Rating: 
Summary: Big Fish is Tim Burton's best movie of his career!
Review: "Big Fish" is brilliant, it is Tim Burton's best movie of his career. Ewan McGregor plays Young Edward Bloom and Albert Finney (in his Golden-Globe nominated performance) plays his older version of Edward years later. Billy Crudup plays Edward's son, Will. The story is about a father who is dying of cancer and the son who doesn't believe the facts of his life because they seemed too impossible to have really happened. Edward retells his facts of his life to his son and his daughter-in-law, Josephine, played by Marion Cotillard. Through his retellings, he meets a lot of strange, but interesting people. Karl the Giant, played by Matthew McGrory, Jenny, The Witch, played both by Helena Bonham Carter, Burton's real-life girlfriend. There is Norther Winslow, played by Steve Buscemi, Amos Calloway, played by Burton regular, Danny DeVito. Ping and Jing, played by Ada Tai and Arlene Tai. Edward meets the love of her life and his wife, played in his retellings by Alison Lohman and played outside of his retellings by Jessica Lange. There is also the family doctor, Dr. Bennett, played by Robert Guillaume. The movie is brilliant, Tim Burton's best movie ever and his directing is brilliant without compromise. The screenplay by John August, which is based on the novel by Daniel Wallace, the screenwriter of Go, Titan A.E., Charlie's Angels and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. His next screenplay is again with Tim Burton for Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. The music by Danny Elfman is brilliant and the end credits song "Man Of The Hour" by Pearl Jam is brilliant without compromise. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Score and Best Original Song. The movie also got a Golden Globe Best Picture nomination for a Musical or Comedy. The cinematography by Philippe Rousselot is brilliant. The production and costume design by Dennis Gassner and Colleen Atwood is brilliant. The film editing by Chris Lebenzon and Joel Negron is excellent. The casting by Denise Chamian is superb. The visual effects by Sony Pictures Imageworks is brilliant. The performances by Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman, Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Buscemi, Danny DeVito and the rest of the cast are amazing, especially from McGregor, Finney, and Crudup. Casting them was a brilliant plan on Tim Burton's part. I loved this movie, because it was different than what Burton usually does. It is a brilliant achievement for Burton and it is a masterpiece. How it was made was intriguing because it seems that it was strange, but once I got used to the idea of the movie, it made me change my mind right away. It was a little bit like Burton's last masterpiece "Ed Wood". I enjoyed that movie but I enjoyed this movie better, because it proves that Burton is a gifted filmmaker who knows what he is doing and he knows how to do it. Go see this movie when you can get a chance because it is a brilliant movie that hit the top of my top 10 movies of 2003, and not because that, because of your opinion of the movie, which could change people's minds like it did with me. Take anybody you want to see this magical film that is different than it seems.
Rating: 
Summary: Big Fish
Review: I knew it would be a tear jerker when I heard " They stopped
the chemo today" Gosh this movie brought back memories of my pa
and me. We never talked either, until his last days.
Rating:
Summary: Go see it!
Review: Just went to see it today... well worth it! Very imaginative, different, creative.... the way a movie should be.
Rating:
Summary: Big Fish Big Compliment
Review: No more words needed: Excellent Film 10 out of 10
Rating: 
Summary: Big Fish?: Big Flop!
Review: This is one of history's worst movies. It ranks right up there with Pootie Tang. If the cinema where I saw this movie burned, at least I would have the solace of knowing that a print of this terrible movie was destroyed. I am a huge fan of movies with fantasy components(Brazil, Moulin Rouge, etc.)and therefore found it puzzling that I disliked this movie so virulently. The movie flip flops between the present and a story of the dying father to the fantastic stories that the father tells. The problem is the juxtaposition of fantasy and reality. The doses of reality prevent us from properly entering the world of fantasy; and the sometimes bizzare story scenes make us unable to find any true emotion for the dying father. This movie fails on all counts.
I strongly suggest that anyone considering seeing, buying, or even renting this movie reconsider.
I'm only giving this move a star because I have to.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely spectacular
Review: It is very seldom that trailer of the film tells the truth about it. I guess we can all accept the fact that they are designed to make people to want to go and see it. This was one of those occasions when trailer did not even do justice to the actual film. Big fish IS a modern day Wizard of OZ and more, IT IS A MASTERPIECE. This heartwarming and funny film brought to life by Tim Burtons inimitable imagination unravels a fabled relationship between a father and his son. SYNOPSIS: Edward Bloom (Oscar worthy performance by Albert Finney) has always been teller of tales about his unbelievable life as a young man (Ewan McGregor) when his lust for adventure led him from small town in Alabama, around the world and back again. Tales that range from the delightful to the delirious give life to giants, blizzards, a witch and so much more. With his larger-then-life stories, Bloom charms everyone except for his estranged son Will (wonderfully played by Billy Crudup) who believes that these stories have kept him from knowing his real father. When his mother Sandra (ever so talented and beautiful Jessica Lange) tries to reunite them, Will must come to terms with his father and learn how to separate facts from fiction. Beautifully executed film. It is visually stunning loaded with brilliant performances, amazing story told in an equally amazing way. And I guess one lesson I will always carry with is this: when telling a story you've got two choices - tell the facts of events or REALLY TELL A STORY. Go watch it. Anyone with an imagination will love it. I can not wait till this comes out on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: What a whopper -- good enough to eat!
