Big FishMovie Reviews

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 57 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
12 OK for kids 12+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 88
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    Director Tim Burton finally hooks the one that got away: a script that challenges and deepens his visionary talent. Read full review

  • 88
    USA Today | Mike Clark

    Has enough tasty bait to satisfy an array of moviegoers: Burton fans, Albert Finney fans, fans of tall tales well spun by experts and fans of movies that don't look like any other. Read full review

  • 75
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    The movie is a gently overstuffed cinematic piñata, crammed with tall tales -- with giants and circuses and fairy-tale woods, plus a huge squirmy catfish, all served up with a literal matter-of-fact fancy that is very pleasing. Read full review

  • 70
    Los Angeles Times | Manohla Dargis

    There's delight to be had from watching Burton conjure up one fantastical Edward-inspired scenario after another. Read full review

  • 63
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    Big Fish of course is a great-looking film, with a fantastical visual style that could be called Felliniesque if Burton had not by now earned the right to the adjective Burtonesque. Read full review

  • 50
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    The imaginatively illustrated but precariously precious film offers up a string of minor pleasures but never becomes more than moderately amusing or involving. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | Dana Stevens

    The most curious thing about this magical-realist fable...is how thin and soft it is, how unpersuasive and ultimately forgettable even its most strenuous inventions turn out to be. Read full review

  • 40
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    A misfire. The film that wants to be lighter than air instead crashes to earth with the swiftness of a concrete parachute. Read full review

  • 30
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    Big Fish stinks from the head. Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    A long-winded indulgence in tear-and-a-smile whimsy, elevated above the merely irritating and saccharine by compelling art direction. Read full review


Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 12+ Delightful, sad father-son story for teens and up.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this movie has brief nudity, mild language, and fantasy peril. Sensitive kids may be upset by the death of a parent.
  • Families can talk about some of their favorite stories -- factual and fictional. Who tells the best tall tales in the family?
The good stuff
  • rolemodels true2 Positive role models: Strong African-American and female characters.
What to watch for
  • violence false0 Violence: Fantasy peril, death of a character.
  • sex false3 Sex: Brief nudity.
  • language false0 Language: Mild language.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Drinking.

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