JohnOD

I loved the old Randall and Hopkirk, and while Vic does a pretty good job as cheeky dead Marty, Bob Mortimer simply cannot act, and this gets in the way of the story. The special effects tend to take over a bit, and Charlie Higson's cameo in every episode of the second series is superciliously annoying. In short, it's pretty and unchallenging eye-candy. It'll go down a storm in America, once they dub the voices, of course

Planet of the Apes is missing the comedy and the edge of Tim Burton's other films. Though stranded on a strange world, Leo Davidson lacks the outsider quality of other Burton heroes like Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, or Lydia Deitz (Beetlejuice). Similarly the comedy seems wedged in, rather than forming an integral part of the story, as it does in the likes of Mars Attacks or Ed Wood.

It is really only the performance of Tim Roth that redeems this picture. He has never really had a reputation for being a physical actor but here he shows himself to be up with the Oldmans and the Nicholsons. It would have been good to see someone more animated than Mark Wahlberg in the Davidson role.

Beetlejuice was Tim Burton's first mainstream film to show the dark yet colourful style which was to become his trademark. The commercial successes of Batman, Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas show how his sense of alienation and the comic developed, but Beetlejuice is where it began and as such represents all that makes Burton a great director.