I can't really put a finger on it,Why I LOVE Ed Wood..But you know when you find "your favorite film"....It's help that I loved the Ed Wood films and LOVE Black@White films too!

I wouldn't dream of speaking for Garin, but I liked the quirkiness of the film. Being in black and white usually gives you certain expectations about a film. In a modern sense, it's usually done to convey a certain tone, usually somberness or seriousness in some way(i.e. "Schindler's List" or "Good Night, and Good Luck.").

But "Ed Wood" is certainly neither of those. It's quirky and offbeat and funny, and in that sense the black and white helps the movie to defy the usual expectations. And quirky it is, with Johnny Depp filming movies wearing a dress. Burton doesn't take the material seriously, which is to say he doesn't try to portray Ed Wood as some kind of hero or great figure who fights censorship laws or some other noble cause. He's a circus performer with a camera who was looking to make some money.

But neither does Burton make a clown of the guy either. The movie is an homage to Ed Wood and his brand of filmmaking, and the enjoyment he's brought to so many people. Watching "Ed Wood" is much like watching one of his films ("Plan 9 From Outer Space" is my sole Wood experience, though I suspect most of his other pictures are much the same way).

It's not really my favorite movie, but it's a very good one, and probably Burton's best film outside of "Beetlejuice," which I consider a timeless classic.

great points!

My favorite movie is "Rumble Fish," directed by Francis Ford Coppola. I would submit this movie as the one I've seen the most times, also.

"Rumble Fish," which came out in 1983, stars many amazing actors when they were just starting out: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane, Nicolas Cage, Lawrence Fishburne, plus cameos by Dennis Hopper and Tom Waits.

Matt Dillon plays Rusty James, a high school hoodlum who idolizes his older brother, known only as The Motorcyle Boy (Mickey Rourke). Rourke returns to his gin-soaked father and gangbanger brother to bring some zen wisdom into their miserable lives, but he gets caught up in all the dysfunction again.

Shot in black and white except for one key scene near the end of the movie, it is so visually rich, moody, dusty, sleazy, bluesy, boozey, stylish and symbolic. Stewart Copeland of the Police wrote the score which, with its percussive ticks and clangs, is like another character in the movie also.

I've never seen "Rumble Fish" in any other list of favorite movies, and that has surprised me. Feel like watching it again now.

Okay...mine, as I've mentioned before, is probably "Jaws," if I had to pick just one. I love it so much because it does everything well and it is entertaining on so many levels.

First of all, it's scary as hell, even if the shark looks fake much of the time, but the fact that the shark isn't seen (or is barely seen) until the end of the movie is genius, and relying on the actors to express their terror is perfect.

Also, the camera work...to this day, a water-level camera shot fills me with dread, and any time the camera follows any character, from Martin Brody to Nemo (the clown fish), into the water, I am looking for a shark.

The characters were all so memorable. I could watch a film with Brody and Quint and Hooper talking for two hours without knowing what they're even supposed to be doing, and Robert Shaw's riff on the USS Indianapolis is both touching and scary and reminds me of home every time I hear it.

Plus Scheider's work in that is a little underrated. I've mentioned it before in other posts, but there's a scene where he's sitting with his son at the dinner table with almost no dialog that to me completely represents the kind of father I long to be. In my mind Martin Brody is the quintessential American father, largely on the strength of that one scene. Lorraine Gary, who played Brody's wife in the film, said her reactions during that scene are genuine because she was so touched by the moment.

And the film is oddly funny as well, from the billboard vandals to Brody's reaction when Hooper tells him Amity "still has a shark problem" (he's filling wine glasses, and gets to his own last as Hooper says the line. Brody says nothing, his expression doesn't change, he just keeps pouring wine to the top of the glass).

And perhaps most important, it has a great legend attached to it, with it being what is widely considered the first summer blockbuster, and all the problems with production, going over budget and having its principal prop (the shark itself) not working for much of the shoot.

All of that makes it immeniently watchable and rewatchable, and it has some subtext to it, a lot of good acting, marvelous camerawork that changed the way movies were shot (one shot--that dizzying shot of Roy Scheider that seems to pull back and zoom in at the same time--is known among many as "the Jaws shot"), a good story, great suspense, etc etc.

See, the story of why a favorite movie is a favorite movie is just as important as what that favorite movie is. Did ya follow that? I've never seen Ed Wood OR Rumble Fish...now I want to. I've seen Jaws a hundred times (okay, I exaggerate!), but have a new appreciation for it..and want to see it again.

Thanks for your stories!