Big Eyes (2014)

[baumer]

Discuss

[Blankments]

Very well done film, but Waltz is miscast. Besides him though, the script is nice (despite the unnecessary voiceover) and Adams gives another great performance. Burton still is a fantastic director. B+

[acab]

This is a weak moment in Burton's filmography. It lacks the energy and the drama to lift this interesting story. It's not boring and it's very well made, with a nice sense of humor at times but it just feels like it lacks passion and a clear view of what kind of movie it wants to be. Burton is usually a master of mixing comedy, drama, horror and romance but not this time unfortunately. The whole ending is anticlimatic and Waltz almost ruins the picture. He is out of control in a movie of his own. I loved Terence Stamp though.

[Leyla]

lmao Waltz def acts like he's in some other movie   was entertaining enough especially in the courtroom scene

Adams is 1 of my fav actresses so I may be biased b/c her character is more understated & consistent throughout the movie & it works

B 

 

I liked Dark Shadows more actually   

Edited January 24, 2015 by Lady of Lorien

[dashrendar44]

It's so boring and lacking any drive (it seems like Burton is asleep behind the camera on automatic pilot) that I had to turn it off after 30 minutes of this dull and disposable biopic.

 

From what I've endured, Waltz is so painfully bad while doing his schtick, he sticks out like a sore thumb painfully overdoing the comedy like he's starring in a (bad) Coen bros movie but failing harder because script and direction are stale and plain (Why does Walter Keane speaks like a german trying to emulate a french speaking english in an affected and phony manner 100% of the time? If that's supposed to hint that he's a con artist, it makes everyone around look like idiots being unable to see through his bullshit), his relationship with Adams is so rushed and totally unbelievable.

 

Edit: I must be a bit masochistic, I wanted to check out the courtroom ending. Yeah, I maintain my stance. Painfully on the nose (that dreadful Danny Huston's captain obvious voiceover all through the movie that hammers everything for us because we're too dumb to interpret what's on the screen, Waltz's clowning antics hammering the same caricatural one-note "I'm the genius artist!!!She's a crazy bitch!!!" without subtlety nor nuance. It lacks deep character studies as a compelling drama as we're dealing with caricatures more than fully fleshed human beings, it's not funny nor biting as a satiristic comedy, it got nothing to say about its subject, art in general, the art business, women artists pleas as feminist's movement rose in the 60/70's, that are merely platitudes at best when not totally oblivious or ignored. it's just some kind of fleeting by-the-numbers Lifetime TV movie that happens to have Burton at the helm)

 

C-.

Edited January 25, 2015 by dashrendar44

[JohnnyGossamer]

This was incredibly disappointing. I really thought the screenplay would be more interesting. And, Burton and just about everyone failed to bring anything interesting to this film. If Elfman scored it, it's one of his least compelling efforts of late too. I would usually write something more detailed. But, fuck it, might as well bring about as much fervor to this write up as everyone brought to this film. Sigh. Burton... You were once the man. Then, you lost a step. Now, I don't know if you'll get that back. Thinking Sweeney Todd was his directorial death twitch. Some great, great stuff in there.

Edited January 26, 2015 by JohnnyGossamer

[Jake Gittes]

Yeah it was so average it hurt. Waltz, for all of his overacting, might have actually been the only one in the film who actually did something unpredictable while everyone else seemed to be half-asleep. For what it's worth, I think he was good at playing Keane as a showman who grows more and more pathetic and insecure (in that sense, I thought the courtroom scene worked because Waltz didn't hold back at showing Keane at his absolute lowest), but didn't use any of the quieter moments to dig deeper into the character, so we end up with a shallow performance that occasionally hits the intended note. 