Review: The tale got off to a crude beginning,then took off like wildfire as we drift from real to fantasy life in flashbacks as the old man tells his stories to his son and foreign daughter-in-law. We see a huge catfish in a pond way down in Alabama. We are told that some fish cannot get caught and that the biggest fish gets that way by not getting caught. Apparently, this old codger had lived an exciting life and recreating it in hypothetical stories to anyone who would listen, all the time elaborating in such detail that absolutely no one would believe him. I knew an old explorer once who told me that if you add just a little known fact to a story then no one knows for sure if you are telling the truth. If you present the facts with none of the flavor, life is boring. Guess this is called the 'spice of life.' When you go off on tangents, the stories get complicated, thus believable. The prodigal son played by Billy Crudup (so like my son Jeff) decides to follow up on some of the deeds he finds in his father's papers and discovers some of the actual people he had heard about as a child. Young Ed Bloom is a known actor but, by golly, he looks like a young David Keith. The poet laureate of Specter (the bank robber) named Winslow looks like an old David
Alford (surely you saw him in the remake of James Agee's A DEATH IN THE FAMILY). It was interesting to see the men's hair styles of the '70s revived. Actually, seeing some hair on males back then was rather nice. Not the awful facial type they have drifted off to now. And the fight over the Auburn University coed was something to see in that field of yellow daffodils. Since our hero would not lift a hand for his lady-fair, it was won by defeat. When she'd said she knew him only by reputation, he knew that only the fool would continue. He'd felt 'the fool' all his life for believing his dad's stories, built on lies, where he is a big man whose destiny is the same as the fish which got away. They are part of the same equation. The only funny scene in this delightful film was the bank robbery in which our hero is forced to take part. He had big ambition and had prospered enough on the vagaries of Texas oil money. He found Specter again and reconstructed the house at 3124 Brook Lane where a piano teacher lived (one of the storyteller's women), Jenny, the girl he'd left behind when he was 18 and she only eight. I predict stardom for young Haley Anna Nelson who played the enigmatic child who wanted to marry this older person. She later became a witch with a glass eye scaring the youngsters by being able to predict how anyone will die. The false Alabama dialects were grating at first, but some were authentic. They may sound dumb, but they are far from it. Music was by Elfman, but that "Everyday' sounded exactily like Buddy Holly; and I'm sure that was Elvis singing 'All Shook Up.' There was some nudity (not overplayed). I keep wondering what character Jonathan Castile played, and just who were those naked people. The one in the pond looked like a local t.v. ad for a UT production this past fall. The algae in the pond was worse than Krutch Park last summer. The Japanese entertainment of troops was strange. Who else but Tim Burton would come up with Siamese twins as entertainers. His signature was at the the mouth of the cave with the ravens cleaning the bones where we firstsee Karl, a giant deformed (I swear there was something wrong with his neck) mountain-man who plays a large role in the whole movie. He has to be at least 20 feet tall. I'm glad Burton likes cats. He starts out with a black one at the witch's house. In the hypothetical village of Specter, Jenny has a some kittens, the circus even has a beautiful Siamese cat as a performer (no doubt unwilling -- to have to fall so far), and the grown up Jenny has a calico cat in her arms at the homecoming in Specter where we see the whole cast of characters who watch him return to the fish. He had in fact been the Big Fish in a small pond, not out of his league at all, and the universe did revolve around him -- just as he had related it in his stories. We see the LANE movie house as the '50s version would have looked. We all face out mortality eventually and it is best to remember the good things we've endured throughout life's travail. I had thought at first I was seeing THE PERILS OF PAULINE (or Ed Bloom), but this fellow had a full adventure leaving his son out of it, so alienated the person who loved him the most. What an ending! You've got to see it to believe it. This is a winner.
Rating:
Summary: Tim Burton at his best
Review: I love Tim Burton, his a genius. This movie has to be one of his best to date. Tim Burton is one of m favorite directors, and this is definantly one of the best movies I've ever seen and tht he ever did. This movie is a definant must see. It's definantly one of the best movies you'll ever see.'Till next time. Later.
Rating: 
Summary: Too 'fantastic' to be fantastic.
Review: Tim Burton's BIG FISH is essentially two hours spent hearing the stories of Edward Bloom, the sort of guy who, in real life, would be considered obnoxious and unbearable but, in a movie, is regarded as a quaint treasure. Bloom's tales of giants, circus freaks, werewolves, enchanted fish, enchanted towns and one-eyed witches in the mountains of Alabama are clearly fiction, though not really good fiction. In the film, his son is annoyed - looking to hear a bit of truth from his dad before Bloom drops dead. All he finds out, unfortunately, is that his dad didn't stretch the truth all that much ... and, apparently, that the truth wasn't really important anyway. Yeah, in a movie, it's supposed to be all uplifting. But I refuse to see Billy Crudup's character in a negative light just because he's the only one refusing his father's painful whimsy. If you were sitting next to Edward Bloom for a long period of time, too, you'd want him to stop talking nonsense, too. BIG FISH, which all Tim Burton fans will rush out to see, is his most grounded-in-reality film, I suppose. It's got a clever group of actors who make the most of the material that they're given. The main problem with the film, I guess, is that Burton himself is far more interested in the colorful world of Bloom's stories. Burton's never been very good at a connected, driven narrative, anyway. It's always been more style than substance. Because of that, Burton all but ignores making the "real life" bits as good as the stylized "stories." And the two elements never really come together. Never is there a moment where we feel the character McGregor is playing becomes the character Finney is playing, and the film needs that. It's pretty to look at, but it's a letdown.
Rating:
Summary: What a great film!
Review: Wow! What a great film! I hate to say this about a film that I have just seen but I feel I must be honest here: Big Fish was one of the best movies I've ever seen. The story, acting, romance, humor and visuals are all excellent. Tim Burton has made a truly beautiful film that is warm, intelligent and amusing. Ewan McGregor has really created a wonderful and entertaining character that is really truly endearing to the audience. You really care about what he is doing and what he is going through when he experiences all of his adventures. Tim Burton is able to truly create a film for the whole family that isn't sappy or cheesy. He has also created a movie that is very deep and thought-provoking.
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