It didn't remind me very much of Tim Burton, but I tend to associate him more with a kind of brightly colored Gothic, except when he makes movies like Ed Wood (1994) or Big Fish (2003), which I really love.
Those are in fact my two favorite Burton films. I recently ran back into the person who introduced me to the Burton milieu back when we were in our early teens. It's really nice to have his faintly macabre and cheerful sensibility back in my life. He's written a short piece called Railroad to Zanzibar that might appeal to you. He's also become, unsurprisingly, a moderately successful artist. His anatomical portraits are particularly fine. When I'm properly at a computer, I should send you a link.
Wow, that was quite a tangent.
The other thing that really makes Darkman work is that it doesn't undercut itself. Peyton's response to a foot chase escalating into a helicopter battle is the perfectly reasonable "You've got to be shitting me!" but the film isn't winking at its source material; when it goes for demented operatic grandeur, that's what it gets. I feel very strongly that it should be possible to celebrate things without downplaying or ironizing them.
Yes! Things ought to be able to glory in what they are. I think that's why the whole "liking things ironically" idea never appealed to me. I defend my right to be unabashedly cynical, but likewise my right to romanticism, sentimentality or schmaltz as the impulse strikes.
A version of Darkman that constantly reassured the audience of its melodramatic implausibilities would have been doomed.
While I do like films that are aware enough to wink at the audience, I definitely adopt the attitude of, "no, bring it on. If we're going there, let's -go- there."
No one has ever mentioned either of these things to me! I assume Rocket Robin Hood is basically what it sounds like, in space?
Not even in space so much as with jetpacks. As I recall it took place on a forested planet, probably called Sherwood. Hilarious House had the distinction of actually featuring Vincent Price in segments that were apparently all filmed at a go in one opportunistic afternoon.
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Those are in fact my two favorite Burton films. I recently ran back into the person who introduced me to the Burton milieu back when we were in our early teens. It's really nice to have his faintly macabre and cheerful sensibility back in my life. He's written a short piece called Railroad to Zanzibar that might appeal to you. He's also become, unsurprisingly, a moderately successful artist. His anatomical portraits are particularly fine. When I'm properly at a computer, I should send you a link.
Wow, that was quite a tangent.
The other thing that really makes Darkman work is that it doesn't undercut itself. Peyton's response to a foot chase escalating into a helicopter battle is the perfectly reasonable "You've got to be shitting me!" but the film isn't winking at its source material; when it goes for demented operatic grandeur, that's what it gets. I feel very strongly that it should be possible to celebrate things without downplaying or ironizing them.
Yes! Things ought to be able to glory in what they are. I think that's why the whole "liking things ironically" idea never appealed to me. I defend my right to be unabashedly cynical, but likewise my right to romanticism, sentimentality or schmaltz as the impulse strikes.
A version of Darkman that constantly reassured the audience of its melodramatic implausibilities would have been doomed.
While I do like films that are aware enough to wink at the audience, I definitely adopt the attitude of, "no, bring it on. If we're going there, let's -go- there."
No one has ever mentioned either of these things to me! I assume Rocket Robin Hood is basically what it sounds like, in space?
Not even in space so much as with jetpacks. As I recall it took place on a forested planet, probably called Sherwood. Hilarious House had the distinction of actually featuring Vincent Price in segments that were apparently all filmed at a go in one opportunistic afternoon.