71
Metascore
19 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanA comedy of the ridiculous in which the ridiculous turns unexpectedly sublime.
- 100Chicago TribuneGene SiskelChicago TribuneGene SiskelOne of those rare films that communicates the exquisite joy of the moviemaking process. [7 October 1994, Friday, p.B]
- Making a movie about the life of Ed Wood certainly qualifies as an impossible dream, but Burton has pulled it off with wit, imagination and something amazingly close to grace.
- 80Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranTurns out to be a thoroughly entertaining if eccentric piece of business, wacky and amusing in a cheerfully preposterous way. [28 September 1994, Calendar, p.F-1]
- 78Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovThe strangest biographical film ever made is also one of the most charming, melancholy and quirkily humorous films of the year.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannSan Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannBurton has trouble sustaining the briskness of the first half. But the brilliance of many individual scenes, and the extraordinary performance by Landau, are more than enough to justify this goofy, tender ode to eccentricity. [7 October 1994, Daily Notebook, p.C1]
- 70The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinIf Ed Wood has a major failing, it's the lack of momentum. Wood's career had nowhere to go, and to some extent the film has the same problem.
- 70VarietyVarietyAlways engaging to watch and often dazzling in its imagination and technique, picture is also a bit distended, and lacking in weight at its center.
- 63ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliThe most interesting personality in Ed Wood is not the title character, but Bela Lugosi. So covered up with makeup that he's barely recognizable, Martin Landau gives a deeply-felt performance -- a eerie and stunning recreation of a man haunted by lost fame.
- 20TimeRichard CorlissTimeRichard CorlissThis Ed Wood is dead wood.