Legendary filmmaker Tim Burton is back to his weird and wacky roots this weekend with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a sequel to the 1988 film that catapulted him to stardom behind the camera. Burton has had a very up and down career, starting high in the late 80s and early 90s before offering decent works in the decades to follow in between absolute stinkers. I love a lot of his work so I hope his return to Beetlejuice wows me, but whether it does or not I thought it would be fun to do a ranking off all his feature films up to this point. So without further adieu, let the ranking commence...
#19 Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Sorry Mr. Burton but I absolutely hate this movie. Granted, it's been years since I saw it and I actually quite enjoy the original Disney movie now, but anytime I see a still from this movie I get flashbacks of how bad of a time I had watching this. Stylistically it goes so far off the deep end in terms of looking weird and quirky that I can't enjoy. Obviously with Burton you expect some out there style but it all feels very CGI heavy and artificial here so I can't appreciate it. I don't care for Depp's performance at all, maybe Helena Bonham-Carter would have been better if her head wasn't inflated for some reason, I don't know. All in all I just can't find any joy in watching this one.
#18 Dark Shadows (2012) - This is another movie from him I just really can't stand. On paper it should be right up my alley but this sadly falls into the same issues as Alice in Wonderland, largely in Johnny Depp just not being good. Here he's just kind of dull and despite throwing so many jokes out there the movie just isn't funny. Also similar to Alice in Wonderland, it isn't a great looking film, with a lot of overblown colours and another inauthentic visual style. Sad I don't like this but I really just can't stand it.
#17 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) - This is the last of Burton's movies that I strongly dislike, and it has a lot of those same problems. The visual style has a lot of colour but it all feels flat and lifeless, perhaps showing his hand at the CGI heavy blandness soon to come with the two previous films mentioned. Depp is unhinged and in another movie the performance could have worked, but it sorely lacks the charm of Wilder's interpretation. Aside from a weird nostalgia for it, I don't see how people enjoy this as much as they do.
#16 Planet of the Apes (2001) - If you have this at the bottom of your Burton ranking I won't judge. It's a bad movie with a whole lot of weird decisions and a terrible Mark Wahlberg performance at the heart of it. That being said, there are pros amidst the cons. The ape design is pretty great in my opinion, and both Tim Roth and Helena Bonham-Carter are great at playing two of said apes. It has absolutely nothing on the original, and holds one of the dumbest endings of all time, but I at least find this mostly watchable.
#15 Dumbo (2019) - This is the point in this list where I do actually start enjoying the movies. Don't get me wrong, Dumbo is far from perfect and falls in line with the trend of mediocre live action Disney adaptations, but there's still a decent amount I appreciate here. Aside from one really bad CGI monkey this is a pretty great looking movie, with some terrific sets and costumes throughout. Colin Farrell, Eva Green, and Danny De Vito are all great, but aside from them a lot of this cast is unmemorable. The writing is pretty mediocre and like other live action Disney efforts this loses the heart and charm of the original which leaves a bit of an empty feeling despite its positives.
#14 Mars Attacks! (1996) - This has one of the most unnecessarily stacked casts of all time. From start to finish it's hard not to laugh as more and more big names pop up on screen, from Jack Nicholson to music icon Tom Jones. I like the alien design a lot (albeit not when they're naked that was weird to look at), and there's a decent bit of fun to be had with the film as a whole. The biggest thing holding it back is a slight slack of energy. Visually it doesn't pop like Burton's other work, and narratively it's fun enough to watch and have a decent time but not enough to be memorable.
#13 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) - Narratively and tonally this is a very up and down movie, leaving it feeling pretty uneven and not really tying together in a satisfying way. Despite that, this stylistically is as close to vintage Burton as we've gotten in a long time. A beautiful gothic setting, an ensemble of quirky macabre characters, it looks to be all there. Sadly that unevenness and a pretty weak villain get in the way of this being as special as it could be, but it's still a solid watch.
#12 Big Eyes (2014) - I liked this a lot more than I expected to. It's not like Burton's other work, living in a more realistic world rather than his typical over the top style. Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz are both terrific, with Adams giving a sneakily great and kind of heartbreaking performance. I almost wish there was more of Burton's quirkiness here as the story isn't anything overly exciting, but I enjoyed this quite a bit.
#11 Frankenweenie (2012) - This is just simply cute as hell. I can't justify putting it higher as it offers a very simple story, but said basic story has a lovely gothic touch that makes this perfect for spooky season. Ultimately it feels like it exists solely as a Halloween watch for people that are scared of horror movies, but there's nothing wrong with that. Cute, well animated, great for October, it may not be much more but that's okay.
#10 Peewee's Big Adventure (1985) - A strange but promising debut from an eventual great. This feels very childish compared to what Burton would follow it up with but I don't think that's a bad thing. It's a goofy slapstick comedy that admittedly can be a tad annoying at times, but is mostly just a fun time. While it is very light in tone, it does offer glimpses of Burton's style especially from Large Marge. If you don't like high pitched main characters steer clear of this, but I think it's a pretty fun watch.
