The first time I saw this I enjoyed it in the same way that I enjoy watching, say, Plan 9 From Outer Space-style tat- I enjoyed laughing at it rather than with it. This was my second viewing and I didn't enjoy it half as much and by the end I was bored to tears. I'm by no means a Tim Burton fan because of his 'distinctive style' which is a polite euphemism for lack of variety, but he has made some films I've really enjoyed. With this, though, he shows no objectivity whatsoever- more or less everyone is mugging for the cameras as if their lives depended upon it. Perhaps that's the joke- the relatively huge number of continuity errors I spotted would suggest so- but if so, it wasn't quite clever enough to pull it off.
Burton's regular lead Johnny Depp is as irritating as fuck in this, all hyperactive head-shaking and Porky Pig speech patterns, I usually like his hammy style but in this (as in last year's bloody dreadful Sweeney Todd) he was proper tat. In addition Bill Murray- by 1994 almost completely morphed into the 'Buster Keaton without the stunts' that he is today- is miles away from his best form. Add to that a script that gets repetitive and fails to intrigue at all and you're looking at a proper flop. A shame because the film could have been really good with just a little more care and attention.
What saves the film is the career-best performance of Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi. He is worth the admission price alone and for that I'm thinking 4/10.
