Rating: 
Summary: Movie Too Much Like Father Character To Be Trusted...
Review: Good but far from great.
Extremely quirky--you know, you're usual Burton stuff there.
And some very realistic dialogue between father and son.
But the moviemaker plays far too fast and loose with the truth with his audience, just like the father does to his son, and while this makes an excellent metaphor, the viewer goes away feeling unfulfilled and wishing he knew more of the real truth of events, just like the son did (not withstanding the closing deathbed epiphany scene).
Rating: 
Summary: Why didn't this movie get an Oscar nomination?!
Review: What an amazing movie! William Bloom (Billy Crudup) is a man who is coming to terms with the impending death of his father Ed (Albert Finney). Will has issues with his father because he is tired of listening to Ed's fabricated stories about his life. We are treated to many of those stories in a delightful series of flashbacks featuring Ewan McGregor as the young Edward Bloom. The retelling of these stories leads Will to do some investigating, and he is finally able to understand what kind of a man his father really is.The performances in this film are fabulous. Ewan McGregor is hysterical, and his resemblance to Finney is kind of eerie (as is Alison Lohman's resemblance to Jessica Lange). Helena Bonham Carter also delivers an outstanding performance in her dual role. Tim Burton does an amazing job creating the magical world of Edward's imagination: the visual effects are astonishing, and the whole film has Burton's creepy "edge" to it. "Big Fish" is an amazing movie that is comical as well as sentimental. I will never understand why it wasn't given an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.
Rating: 
Summary: tall tales wrapped around a father-son relationship film
Review: Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands) is the perfect director for this film about a dying father (Albert Finney) and his son (Billy Crudup), alienated by the father's habit of grabbing the limelight with his elaborate tall tales. The film is a bit confusing, with multiple actors playing characters as the timeline jumps back and forth, but the fantasy sequences show Burton at his best and the cast, including Ewan McGregor, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny DeVito, Jessica Lange and Steve Buscemi, is flawless. The film uses elaborate folk stories about circuses, giants and warfare to address the relationship between fathers and sons, and is thus a film that will be entertaining for children even as it touches men in a more personal way. The dvd extras are very good and include a commentary track by director Tim Burton; a trivia game about Burton's previous films; and many fine featurettes concerning several of the characters, Burton, myth, special effects, and the book on which the film is based.
Rating:
Summary: Enchanting in every way!
Review: Those reviewers who said this movie was boring or silly, couldn't possibly have an imagination! If you loved Edward Scissorhands, Arabian Nights, the Wizard of Oz.... then surely you will cherish this film. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but to judge it as a film with no merit is just plain small minded! I loved it and will add it to my collection of all time favorites. I strongly urge anyone who wants a movie that will entertain and carry them away from the ordinary world for just a few hours, to buy this DVD and watch it often. I know I plan to!
Rating:
Summary: Return Of Burton
Review: If you take The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen and crossed it with Forest Gump, then you'll get a good idea of what Big Fish is like. Tim Burton has always had a knack for taking bizarre subject matter and making a heartwarming movie out of it(like Edward Scissorhands). Burton has certainly redeemed himself here after that rotten Planet Of The Apes remake with Marky Mark(Feel the vibrations! Feel it, feel it!). It's a whimsical, bizarre, funny fantasy with just the right amount of sappiness thrown in. Some people might think the movie's just plain weird, but the human interest aspect of the story should overshadow the goofiness. Interestingly enough, the opposite is true; If you're too much of a man, the fantasy element is plentiful enough to make you forget about the touching father/son drama being played out. Pretty well balanced if you ask me. It doesn't look like other Burton films, most of this is in the daylight. That's small potatoes coz his humor and style do still shine through. I really hate to use this lame cliche, but this is a very good film for children and adults alike, though the adults are gonna get alot more out of it.
Rating: 
Summary: more nonsense
Review: who goes to the this guys movies and enjoys them !??? this patently freaky director keeps making creepy weird movies that are overwrought inscrutible boring tasteless concoctions that only a mother could love-- and i bet she doesnt like them either ! who cares about these weirdos who have little in common with humankind at all-- actors of fine stature are wasted and or humiliated by the sheer inanity of his scripts-- original well done special effects as usual abound--- but who cares !!!!! i couldnt even make it thru this one without dozing off- albert finney -- a brilliant actor -is wasted here and his face is all puffy& he looks like the hunchback of notre dame----casting another brilliant actor jessica lange as his wife---for some reason is not believable at all-- i guess his movies make money----but hes just too weird for his own good----the world is weird enough--- we need more from art these daze !!!!! big fish indeed !!!! big bull is more like it ! keeep yer fish tales to yerself dude !!!!! giving two hours or more of my life to yer decrepit imagination is a sacrilige !
