause you’ll enjoy good actors doing deliberately bad acting.
Beetlejuice (USA, 1988). Seriously, duders, what can I say about Beetlejuice that has already not been said. Beetlejuice is an institution of my 80’s childhood. Remember the Beetlejuice saturday morning cartoon? Remember?! What I will say though is that having recently seen this film again (for the 666th time), I realized how much of it went way over my head as a kid. Burton’s film geniusly blends design, dialogue, and story to entertain the shit out of you. Beetlejuice is f*cking funny folks. It’s the perfect brand of child and adult humor and the performances are now classic. I mean, this is probably the only time I could watch Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton (MICHAEL KEATON!) in one frame and say AWESOME! I love Beetlejuice! Watch it cause you’ll enjoy the jokes and MICHAEL KEATON!
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (USA, 1985). Remember how I was just going on about Beetlejuice and stuff? Well, ditto for Pee Wee’s Big Adventure! You got that right, friends, Tim Burton directed one of OUR all-time favorite childhood movies. Never did I ever want so so much to be inside a film as when I saw PWBA (tee hee) as a child. I mean, can I live in that house too? Can I? Can I have eggs prepared that way for me? Can I? Let’s just all forget that Paul Reubens was a public sexual deviant. I just want Pee Wee to find his bike! BUT NOT before all those fun, scary, exciting adventures.
IQG, now that you’ve gone batty for Burton, what are some of his other films that you liked? Try, Big Fish (USA, 2003), Mars Attacks! (USA, 1996), Batman (USA, 1989) and yes, of course, Edward Scissorhands (USA, 1990).
Next week on, I, Queue Genius: BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE!
can’t forget Batman Returns!
interesting that he’s working on Alice in Wonderland for 2010
January 10, 2008 at 10:39 am“Leave it to a guy like Tim Burton to make a guy like Edward Wood, Jr. (”the worst director of all time”) seem charming, fascinating and obstensibly (sic) talented.”
But the real Ed Wood *was* charming and fascinating…
What made the real Ed Wood so great is that he truly thought he was making good films. I mean, sure he was out to make a buck, but he really believed he was a talented filmmaker.
I remember coming home from seeing Pee Wee in the theater, and I was so obsessed with it, just going on and on about how much I loved Pee Wee, and my dad was putting me to bed and I remember him asking “so… you really like Pee Wee huh?” and I was like “yes yes yes!” and now looking back I realized there was this undercurrent of disappointment in his questioning.
January 10, 2008 at 11:15 amEd Wood is one of my favorite 5 movies of all time in the sense that I can watch it over and over and over and over again and never get bored.
Bill Murray’s 2 minutes in that movie are priceless.
January 10, 2008 at 11:17 amBig Fish = one of my favorite movies ever made. A little dirt or sand got in my eye at the end of that one.
January 10, 2008 at 11:19 amCale: I like the way you put the Ed Wood thing. BTW, another reason we need a copy editor. Stupid spelling mistakes make my spine quiver…and not in a good way. Also, your dad knew better huh. Pee Wee is still the greatest. But Paul Reubens is scarytimes.
January 10, 2008 at 11:31 amSvet - I originally wrote “Ed Wood is def my fav Tim Burton movie, and may be one of my fav movies of all time. Bill Murray’s handful of lines are classic”
but then I felt like I was going on too long about it and trimmed.
January 10, 2008 at 11:55 amfunny that this is so related: while i loved beetlejuice (what is winona doing now?) and i really do like michael keaton (for serious), i always thought that depp would have made a GREAT (really great) beetlejuice. can you see it? anyway… great review, jose.
“another reason we need a copy editor” - yes, you do. and i like the mention of a castrated sheep in the first paragraph, though it is taken out of context.
nothing but love,
eddie
Beetlejuice keeps getting funnier every time I see it.
January 10, 2008 at 9:26 am