Say his name three times, though two will do for the title (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice)
My eyes rolled so hard to the back of my head when Tim Burton announced the casting of the sequel to his seminal film Beetlejuice that they sounded like a drum roll on a marimba. Sure, Michael Keaton had sighted off on coming back because he said it was a great script and sure, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara were in, but I don’t hold much of late period Burton in very hight regard (despite the presence of Big Eyes , Sweeny Todd , and Big Fish ). I didn’t realize or know that Burton has been as dissatisfied with his output in recent years as anyone. This may explain why those smaller films feel like outliers and how, once he moved farther away from the more organic processes of movie-making, his latter work feels so arch, artificial and just trying too hard. Admittedly, Burton was never a minimalist director, but even at his most outre, he didn’t lose a sense of connection with his characters. This is principally why, for me anyway, beginning with Sleepy Hollow, it was ha...