Rating: 
Summary: Two Fish Way, WAY down!!!
Review: If there's a form of torture worse than watching this movie, I can't imagine what it is.
Rating: 
Summary: Delightful, Deep, and Sensitive
Review: Tim Burton is a master of movies that blur genre lines. Burton's Batman and Batman Returns were action-adventure-superhero movies with a twist of black humor provided by Nicholson's Joker and DeVito's Penguin, respectively. Beetlejuice and Sleepy Hollow were horror-comedies, and Mars Attacks was kitsch-scifi-comedy. I could go on, but will get to the point. Big Fish contains elements of tragedy, comedy, adventure, fantasy, and drama, and mixes them up into a delightful and sensitive tall tale unlike any of Burton's other works.The casting is immaculate: Ewan McGregor makes a great younger version of Albert Finney, and Allison Lohman is a dead ringer for a young Jessica Lange. Other members of this stellar cast include Danny DeVito, Steve Buscemi, Billy Crudup, Helena Bonham Carter, and Robert Guillaume. Although the story is a bit uneven at times, spending a few moments too long in the fantastical reconstructions of Finney's youth, the stories are so worthwhile and entertaining that the viewer is willing to overlook this shortcoming. The movie also runs a bit long at just over two hours, but the final scenes tie the movie together neatly and give the viewer a sense of completeness and satisfaction with the outcome. The primary theme of the film is the stories that we tell and how they affect other people's lives, a topic in which I have long had a casual interest. A secondary, but nonetheless important theme is one of a son reconciling with, coming to grips with, and ultimately accepting his father for who he is, not who the son wants his father to be. This theme alone makes the film worthwhile, and causes the viewer to reflect on his or her own parental relationship. Viewed with a less critical eye, the movie is still very entertaining and the sort of wildly imaginative story to which only Burton could do justice. Probably the best film I've seen since The Passion of the Christ.
Rating: 
Summary: Big Fish alright.....
Review: It's a BIG fish alright! One that left me quite saddened in the beginning due to the fact that I Truly wanted to love this film being a big Burton fan but it wasn't what I expected and wasn't completely sold at first but as the film went on I started to really enjoy it. I was expecting a good fantasy like the wizard of oz or the princess bride and the film is very unique and delivers on that level. The film is good at keeping you guessing. The ending defines the whole film also. The characters weren't as vivid as most of Burton's films. No he didnt write this story but he breathed life into it as the director. The film has some great cinematography and directing. Hated the nude shot of Devito's naked butt however.....(cringes). The story is quite sad which sets it apart from Wizard of Oz and Princess Bride etc. I felt bad for the son who is a lost soul due to his father's lack of realism. Alot of it is very "Burtonesque" and some of it not, it is a very different outing from Burton, but quite refreshing! It's nice to see him venture out into something "different". I understand that change effects everyone and that artists can't grow without trying "new" things so this can be chalked up to the "experimental" side of Burton as most artists have quite a few experiments building masterpieces.
Rating: 
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: This film has lots of memorable scenes and moments, visually and imaginatively---the problem is that they don't really mesh to form a cohesive whole. Tim Burton's technical prowess is unquestionable, but his storytelling leaves something to be desired. Ewan McGregor (how the Scotsman pulled off the Alabama accent is amazing) and the talented cast do a great job, it's just that the story kind of fizzles out towards the last 30 minutes. All spectacle and no real center, no real soul.
Rating:
Summary: Big Storytelling Hooks Me
Review: This movie was one I expected to hate. Okay, maybe I just expected to be bored and disappointed for my ten dollars. What I didn't expect was that it would capture me from the very improbable beginning, and keep me hooked throughout the entire film. The writing is superb; it flows seamlessly from one scene to the next, and each scene builds on the one before it. There are many tall tales to be had in this movie, yet you will find yourself believing in the unbelievable. There are tender and touching scenes, laugh-out-loud scenes, and "where is my kleenex when I need it" scenes, yet all are woven together in a masterfully told tale of truth. This movie is definitely a keeper, and I intend to own it, so that I can watch it again and again. The acting was excellent, the directing was beyond measure, yet I still believe it was the STORY of the Big Fish that made this such a terrifically enjoyable movie. I give it a resounding A+++
Rating:
Summary: Kind of a let-down
Review: "Big Fish" wants to be so much bigger and better than it is. Indeed, the audience wants it to be too - what movie afficionado didn't go into "Big Fish" secretly hoping for Tim Burton to redeem his recently terrible judgment? And yet at the end, I at least was left unsatisfied. Oddly, the comparison that leaps to mind is "Road to Perdition," Alan Ball's well-intentioned and beautifully crafted movie that suffers from too much telling and not enough story. Both "Big Fish" and "Perdition" are stories about fathers and sons trying to come to grips with one another and their relationship as death slowly creeps up. Both revolve around sons who don't really know their fathers, and fathers who don't know their sons. And both end up feeling hollow and empty at the end. Make no mistake - "Perdition" was well-acted (with a cast that includes Tom Hanks, Jude Law, Paul Newman and talented newcomer Tyler Hoechlin, it would be hard NOT to be), and so is "Fish" (Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Danny Devito, and Helena Bonham-Carter all turn in