items tagged with Beetlejuice

DARK SHADOWS

Dark Shadows, director Tim Burton’s take on the 1966-71 gothic soap opera that remains a cult favorite, is gently satirical and totally watchable, and filled with inventive fringe touches. Led by Johnny Depp, its cast features a bunch of terrific comedians – a number of whom don’t often get the chance to be comedians – and the visuals are thoroughly impressive. All told, it’s probably Burton’s best film, and certainly his best live-action film, in more than a decade. So why, in the end, doesn’t all of that mean more than it actually does?

All told, I thought this year's Academy Awards telecast was awfully satisfying, and I'm not saying that because I predicted 18 out of 24 categories correctly.

Yup. 18 out of 24.

Tying my personal best.

And three of my incorrect guesses were in the short-film categories, where no one knows what the hell is going on.

But I digress.

THE STATION AGENT

After spending 90 minutes with the cast of Tom McCarthy’s The Station Agent, I believe I would, à la The Purple Rose of Cairo, have eagerly leapt right into the screen and been content to spend the rest of my life in their company.

HEARTBREAKERS

Though the competition is fierce – The Insider, All That Jazz, maybe even Beetlejuice – I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a movie that made smoking look more repellant than David Mirkin’s comedy Heartbreakers.