#9 Big Fish (2003) - Of all Burton's work this is the one I need to revisit most. It's a very beautiful portrait of father/son relationships along with the beauty and strangeness of life, delivered with some magnificent performances. I think going in I didn't know exactly what to expect which limited how much I was able to connect with it, so while I wish I could put it higher I just don't have the same affinity to it I do with some of his other work. It's a movie I look forward to re-watching some day, as there is a ton to love.
#8 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) - This is the point in the list I start really enjoying the movies. Based on the hit Broadway musical, this story fits perfectly in Burton's wheelhouse and he delivers. His eerie version of London fits the musical's tone perfectly, and I absolutely love the music here. Depp is great in the titular role, with Helena Bonham Carter and Jamie Campbell Bower also putting in great work. I don't have much in the way of gripes with this one, the only thing holding it back is just how great the films ahead of it are.
#7 Corpse Bride (2005) - Burton's best animated film (Nightmare Before Christmas was directed by Henry Sellick don't come at me). Like Frankenweenie this is a perfect October movie for the scaredy cats out there, offering a lighthearted story with a spooky touch. I really love the style here and Burton's usual suspects do some pretty great voice work. I maybe wish there was a bit more here as it comes in at less than 80 minutes, but there's a reason this has the following it does, it's a great movie.
#6 Sleepy Hollow (1999) - There may be a tinge of bias here, as I think the Headless Horseman is one of the coolest characters in classic horror. This is the farthest into pure horror Burton has gone, delivering a fog covered late-1700s ghost story. The performances are all solid, but it's the creepy atmosphere that really wins me over here in all its ghoulish glory. I wish there was more of the actual Horseman, but that's a small gripe for a great ghost story.
#5 Batman Returns (1992) - With how great Christopher Nolan's take on Batman was I think we often underappreciate how great Burton was behind the camera. I'll get to his first film momentarily, but this takes nearly everything from the first film and builds upon it. Gotham feels more fleshed out, Keaton feels more comfortable in the lead role, and the addition of Michelle Pfeiffer as Cat-Woman is really great. The area this falls flat compared to the first for me is in the villain department. Danny De Vito is a good Penguin, but he feels more like a secondary villain than the main show, and a lot of the focus ends up being on Christopher Walken's character in a rare performance from him that just doesn't quite work for me.
#4 Batman (1989) - There are two words for why this edges out its successor ever so slightly: Jack Nicholson. Heath Ledger's performance as Joker is iconic, but Nicholson's is a close second offering a more put together version of the clown prince of crime. Danny Elfman's theme is one of the best in any superhero movie, hell it might be one of the best theme songs of all time. The suit, the gadgets, the car, the look of Gotham, this really feels like it set the bar for the superhero sub-genre and it no doubt deserves its praise over the years.
#3 Edward Scissorhands (1990) - It feels weird not having this higher, but don't get me wrong I love this movie. The titular character is iconic thanks to the great costume/ hair & makeup alongside Depp's fantastic performance. Winona Ryder is great, the story is fantastic, and Burton's quirky production design is on full display in this strange version of the suburbs. It's a damn near perfect movie and the only thing holding it back is how much I love the next two movies.
#2 Beetlejuice (1988) - There's a reason this is getting a sequel, it's one of the most beloved and iconic movies of the 80s and one that only gets better with age. It's impossible to not praise Keaton, who through great character design and a magnificent performance managed to create a truly iconic character despite having fairly limited screen time in the movie. This is the movie that truly introduced the world to one of my absolute favorites in Winona Ryder, giving a marvelously strange and unusual performance. Shout outs are of course due to Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, and Catherine O'Hara who are all great, but really it's Burton's style that leaves the biggest mark. This truly has some of the best practical sets and costumes I think we've ever seen, and hearing that the new film is skewing away from CGI in favor of more practical effects makes me so happy. This is one of the best.
#1 Ed Wood (1994) - Beetlejuice is perfect, Edward Scissorhands is magnificent, both Batman movies are among the best, but nothing comes close to Ed Wood in my eyes. How can a filmmaker as stylistically unique as Tim Burton successfully tackle a biopic? Easy, by having it be about the kind of B-movie filmmaker that inspired so much of his work. Tackling the story of Ed Wood, arguably the worst director of all time, allows Burton to lavish in the style of 1950s Hollywood through an off the beaten path lens. We don't get the big premieres and grand spectacles, we get the portrait of a man that just really wants to make movies no matter how good (or really bad) they are. With stunning black and white cinematography, this is amidst Burton's best looking movies, and it features in my opinion a career best performance from Johnny Depp. This story is so heartbreaking yet hilarious, and Burton was the perfect man to bring it to life. I love movies about filmmaking, and this delivers with a big cast of great real life characters and all around terrific filmmaking. I love this movie to pieces.
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