MovieChat Forums > Ed Wood (1994) Discussion > Couldn't connect to this movie

Couldn't connect to this movie

posted 7 years ago by I_Created_U
4 replies | jump to latest

I've never been a big fan of Tim Burton in general and although i consider some of his movies as classics, from Batman to Beetlejuice in passing by Edward Scissorhands, the rest of his work never really spoke to me, and this movie makes no exception - Yes, i know, i should watch Transformers.

If it wasn't for an indeed stellar performance by Landau, a more than descent one by Depp and a bigger-than-life portrayal of Welles by D'Onofrio, i would have given this movie less than the 4/10 i gave it.

I'm not trying to hate on here, just sharing my overall impression. Didn't really find it funny, too campy/corny for my taste. Plus, it seems to me, and maybe that's just me, that Burton did kind of a disservice to the memory of this guy, may he be considered the worst director in history or not. I dunno if Wood would be happy to be forever remembered as the borderline nut-case this movie depicts. I know he would be happy there is a movie at all since, as they say in the showbiz and as mentioned in the movie, "There's no such thing as bad publicity", but i would have expected and hoped for a tad more sobriety and less burlesque and "lowbrow" jokes. But i guess "out-there-ness" is to be expected in everything Burton does.

Moreover, while Glen or Glenda did a great deal for the LGBT community in a time where such subject matters where taboo, this movie kinda destroys this "legacy" in the sense that adding his cross-dressing fantasies to the rest of his idiosyncrasies gives us a character who is very close to the overused stereotype of the hysterical queer with a negative IQ, and that's a shame.

On a good note, i was happy to discover finally where the joke about Sarah Jessica Parker looking like a horse comes from! Or is the movie itself referencing something even older? I don't think so... Otherwise, i chuckled here and there i admit, but half an hour in i was already checking the time every 5 min, so yeah, not really bad, but not great either. To each his own i suppose.

Now by all means, flame on :)

People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs

[–] Xenopharb (617) 4 years ago

I agree on many points. I did not enjoy this film. Landau was good, but that's about it.

Tim Burton often makes films that are half good and then fall off the rails. This film never got half good. I get what he was trying to do, but it did not work.

[–] Yourwrongopinion (0) 3 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

I totally connect with this film! But then, I grew up as an artsy, pretentious outsider sort of geek, who formed close friendships with other geeky outsider types. This movie gives me a "These are my people" sort of feeling, in addition to being hilarious and telling a strange true story accurately (it's very accurate for a biopic), and I totally get the humor and absurdity of it all, it's my favorite Tim Burton film and one of my favorite films of the 90s.

And I totally don't get officially "great" films like "The Godfather Trilogy", because I don't relate to the people on the screen or the film's philosophy. A proper film geek can appreciate a film they don't really connect to for technical brilliance and complexity, but face it, loving a film or not is subjective, personal, and emotional. So I'm not going to try to talk you into liking this film, just letting you know why someone else likes it.

[–] Jones70 (6195) 2 years ago

This is actually my favorite of his movies.