I watched the original Beetlejuice before watching the sequel, so it was fresh in my mind for comparison, and I do feel like that took away my ability to enjoy the film. Tim Burton stated in an interview, "I didn’t watch the first movie to prepare for this. I remembered the spirit of it and I remembered everybody here," and that was insane to me. So I left the theater feeling disappointed from the lack of a coherent story and cheap plot resolutions, but I still found an overwhelming number of positive comments online and I questioned if I missed something.
I took my parents to watch the movie a couple weeks later, and they both loved it, so I think we were meant to watch it in the same way that Tim Burton intended - by not watching the original before at all.
I went and tried to watch some of Burton's films after we discussed Ed Wood because I was curious to see how his career evolved. After Big Fish, Big Eyes and Wednesday, that was the end of it for me. I think he has some really interesting visual ideas from time to time and I like some of what he did in the 90s, but there's something not working afterward. It's like he does not connect with the material, there's a pervasive flatness and I completely agree that most of it feels like afternoon tv.
I went to see The Conversation, I liked the beginning and the ending a lot, but I thought the middle was sort of painful to watch. I hope Megalopolis will be better.
Your mileage may vary, but I recently went to see the Chinese movie Only the River Flows and the Spanish movie Close your Eyes and I was really impressed. For a slow and meditative experience, I would definitely recommend a double feature since the two movies are related thematically.
Also, for older movies, I would recommend Jacques Tati. I listened to your Blue Velvet episode and I am pretty sure it was his movies David Foster Wallace was referring to when he was talking about French Surrealism. He influenced Tim Burton as well, but in my opinion it's miles better than anything he has done recently.
I watched the original Beetlejuice before watching the sequel, so it was fresh in my mind for comparison, and I do feel like that took away my ability to enjoy the film. Tim Burton stated in an interview, "I didn’t watch the first movie to prepare for this. I remembered the spirit of it and I remembered everybody here," and that was insane to me. So I left the theater feeling disappointed from the lack of a coherent story and cheap plot resolutions, but I still found an overwhelming number of positive comments online and I questioned if I missed something.
I took my parents to watch the movie a couple weeks later, and they both loved it, so I think we were meant to watch it in the same way that Tim Burton intended - by not watching the original before at all.
I thought the movie was very fun but also lacking direction. The movie felt more like a series of subplots and it left me a little disappointed.
I went and tried to watch some of Burton's films after we discussed Ed Wood because I was curious to see how his career evolved. After Big Fish, Big Eyes and Wednesday, that was the end of it for me. I think he has some really interesting visual ideas from time to time and I like some of what he did in the 90s, but there's something not working afterward. It's like he does not connect with the material, there's a pervasive flatness and I completely agree that most of it feels like afternoon tv.
I went to see The Conversation, I liked the beginning and the ending a lot, but I thought the middle was sort of painful to watch. I hope Megalopolis will be better.
Your mileage may vary, but I recently went to see the Chinese movie Only the River Flows and the Spanish movie Close your Eyes and I was really impressed. For a slow and meditative experience, I would definitely recommend a double feature since the two movies are related thematically.
Also, for older movies, I would recommend Jacques Tati. I listened to your Blue Velvet episode and I am pretty sure it was his movies David Foster Wallace was referring to when he was talking about French Surrealism. He influenced Tim Burton as well, but in my opinion it's miles better than anything he has done recently.