Ed Wood Reviews

Worst Film I have ever seen

Don't waste your time. The worst film I have ever seen and switched it off near the end.

A biographical masterpiece

Without doubt this is a Tim Burton masterpiece. Johnny Depp is superb as Ed Wood, the B-Movie director and transvestite who struggles to make a name in movies due to the fact he's pretty hopeless at it. However for me the show is stolen completely by Martin Landau's role as Bella Legusi, golden star of Dracula and 20's-30's horror movies now a drug addicted has-been in his seventies. For me the story was as much about how fickle the movie business can be and how it can discard it's former stars into dereliction. I was deeply moved by Legusi's story in Ed Wood and how in his last days he used Wood's ridiculous, budget movies to eek out a living and to fund his morphine addiction. Woods is portrayed as a talentless yet ambitious and relentless writer who dreams of becoming the next Orson Wells. Making full use of his friendship with Legusi he cons businessmen and small-time movie producers to fund his films. Eventually he cons the Baptist church into funding his film 'Grave Robbers From Outer Space' eventually renamed 'Plan 9 from Outer Space' even going to the lengths of having himself and his crew baptised in the church. Using private footage of a by now deceased Legusi and a body double he fools the public into believing it is Legusi's last film and delivers for him his only real semi-success as a filmmaker. This is a superb biographical film and shows Depp's and Burton's undoubted talent in a new light and is both moving and hysterically funny. However for me Landau's Legusi left me feeling deeply moved and his portrayal of that aging, sad Hungarian fallen star will always

be the thing I remember this film for.

Edward D Wood Jr

This is a classic true life film. Johnny Depp shines as the title character, the worst director of all time, and Sarah Jessica Parker as his girlfriend. Another Tim Burton film that is really worth watching! Classic! Hilarious, heart breaking and though provoking.

Despite being a fan of Johnny Depp and 'arty' films, this one bored me senseless. Depp's character is totally unbelievable and the female actors are dire. The plot is incredibly slow and I found myself fast forwarding bits. This is definitely the worst movie made about the worst director in Hollywood!

UNBELIEVABLE, BUT TRUE!

I find it quite incredible that anyone would give this man money to make films, but they did! Excelently made, the scenes of the filming of Plan 9 were beautifully realised.

[Highly rated reviewer]

One of hollywoods finest directors working once more with his favourite lead, one of hollywoods finest actors. Probably my favourite of all their callaborations.

tim burton has done better

this is my worst tim burton film. that does not mean it's not good in relation to so many other films but next to his others i liked sleepy hollow, edward scissor hands, beetlejuice and even big fish much much more..this is stylish, quirky and funny but the narrative is clumsy and confusing and it actually drags on a bit. never thought i'd say that about a tim burton film but there you go.

Bravely unorthodox true-life comedy

Johnny Depp plays the eponymous director of the film once rated as the Worst Movie of all Time: ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space’.

This is a classic Depp role, and he successfully captures the naïve enthusiasm and ability to suspend disbelief that led the cross-dressing Edward D. Wood Jr to film scenes that even an eight year old child would normally reject as hopelessly unrealistic or bodged.

Wood himself became a somewhat tragic character, but this true-story film stops before his ultimate booze-fuelled decline. Instead, it focuses on Wood’s real-life partnership with the aged Bela Lugosi, the out-of-work former horror actor who added the ‘star’ quality to Wood’s films. Lugosi is superbly played by Martin Landau, and his last scene (addled by age and drugs but still magnificent) is genuinely moving.

This bravely unorthodox black and white film certainly isn’t mainstream comedy. But if you are the type who enjoys the many bizarre-but-true events and characters (some not out of place in Monty Python), this is one of the most quietly amusing and strangely uplifting films about eccentricity that you will ever see.

Don’t skip the end credits either, since the ‘whatever-happened-to-him/her’ story that they tell is itself a surreal delight.

naff

complete and total trash.yawn from 1st minute.would have give it minus stars if i could. the director should be ashamed.

More high-quality wierdery from Burton

Ed Wood was a man who believed in himself and his future in the movie industry, even though he hadn’t got a shred of talent for it.

Hollywood in the 1950s was seething with small production companies turning out cheap and cheerful B movies on to satisfy huge popular demand before the rise of TV. Wood seized the meagre opportunities that fell his way to create several of the worst movies ever made.

He wrote, produced, directed and acted in films on minute budgets borrowed from people met in bars or conned out of his landlord. He stopped at nothing to create his vision.

Ed Wood comes over as a sad but sympathetic character, lost in a delusion of his talent.

The film is shot and lit wonderfully well in black and white, and the cast is excellent.