Top Five Tim Burton Movies

Jenny and I watched Ed Wood last night...she had not seen it...boy...that is a great movie. It got me thinking about my top Tim Burton movies of all-time. A long time ago, Burton used to be considered my favorite director simply because he directed Batman. That's not the case anymore but I still hold him to a higher regard than most directors. I'm including the live action movies only because it's been a long time since I've seen Nightmare Before Christmas ( so I don't have a good handle on it) and I haven't seen Corpse Bride.

5. Sleepy Hollow
When Burton goes big the results are normally mixed. Planet of the Apes was disappointing and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was decent but not very memorable. In Sleepy Hollow Burton has a good mix of entertaining elements with his vision of the macabre.

4. Edward Scissorhands
When I writing the review of Penelope I was racking my brain of good modern day fairy tales and for whatever reason this movie completely escaped me. After the mega success of Batman, Burton took a smaller project but made it just as relevant.

3. Big Fish
The most underrated entry of Burton's film canon. This is fantastic film with great performances. In this film Burton delves emotional deeper into the story than compared to most of his other films and the results make for some superb storytelling.

2. Ed Wood
The motivation behind this post. This movie is just so good and showcases two outstanding performances--Johnny Depp as Edward D. Wood Jr. and Martin Landau (who won an Oscar for his performance of Bela Lugosi). There's no doubt that Burton admires Wood (and maybe to some degree his work as well) but the portrayal is not sappy or overly sentimental. It's a blend of the truth (as seen threw Burton's lens) with a strong personal admiration.

1. Batman
Batman Begins has (justly so) overshadowed the original but make no mistake about it Batman'89 (now as it is commonly called) is not only an all-time great comic book movie but an all time great modern day film. Burton's gothic take of the Batman myth is not completely faithful to the comic book character but that's all right...because it still works. This was also the first film that made me aware of the movie culture. Prior to this I did not go to the movies very often nor did I get excited for new movies that were being released. Batman changed all of that.