Big Fish

Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece!! Big Fish is a must see!
Review: This film is why we all go to the movie's...to see great art. Tim Burton has made a great film that got robbed at the Academy Awards. This is storytelling at its best!!

Rating:
Summary: don't listen to them!
Review: This movie was absolutely terrible. The plot was practiclly non-existent and what little plot there was, was a load of bs. At no point in the movie does his son make any attempt to separate fact from fiction, yet by the end he suddenly has a tremendous love for his father. There is nothing to be learned from this 2 hours ..., and i feel stupid for wasting (money) and 2 hours of my life on it. Don't buy Big Fish.

Rating:
Summary: A Definite Favorite
Review: I don't know where to begin but to say this is one of those films that you think about and affects you long after. It has a deepness that is often lacking in films. I thought the actors were magnificent, the subtlety in the performances made the film powerful. I loved the tall-tales! And while it is only apparent in a few scenes, the special effects are found enhancing every piece in the film in a very subtle way. Burton did a superb job on this film. It is a unique film, definitely a Burton film. The plot is great as well. It is quite a journey itself. It is really a story of a son coming to grips with the man who his father really was and found he was more than he ever imagined.

Rating:
Summary: 'Big Fish' is a great catch
Review: In the past, director Tim Burton has been known for his offbeat, sometimes dark, sometimes strange, but always visually impressive films such as Ed Wood, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Edward Scissorhands. His newest offering, Big Fish, is his most whimsical and personal work yet and definitely one of his best. Big Fish is the story of Edward Bloom, a man who loves his family but has never been completely honest with them about his life. Edward is now near the end of his life and his son, Will, finds this the perfect opportunity to discover the real story of his father's life. Edward, however, has other ideas.

To Will, and to everyone else in the Bloom family, Edward's life is a complete mystery. The stories he tells about his life involve witches, giants, werewolves and interruptions in the time/space continuum, among other things. Will is a reporter, so he has a tolerance for the facts and he is initially exasperated by his father's outlandish yarns.

Edward, in his elder version, is played by Albert Finney. Even though he spends almost the entire film bed-ridden, Finney fills the character with so much energy and passion, that he steals every scene he is in. Ewan McGregor portrays the younger Edward and his performance, though less powerful, is still of the same splendid caliber of Finney's. He makes Edward a funny, kind and unique personality and his Southern accent, even though McGregor was born in Scotland, is flawless. In fact, the worst Southern accent in a movie where the two lead actors are both British comes from an American actor, Danny DeVito, as a circus ringmaster with a strange secret.

The other performers in Big Fish are also above average. Alison Lohman and Jessica Lange, playing Edward's wife Sandra at different stages in her life, both are tender and beautiful. As Will, the skeptical son, Billy Crudup seems like he's playing a one-note part until the climax of the film, which is one of the most poignant and affecting scenes likely to be found in a movie this year.

Director Tim Burton and cinematographer Philippe Rousselot make the world of Edward's stories vivid and quirky, with splashy colors and striking imagery. His tall tales are richly illustrated and to the audience, the world is a wonderful thing to behold through the eyes of Edward Bloom.

Big Fish may be Tim Burton's masterpiece and it is certainly one of the best movies of 2003. It shows that a little magic is greatly needed in a world which has grown too cold and cynical. It is rare that a movie can be so imaginative and whimsical and yet is able to affect its audience in such a deeply personal way.

Rating:
Summary: This is why we go to the movies.....
Review: I will make this short. Best movie ive ever seen! Has the most original script, great cast, great performances by that cast, and to top it off it was all done by the master, Tim Burton!

Rating:
Summary: A Whimsical Tim Burton Film
Review: I thought Big Fish had alot of cute, whimsical scenes. But the scenes that really stood out for me were between the realistic Son, and the story-telling Father. The movie shows alot of depth as these two people try to understand eachother. I think this is a good film for families to see together because it balances itself between what is actually going on in the family, along with the history surrounding the past.

Rating:
Summary: Big Fish, a Story of a Storyteller (3.5 stars)
Review: Deliberately more understated than many Hollywood movies with such high ambitions, "Big Fish" offers a lot to cheer about, yet it still misses something. The film relates a story of Edward Bloom, an aged (and now dying) man, whose life, although rather ordinary, is enhanced by his wild imagination to a kaleidoscope of extraordinary, magic-tinged stories. Almost everyone is touched by those -- except for Ed's son Will (Billy Crudup), who nevertheless does not give up and sets out to learn something more about his dad before it may be too late.

The trademark Tim Burton's direction (after "Edward Scissorhands" and "Ed Wood" we now have Ed Bloom) once again weaves the real with the magic, but especially the magic does not work fully (despite great work by the star-studded cast). True, one might be inclined to say that Burton was avoiding the saccharine sweetness of many Hollywood melodramas on purpose.

Anyway, Ewan McGregor (young Ed) and especially Albert Finney (old Ed) feel like at home in their roles, Crudup ("Almost Famous") offers a low-key acting of a decent caliber, yet the show-stealing are two actresses: Jessica Lange as Ed's wife in later years and Helena Bonham Carter as a grown-up Jenny, years later following her first encounter with young Ed.

"Big Fish" is a fully-fledged tribute to storytelling. It had a potential to be an ultimate one, but, unfortunately some "magic" scenes did not cut it well enough and remained on the level of average imagination. The real was real enough (sometimes even more magical than the 'magic', i.e. a bathtub scene with Finney and Lange) and the film deserves over-all kudos, at least for being a family fun, which is rare these days; also for music and production design. But the potential went just a bit unfulfilled this time.

Rating:
Summary: Big Fish- The Ultimate Movie!
Review: Big Fish was overlooked in the theatre but now thats it's coming to DVD soon it just might pull in more customers. The DVD sounds great, all the special features sound nothing short of magical. In fact the movie is nothing short of magic itself. I'm sorry but I think LOTR's is overrated and this should've been the movie to be first in the box office.

Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: I've been a big Tim Burton fan for years, so when the combination of his imagination with the heavenly creature that is Ewan McGregor are combined - it's a match made in movie heaven.
The story revolves around a man who feels disconnected from his father and all of his "tall tales" of growing up. When his father falls ill, he returns home with his pregnant wife and tries to get to the truth of the matter when it comes to his father's life.
I loved how the story kept going back and forth between the present day and the past. Burton's imagination is one of the things I love about his films and he didn't cease to amaze me with this project. Plus, all of the interesting characters brought into the story made the movie even more enjoyable. (My particular favorite was Karl the Giant.)
Albert Finney and Ewan McGregor's performances were amazing. I'm surprised and a bit disappointed that this movie didn't get as much credit as it deserves. Another aspect I loved was the relationship between Bloom and his wife. That scene where he is in the tub in his pajamas and his wife joins him just about brought me to tears. You could still feel the love between the two characters.
Go see this movie. It may just be a movie about tall tales, but it you'll leave feeling better about life.

Rating:
Summary: Like Magic?
Review: Do you like magic? (The kind that can actually happen?) If so you'll like this movie. If Hollywood made more movies like this, the world would be a better place. This will be one I buy . . .