Fun Flick about the king of campy classic C movies

Rating: 8/10 (1 April 2006)

How do you make a good movie about a guy who specialized in making bad movies or better yet why would you want to make a movie about Ed Wood? Well, Tim Burton wanted to and he ended up with an Oscar winning film shot in black and white. Based on the book Nightmare of Ectasy by Rudolf Grey it's the cult-like story of the odd and eccentric 1950's movie maker Ed Wood who's forgettable films became unforgettable for how bad and cheaply made they were and were rediscovered by later generations as campy cult classics. Director Burton assembled a fine cast here in Johnny Depp as Wood, Martin Landau in his Academy Award wi8nning role as Bella Lagosi, Sara Jessica Parker, Patrcia Arquette and Bill Murray. Landau in his Best Supporting Actor beat out some fine performances by Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction, Gary Sinese in Forrest Gump, Chazz Palnteri in Bullets over Broadway and Paul Scofield in Quiz Show. The film's other Oscar went for Best Makeup. Stefan Czapsky, who worked with Burton on Edward Sissorhands does a great job of cinematography here and Tom Duffield who also worked with Burton on Scissorhands and Beetlejuice is the Art Director for which he should have been nominated for an Oscar. Another veteran of Burton films Chris Lebezon who worked on Batman Returns is the film's editor. This film has some great humor and is a little slow with not that much of a compelling plot to work with but it is a fascinating watch. I've seen a couple of Ed Wood's movies myself and Buron really did his homework in recreating the world of Ed Wood and great casting too. I would give it an 8.0 out of 10.