Would you settle for the reviews of one of the writers?

I'm also not getting my hopes up. Big Fish, Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Burton's track record has been on the bland side of late.

Big Fish!? Big Fish was a great film!

I still haven't seen Charlie, but I'm still looking forward to it....one day. I actually know more about the music that usual and respect Elfman more for what he did with the soundtrack. That's a big deal, since I still am not a Boingo fan.

I'll see this one too - after I see Broken Flowers.

I couldn't have said it better myself, the man craps gold as far as I'm concerned. ;)

I wanted to see CB more when I saw the trailer in Spanish!! I love Tim Burton, so you can bet your bitty that B and I will be there to see this film!

Eh. Big Fish was a mediocre film, 90% of which I saw in the trailer. It wasn't torture, but there was no meat to it. There was nothing beyond its face value, I kept waiting for the Burton twist and it never came.

And then he had to go and cram the same father-son sappiness into Charlie. What's with that? Burton used to be all about estranged children, children who might as well have been conceived by aliens and delivered to their parents (Vincent, Beetlejuice, every poem in The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy). This new spate of "I love my daddy" films doesn't suit him.

I disagree. I thought Big Fish was a great departure for Burton. I always appreciate it when directors branch and give us the unexpected. I went into BF with no expectations and I was plesantly surprised that such a deeply emotional film could come out of Burton without using the usual formulas of past films.

Big Fish was fun to look at but I absolutely hated the story. Both the dad and the son were jerks and I felt no empathy for them. It goes from "Dad is a pathological liar" to "Dad was actually telling mostly the truth and his son never believed him until he was dead." Yuck. The awkwardness between them was at best unaffecting and at worst ugly and made both characters unlikable. I'd take the Ewan McGregor flashbacks and make a movie out of that.

I really wanted to like Charlie, and while it was a lot of fun to watch, I left it with an "eh". I just don't think Burton has really delivered in a long time.

I do agree with this. I liked Charlie and the Chocolate Factory more than anyone I know, but I didn't like that element. Or Big Fish. I loved the book, though.

Burton lost his father right before he made Big Fish, I think. Maybe that's why he made that film, actually. But if he's imitating life, it's not really working for him, IMO. Still, I cannot wait for The Corpse Bride.

What about Boingonuts :p ;)