[dashrendar44]

This was incredibly disappointing. I really thought the screenplay would be more interesting. And, Burton and just about everyone failed to bring anything interesting to this film. If Elfman scored it, it's one of his least compelling efforts of late too. I would usually write something more detailed. But, fuck it, might as well bring about as much fervor to this write up as everyone brought to this film. Sigh. Burton... You were once the man. Then, you lost a step. Now, I don't know if you'll get that back. Thinking Sweeney Todd was his directorial death twitch. Some great, great stuff in there.

 

 

I hate Sweeney Todd from every pores of my skin. Burton's last twitch of his brilliant self was his (already) auto-parody Sleepy Hollow for me. Big Fish was like "I'm done with all that freakshow shit, it's the end, I'm washed up and dry. I'm all grown up so let's move on!". He's been parodying what has become his corporate brand on demand ever since with none of the brilliance and none of the genuine passion he once had. I mean remaking Frankenweenie? What a sad confession of self-defeating as an artist going backwards instead of forward...

[JohnnyGossamer]

I hate Sweeney Todd from every pores of my skin. Burton's last twitch of his brilliant self was his (already) auto-parody Sleepy Hollow for me. Big Fish was like "I'm done with all that freakshow shit, it's the end, I'm washed up and dry. I'm all grown up so let's move on!". He's been parodying what has become his corporate brand on demand ever since with none of the brilliance and none of the genuine passion he once had. I mean remaking Frankenweenie? What a sad confession of self-defeating as an artist going backwards instead of forward...

Sleepy Hollow is his last work of genuine Burtonesque awesomeness. Beautifully shot (Lubezki!), expertly designed, Elfman brings his A-game, Atwood gets the costumes right, the cast is a riot and the humor's so damn weirdly macabre. BUT, I still liked a lot of stuff in Sweeney. Pretty much all of the stuff with Depp and Bonham Carter. All of the rest though is kind of a shrug. And, that opening tracking shot through London is downright, jarringly awful.

Edited January 26, 2015 by JohnnyGossamer

[Jake Gittes]

Sweeney Todd is terrific whenever it doesn't have to deal with Anthony and/or Johanna.

Edited January 26, 2015 by Jake Gittes

[dashrendar44]

Sleepy Hollow is his last work genuine Burtonesque awesomeness. Beautifully shot (Lubezki!), expertly designed, Elfman brings his A-game, Atwood gets the costumes right, the cast is a riot and the humor's so damn weirdly macabre. BUT, I still liked a lot of stuff in Sweeney.

 

To each his own, I thought Sweeney Todd was excruciatingly mediocre, stilted auto-parody and forced grotesque (except for SBC's short appearance that didn't make me want to gouge my eyes and stab my ears). It didn't help that I found Sondheim's music to be cat screeching awful. JOHAAAAANNNA!

 

Imo, Sleepy Hollow works wonders in every which way Sweeney Todd falls flat on its face like a reverse negative, regarding your argument about SH's overall brilliance, I'd add the "theatricality" (most exteriors are actually big sound stages), the grand guignolesque Hammer movie vibe (that obvious Christopher Lee cameo), Johnny Depp's mannerisms to compose a character which weren't grating but felt fresh at the time, the gothic art direction and expressionist color scheme which wasn't gothic for the sake of being gothic.

Edited January 26, 2015 by dashrendar44

[JohnnyGossamer]

Sweeney Todd is terrific whenever it doesn't have to deal with Anthony and/or Johanna.

They are... Without doubt, the worst aspects of movie. Just, well, awful. I can't believe so much of casting is so right only to have those two grating lovebirds swooning around. Unfortunately, thematically, they're also part of the backbone of the film. The other kid, the youngin', he's great. And, the last scene with Depp tossing Carter in the furnace and then, just moments later, bleeding out into dead wife, is beautiful. The last great Burton frame. I don't think that he'll top that one for the rest of his career. Sure, he's had better, but that's the last still from one of his movies that really gave me a grisly smile.

[Jake Gittes]

I mean, the movie itself is so uninterested in Anthony and Johanna it doesn't even bother to give them a decent ending.