Ed Wood (Special Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Ed Wood (Special Edition)
Movie Review: overweening mediocrity, captured within a crystal
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is at times hilarious, sad, moving, and fascinating. You have a guy with vision, but without talent, who surrounds himself with adoring misfits while he wheedles his way into making some of the worst films in history. It is a unique ensemble, from his girlfriend Dorothy (later a successful pop songwriter) and a washed-up Bela Lugosi to Vampira and a cast of little-knowns who are nonetheless utterly captivating. Wood is in one of the ultimate shark towns, Hollywood, where he dreams of making it big.
The emotional center of the film is the friendship he builds with Lugosi, who is played to perfection by Martin Landau in perhaps the finest performance of his career. Lugosi is at the end: a morphine addict, his wife having left him, and no work. Wood approaches him as you would a god, enticing him into a strange film he is making about his transvestism. While they use eachother, the basis of their friendship appears real.
Of course, Wood himself is a weird mix of vaunting ambition and near-fatal incompetence. He is a mix of contradiction: a transvestite who loves women, with a knack for finding investors despite persistent failure, an inspired storyteller with nothing worthwhile to say. Only in Hollywood could such a person create a niche for himself and survive into the cult status he rightly occupies. The ride is truly great fun, yet pathetic and full of pathos. The acting in this in uniformly first rate.
Tim Burton is quite a presence in our house, mostly from the kids' side. This is the first film of his that I liked better than the kids, whose empathy for Wood often held back their laughs.
Movie Review: One of the funniest movies of the 90s
Summary: 5 Stars
"Ed Wood" is about Ed Wood, a film director who was very good at making bad movies. The film is directed by Tim Burton and Johnny Depp plays the title character and the movie is a biopic about a real person. After seeing this movie when I was a kid I was inspired to make home-made movies with a camcorder. It is not fair that everyone who makes it into show business has to be talented so occasionally their has to be an Ed Wood to break the ice. Ed Wood wasn't a mere mediocrity. He was a disaster.
In the movie Ed Wood is an aspiring film maker living during either the 1940s or 1950s, and he's got the spirit but not the talent. He makes a go at showbusiness thinking he'll be the next Orson Welles and boy is he wrong. He can win people over in an interview but when it comes to making movies, his movies aren't just bad, they're incompetent.
Johnny Depp's performance in this movie is awesome. He's really funny in the movie and acting in strange films seems to be his talent. Martin Landau is great as Bela Lugosi. He reveals what exactly was so funny about Bela Lugosi's performance in Glen and Glenda. Martin Landau won an academy award for his performance and rightly so. Bill Murray is also hilarious.
After seeing this movie I then saw several of Ed Wood's movies and watched a documentary on him called "Ed Wood: Look Back in Angora", so this is a movie that convinced me to watch other movies. The movie Ed Wood is better than any movie that Ed Wood made, and not only that, it is a magnificent movie.
Movie Review: No really this is good, honest
Summary: 5 Stars
Watching Ed Wood movies and watching Ed Wood there is an alarming thing - Ed Wood's life was better suited to a movie than he was as a director! And as he tried woefully to express this side of his personality to the public with the woeful Glen or Glenda ( " Did you see the movie? Uh huh. Worst movie you saw in your life? OK but how about.....hello hello! )Johnny Depp is hilarious as Ed and really plays the part extraordinarily well. You almost feel sorry for him as he gets rejected from everyone because he seems to have his intentions right no matter how skewed they end up being.
Of course Ed has a fetish for women's clothing which would make itself known in the film Glen or Glenda but Dolores wouldn't know about this until she read the script. Let's just say she doesn't take to it as well as Ed's rather naive script would like her to be! Although I have to admit that Sarah Jessica Parker is not exactly that easy to like in the movie
Martin Landau is the one who I think plays Bela Lugosi and I have to say that the resemblance is uncanny that you almost feel like singing the line from the Bauhaus song Bela Lugosi's Dead -" Oh Bela, Bela's not dead " indeed!
Bill Murray is fantastic in his role. As ever, he has the best lines in this movie. One of the best roles I've seen him in
I've seen this film - it must be about nearly 7 or 8 times and it's so funny that some of the lines in it are implanted in my head. One that has to be watched for those interested in seeing something a little unusual
Movie Review: A Modern Masterpiece!
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all, I will tell you that I was raised in Hollywood in the 1950s and our upstairs neighbor really was the "Great Criswell" depicted in this film.. so I should be more critical than anyone concerning this movie's authenticity, and it is a perfect depiction in my view. This masterpiece by film maker Tim Burton is not only a sensitive, funny and wonderous portrait of Ed Wood, Jr. and his pals, but also a loving tribute to the spirit of the last "Great Days of Old Hollywood". The performances by Johnny Depp and the supporting cast is perfection. Visually, this appropriately black and white film takes on the look of those low budget films Ed and many others were making at the time. Even the opening credits AND Howard Shore's INCREDIBLE music score feels accurate to the time and is a joy to hear.I was very honored when staying at the LeParc Hotel in West Hollywood in early March of this year and happened to be in the lobby when I spotted Martin Landau. I seized the opportunity to walk over and tell Mr. Landau how "fabulous" he was in his role as the late Bela Lugosi..... he smiled and kindly said "Thank you so very much!!"... and his performance IS INCREDIBLE... enough that he won the Oscar for his performance in this film. Landau's characterization of Lugosi alone will be worth the price of the DVD when Disney decides to release it (soon I hope!!).
This wonderful film HAS BEEN on my personal "TOP 10 Greatest Movies of All Time" list since I first saw it 10 years ago. A modern masterpiece!!
Movie Review: Actual DVD review of the pulled release...
Summary: 5 Stars
I got my hands on a copy, and since no review sites got their hands on it, I figured this was a good as place as any to air out my opinions on what's the deal with this release...First off,
The only perceptible thing about this DVD that says recall, is my copy has a messed up Scene Selections menu. When you arrive at the Scene selection screen, it comes up blank. Only after you select a highlight on the blank screen will something appear on it.
Presentation:
The DVD is a VERY clean transfer. Bit rate ranges from high 4's to high 7's. I know how freaky black levels get on DVD's, and this one does a bang up job with the material.
The audio is good too. It does stay kinda front heavy, only filling surround on score and on a few scenes where incedental SoundFX (like Bela's dogs barking...) This isn't the movie you whip out to impress the friends with your setup, but it is very balanced for the feature. Ed never got to do a 5.1 mix, so it's only fair... :)
I've only given a small glance at the extras, but all of them are fairly intriguing, with the Theramin one being a full on lesson on how to best play it. The directors commentary is full of informative facts regarding the production's following reality and how it strays from it for embellishment's sake. They stayed pretty true...
Overall, if the bad menu was the only REAL reason it was pulled, they've got some really lousy product testers...
Bad menu aside, I give it 4 out of 5 stars.