Rating:
Summary: You MUST read this BEFORE you see the movie!!!
Review: .
At the end of the movie, the father turns into a big fish just before he dies! That's how it ends! I read the other reviews and I couldn't believe that anyone would actually write about how the movie ended! How awful to ruin this movie for someone who hasn't yet seen it. I therefore felt it my duty to describe the final details of the ending, just to clear things up entirely in case anyone out there who hadn't seen the film yet wasn't completely sure how the movie ended. He turns into a big fish. End of movie. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: It doesn't always make sense, and most of it never happened.
Review: Young William Bloom grows restless with his father Edward's tall tales of wild circus life, World War II heroics, and lost mystical hamlets rising up at the end of the lagoon. For 3 years, they don't speak. Then, returning home to Alabama from France, William tries mending his fragile relationship with his dying father, now stricken with cancer. Edward Bloom's stories of fame and fortune are hard to believe. "A giant man can't have an ordinary life!" he barks. Related in flashbacks, Edward tones back to life as a charming traveling salesman. One day he wandered out of a creepy Southern swamp and stumbled into a forgotten, magical town called Spectre, where the grass is green, and the girls are barefoot...15 years ago, Hollywood veteran Tim Burton began a famous career in a Batman cape. He floundered for years as a wierdo-movie director. Now, for the first time in "Big Fish", Burton measures human emotion with his penchant for the quirky and the macabre. Tim Burton has come of age. Disturbed by his own father's recent death, Burton focuses clearly on the traumatic loss of a parent. Here is gravity and restraint we have not seen before. "Big Fish" stars a marvelous Ewan McGregor as the youthful Edward Bloom. McGregor delivers another enchanting, facile performance. Co-stars include Albert Finney and Billy Crudup. Extending the Tim Burton movie legacy is Danny DeVito(from "Batman Returns") and several sword-glove props lifted directly from "Edward Scissorhands". AllMovieGuide lists uncredited cameo parts by Julianne Moore and Faye Dunaway(as a witch). Filmed entirely in Alabama and France, Columbia's "Big Fish" DVD is a rich, textured anamorphic transfer(1.85:1). Extras include trailers, previews, 9 featurettes, a trivia quiz, and Burton's own commentary. An Easter egg is hidden on the main menu page. "Big Fish" is a mature fantasy surrounded by death's cold-hearted earthly truths. And there's a sense of wonder here. As William Bloom says: "The best I can do is tell it to you the way he told me. It doesn't always make sense, and most of it never happened. But that's what kind of story it is..."
Rating:
Summary: The ending was ruined
Review: I enjoyed the movie very much right up until the contrived narrated ending. I was touched by the scene of the son himself finally reconciling with his dying father by helping his father create the father's 'final story'. That was very good and that idea ~could have been~ the 'closer'. The scene of all the people from the father's stories showing up at the funeral to prove they were indeed real was okay but left the film little place to go for an ending. Those people should have shown up visiting the father at the hospital BEFORE the father-son bed side death scene. They could have intereacted with the son and bolstered his enlightenment. After that, with the son telling the 'final story' as his father dies, the script could have broken directly into to a final fantasized ending scene that WAS the son telling his father's last story showing his resting place in the river as a big fish. I was expecting one final 'whopper' like that ... but was given a guppy instead.
Rating:
Summary: The one that got away.
Review: I knew upon first hearing that Tim Burton, director of "Edward Scissorhands" and "Ed Wood," had recently finished a new film called "Big Fish" that it was going to be a little left-of-center. His perspective is a little off-kilter, to be completely honest. Sometimes it's refreshing, like in "Edward Scissorhands," and other times the film looks great but it just doesn't achieve its goals, like "Sleepy Hollow." "Big Fish" falls into the latter category. There is some great visual imagery and a splendid score from Danny Elfman, who seems to do the music for every Tim Burton film. There are some selected songs from each era of the main character's life that lend a nostalgic flavor to the film. There are some good things here, but ultimately I was left feeling hollow, like I was never included in the fantasy or reality of the story. By the end of the film the script pushes hard for a high level of poignancy that I never felt. All the acting here is good, the art direction is stellar(as in all Tim Burton projects), the story is kept interesting with strange characters and places and events, but by the time the credits were rolling I was shrugging my shoulders. For some reason the film just didn't grab me and pull me in. I am a fan of Tim Burton, but I wouldn't rate this among his best efforts. It is certainly worth a look, however, for it seems that many who have seen this film were touched by it. Just don't be surprised if the "magic" of the story doesn't touch you.
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