Retro Reviews & More

Underappreciated Typically, films are made for an audience wide enough to make a large profit. Sometimes, a substantial amount of money, climbing into the hundreds of millions, is spent to make an even more substantial amount of money, targeting blockbuster status. There are underappreciated films to which this applies, but this post is not about any of them. To me, the simplest determining measure if a film is underappreciated is that it deserved better than the audience response and/or a critical response it received. It might be a low box office, or it might be harsh reviews, or it might be both. Here is the first of three films (all of which are part of my fairly extensive personal Blu-ray collection), that in my opinion, are underappreciated. Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) | Romantic Comedy Particularly in the '80s and '90s, action films got a reputation for being all the same and too formulaic, which is true for many of them. That is also my general opinion of rom-coms. T...

Introduction: Welcome to my second retro review. The first was a few weeks ago of A Christmas Story . Briefly, a retro review is reviewing an older title now as though it was recently released. The goal is to facetiously, usually subtly, acknowledge the context of present day. As a 10+ year old, I watched the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon every Saturday morning. Granted, I lived in a rural area with little to do and we only picked up two channels (sort of a third if the weather was right). But what is not to love? Turtles. An animal I cannot recall a time I was not fascinated. Ninjas. Bruce Lee made martial arts cool in America and it never stopped being so. Mutants. The best way to make a sluggish four-legged reptile into an anthropomorph. Teenagers. Often a source of much comedy and drama. This review again follows "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" format. Enough intro; let's get to it. Retro Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) The Good: I am g...

BurtonVerse: Statistics & Trivia II Behind the Camera Abbreviations used are as follows: Fw 84 = Frankenweenie (1984) PwBA = Pee-wee's Big Adventure ES = Edward Scissorhands BR = Batman Returns TNBC = The Nightmare Before Christmas EW = Ed Wood MA! = Mars Attacks! SH = Sleepy Hollow POTA = Planet of the Apes BF = Big Fish CATCF  = Charlie and the Chocolate Factory CB = Corpse Bride ST = Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street AIW = Alice in Wonderland DS = Dark Shadows Fw 12 = Frankenweenie (2012) BE = Big Eyes MP = Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Last week's post was all about statistics and trivia regarding BurtonVerse collaborators in front of the camera, the actors. Click here to read. This is about some other essential filmmaking components: writers, composers, studios and casting. Some of this I already knew, some I discovered as I worked through, and none of it may be anything new to you... The Writers' Room Despite his distinctive vis...

BurtonVerse: Statistics & Trivia I Actors Abbreviations used are as follows: Fw 84 = Frankenweenie (1984) PwBA = Pee-wee's Big Adventure ES = Edward Scissorhands BR = Batman Returns TNBC = The Nightmare Before Christmas EW = Ed Wood MA! = Mars Attacks! SH = Sleepy Hollow POTA = Planet of the Apes BF = Big Fish CATCF  = Charlie and the Chocolate Factory CB = Corpse Bride ST = Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street AIW = Alice in Wonderland DS = Dark Shadows Fw 12 = Frankenweenie (2012) BE = Big Eyes MP = Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Some of this I already knew, some I discovered as I worked through, and none of it may be anything new to you... (Please note: I have also accounted for the first season of the Netflx series, Wednesday , throughout this post.) Doppelgänger Clause It is no secret Tim Burton often collaborates with actors he has before. Here are all who have appeared in five or more of the twenty-two films (two short films and twenty fe...

BurtonVerse: Behind the Scenes Abbreviations used are as follows: Fw 84 = Frankenweenie (1984) PwBA = Pee-wee's Big Adventure ES = Edward Scissorhands BR = Batman Returns TNBC = The Nightmare Before Christmas EW = Ed Wood MA! = Mars Attacks! SH = Sleepy Hollow POTA = Planet of the Apes BF = Big Fish CATCF  = Charlie and the Chocolate Factory CB = Corpse Bride ST = Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street AIW = Alice in Wonderland DS = Dark Shadows Fw 12 = Frankenweenie (2012) BE = Big Eyes MP = Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children It's best to watch the show before peeking backstage. Please click here to read my BurtonVerse theory . For those who want to know, before I began exploring the possibility of a shared continuity, I set some rules: 1) Only films, including the two commercially available shorts, directed by Tim Burton are to be considered, but none merely produced by him with the exception of The Nightmare Before Christmas , because it is also base...

BurtonVerse Theory Abbreviations used are as follows: Fw 84 = Frankenweenie (1984) PwBA = Pee-wee's Big Adventure ES = Edward Scissorhands BR = Batman Returns TNBC = The Nightmare Before Christmas EW = Ed Wood MA! = Mars Attacks! SH = Sleepy Hollow POTA = Planet of the Apes BF = Big Fish CATCF  = Charlie and the Chocolate Factory CB = Corpse Bride ST = Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street AIW = Alice in Wonderland DS = Dark Shadows Fw 12 = Frankenweenie (2012) BE = Big Eyes MP = Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Nearly all of the films of Tim Burton are truly standalone. To date, he has directed only one sequel, Batman Returns (to 1989's Batman ) , released in 1992, though a sequel to 1988's Beetlejuice has wrapped filming. He has produced two others:  Batman Forever , a loose sequel at best to his two Batman films (a concept I plan to explore in a future post), and 2016's Alice Through the Looking Glass to his own Alice in Wonderland (201...