fine performances, though McGregor's is the only role with any real substance). And both "Perdition" and "Fish" boast beautifully crafted visuals ("Perdition" owing to the legendary Conrad Hall, "Fish" presumably to the mind of Burton himself and the team he works with). For all their emptiness, both movies are candy to the eyes. The story is where they fall flat. "Fish" seems like a movie that was poorly edited. The story aims to focus on Billy Crudup and Albert Finney's relationship as son and father respectively, trying to overcome years of estrangement before Finney succumbs to cancer. Crudup tries to sort the mythical stories his father has always told from the man himself, to find footing for his own memories of his dad. Good premise. But Burton drops the ball. Their relationship is never really fleshed out - I don't think they spend more than ten minutes on screen together. As Crudup's character points out himself at one point, he is a footnote in his dad's story, which (for all its perhaps poetic discourse on the son's life itself) only leaves us with little or no sympathy for the character at the end. The "voyage" in the movie is nothing more than a rehashing of his father's flashback-style tales, which Crudup complains bitterly about having heard thousands of times before - yet this time he somehow finds meaning in them? Perhaps part of the problem is Crudup's flat performance, but it seems that the movie would have been better served by a few more scenes between father and son. Make no mistake, there are scenes of breathtaking beauty in this film. The moment when Ewan McGregor spies his future wife is magnificent. Finney's voice, aged and sickly, drapes over the scene, dipping from world-weary and misty recollection to sudden and poignant tenderness, his obvious adoration for the woman untouched by his long years of life and current painful suffering. Another comes when Finney and Lange share a fully-clothed moment in a tub together, one of the few moments of truly raw emotion in the movie. The ending feels forced and contrived - the movie plummets rather than eases into a climax that is less of an easing out than a frenzied victory march pushed to a run. It seems like Burton suddenly realized the movie was coming up on two hours and decided to pull the plug. For once, I think an extra half hour of celluloid would have better served the movie as a whole. Burton's talents as a filmmaker are undeniable - and considering his other works, which dive heavily into fantasy, this first attempt at a new style is admirably deft and well-crafted (though certainly it contains fantastical elements). I leave it to the viewer to decide ultimately whether that admiration of filmmaking stylistics is enough to call this a success.
Rating:
Summary: Great film! (But why the comparison to "Wizard of Oz"?)
Review: .
I think this is a wonderful film. I bought the DVD yesterday, and I don't understand the reference to "Wizard of Oz" on the package. This film is nothing whatsoever like "Wizard of Oz" in any way or fashion. What is this supposed to mean? I really don't like the film "Wizard of Oz". I think the message it sends at the end (of never leaving your own back yard; just staying put for your entire life and never seeking to fulfill your dreams or your destiny) is a terrible message to send to anyone. This film has a very different message indeed. It is a story about a man who makes his dreams come true, whether in reality, or through his own embellished tales of his version of reality. It's a film about a great storyteller who has many great storys to tell. I strongly recommend this film for everyone. It's a beautiful film. As for "Wizard of Oz" fans, go chase a rainbow, because this film is nothing like Oz.
Rating:
Summary: Burton at His Best
Review: Starring Ewan McGregor, and Albert Finney in an offbeat story about an estranged son who returns home to visit his dying father, and learns more about him by piecing together the stories he has gathered over the years. In a typical Tim Burton offbeat and colorful way, McGregor (playing his father as a younger man in flashback) helps the son (played by Billy Crudup) by re-creating his father's elusive life in a series of legends and myths inspired by the few facts he knows, the result of which is often funny but also beautifully poignant. Burton's quirky signature is ever prevalent here, in this often lavish and wonderfully ridiculous story which raises a few smiles, and leaves the viewer with a warm (if confused) feeling at times.
The main thrust of the script is how the initial "Fish Stories" relayed by the aging man to his son ultimately come to teach him the real truth about the life of the man he has regrettably not known, and the end result is a very entertaining movie for the whole family, or singular audience.
Rating:
Summary: Tim goes sentimental...
Review: I'm not quite sure how diehard Tim Burton fans will take to this movie. For one thing, it is Tim stab at making a sentimental movie. Now, so far, Tim's stock-and-trade has been irony. That his not to say that his films are not life-affirming - paradoxically, Beetlejuice is tremendously life-affirming. However, this movie aims for the heart and does it without any trace of cynicism. The salvation of the movie comes from the imagination of the stories Bloom tells and Burton's visual sensibility. This is Burton's best movie in years. (Planet of the Apes was AWFUL.) As we watch the always-engaging Ewan McGregor get into one unbelievable adventure after another, we can't help but be amused. This is not a movie with a beginning or an end - just a whole lot of middle. Once again, it's not quite Edward Scissorhands, but it deserves much more attention than it got when it was originally in theaters.
Rating:
Summary: hmm.
Review: can't stop loving tim burton's brain. this film was never boring, told an excellent story, and the ending was fantastic.
see it -- either you'll love it forever and ever or... you won't. but it's worth seeing, i think. absolutely superb.
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