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I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (1998)

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Average Rating: 3.7/10
Reviews Counted: 11
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 8

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 3

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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 181

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Movie Info

Aris Iliopulos directed this campy comedy utilizing schlock filmmaker Ed Wood's last unproduced screenplay. Stock footage and old hygiene films are intercut with this near-silent story following a cross-dresser (Billy Zane), who escapes from the Casa de la Loco Sanitarium, manages to acquire some money, and then loses it at a funeral attended by eccentric mourners. He then seeks them out, killing them one by one. Some script instructions appear as titles. Bud Cort makes an uncredited appearance,

Unrated, 1 hr. 29 min.

Comedy

Directed By: Aris Iliopulos

In Theaters: Sep 13, 1998 Wide

Cast

Billy Zane
The Thief
Sandra Bernhard
Sandy Sands
Ron Perlman
Cemetary Caretaker
Tippi Hedren
Maylinda
Andrew McCarthy
Cop
Will Patton
Preacher
Carel Struycken
Undertaker
Max Perlich
Ass't Undertaker
John Ritter
Robert Forrest
Eartha Kitt
Cult Leader
Ann Magnuson
Loan Secretary
Vampira
Vampira
Christina Ricci
Teenage Hooker
Kathy Wood

Critic Reviews for I Woke Up Early the Day I Died

All Critics (13) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (3) | Rotten (8)

Wood's bargain-basement aesthetic is impossible to parody. That this mime show works better than it should is, in a sense, the ultimate dis.

April 3, 2001 Full Review Source: Village Voice

| Comment

J. Hoberman

Village Voice

Top Critic

It's sad and misguided and boring. Pretending to make a pathetically amateurish movie isn't nearly as effective as accidentally making one because you don't know any better.

April 3, 2001 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Anita Gates

New York Times

Top Critic

I can recommend three more enjoyable alternatives: counting the number of hairs on the back of your forearm, practicing breaking a cinder block in half with your bare hand, or submitting to a colonoscopy.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: ReelViews

| Comment

James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Top Critic

The budgets of [Wood's] own efforts would have been splurged within the first minute of DIED's title credits

November 14, 2007 Full Review | Comment

Shane Burridge

rec.arts.movies.reviews

As funny as a funeral.

December 4, 2003 Full Review Source: Film Threat

| Comment

Phil Hall

Film Threat

Nothing could be more lethal to a Wood script than actors who not only think they're hipper than what they're trying to do, but who also make sure that the audience knows it.

April 3, 2001 Full Review Source: Film Journal International

| Comment

Cole Gagne

Film Journal International

Like all of the films Ed Wood directed, this new movie is a pure and simple dud.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: DustinPutman.com

| Comment

Dustin Putman

DustinPutman.com

hough the film is distinctive, its unique style wore thin after about 20 minutes, and as it progressed, watching became a chore.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Film Blather

| Comment

Eugene Novikov

Film Blather

Not funny enough to deserve a good rating.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews

| Comment

Mark R. Leeper

rec.arts.movies.reviews

What redeems the whole enterprise is the affection that paradoxically comes through from its director, who obviously has tender memories of Mr. Wood.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Compuserve

| Comment

Harvey S. Karten

Compuserve

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Audience Reviews for I Woke Up Early the Day I Died

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I've never seen a filmmaker so proud of himself for making crap as when I saw this at TIFF. The wonderful thing about Ed Wood was he was genuinely trying to make a good film whenever he made a turkey, and it really showed and made his films really endearing, almost sweet. This turkey is made by a bunch of people who

January 31, 2008

Christopher Brown

Super Reviewer

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