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foxmonkeyBought Serenity today. Haven't watched it yet!
Oh my squee! Watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory yesterday and absolutely loved it. I hate musicals with the passion of a thousand burning suns, so I was pleased that there were only four songs in this movie - and that I liked them all! Of all Danny Elfman's scoring work for Burton, I'd say this was my favorite. It was visually amazing, as all of Tim Burton's movies are, and the casting was wonderful.
Johnny Depp was brilliant, and I was pleased that he didn't look quite as bizarre as indicated in the trailers (as someone else noted at the IMDB site). I'm not convinced that the make-up and goofy voice were essential to the character. While watching I did a compare and contrast in my head. Everything exactly the same except without the goofy voice and without the makeup - uh, and without the pageboy bob, though that was amusing. With everything the same except wild brown curly Depp hair underneath the hat and no makeup on his gorgeous face, the darker elements of the story would have been just a tad darker, methinks, with an everyday-looking guy delivering those lines. Well, as everyday-looking as Depp could look, that is. Anyhoo,
I love that Wonka didn't call the kids by their names - because they didn't matter to him. "Little girl," "little boy." He was beautifully snarky, and the kids were pretty spot-on, too. Why did Mike TeeVee remind me of Billy Joe? Am I on crack? I loved Violet Beauregard - and really liked the way she and Veruca eyed each other like models at a sample sale. I liked that the young characters were toned down from the original. They weren't so much broad parodies of flawed kids as just...kids who happened to have flaws.
I usually have major issues with the pacing of Tim Burton's movies, but didn't get that so much with this film, thankfully. There were a couple of spots where I wondered why the hell people were just standing around not doing anything but again, that didn't happen often, so yay. I have a problem with movies ending too many times, and it seemed for a second that Burton was going to derail the thing right at the end. Luckily, tying up the loose ends in Wonka's past didn't make me want to hurl things at the screen - and even though I think they could have tightened that up just the teeniest bit, I was still left loving the hell out of the film.
I can't believe I'm going to say this, given the amount of love I have for the 1970's version, but I do believe this one has just nudged it into second place. !!! Yes, I liked it that much.
Watched Hellboy this afternoon. Oyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, that's about three thousand hours of my life I'll never get back. BORING! Not sure where the movie went wrong, but not a whole lot in the movie clicked for me. I loved John Hurt (and the kitties!), and that was about it. The young FBI agent was forgettable (see? I've forgetten his face already) and Jeffery Tambor's characters *always* drive me nuts, even though he redeemed himself in the end. Yikes, Ron Perlman's acting was pretty snoozeworthy. Hmmmm, maybe that's the biggest part of what killed it for me. I can forgive a lot when at least the actors/characters are interesting, but...bleh. Boring (and bored-sounding), shticky delivery and oddly enough, not a lot of screen presence for a muscular, 6'5", blood-red horned dude. Your mileage may vary, of course.
Oh my squee! Watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory yesterday and absolutely loved it. I hate musicals with the passion of a thousand burning suns, so I was pleased that there were only four songs in this movie - and that I liked them all! Of all Danny Elfman's scoring work for Burton, I'd say this was my favorite. It was visually amazing, as all of Tim Burton's movies are, and the casting was wonderful.
Johnny Depp was brilliant, and I was pleased that he didn't look quite as bizarre as indicated in the trailers (as someone else noted at the IMDB site). I'm not convinced that the make-up and goofy voice were essential to the character. While watching I did a compare and contrast in my head. Everything exactly the same except without the goofy voice and without the makeup - uh, and without the pageboy bob, though that was amusing. With everything the same except wild brown curly Depp hair underneath the hat and no makeup on his gorgeous face, the darker elements of the story would have been just a tad darker, methinks, with an everyday-looking guy delivering those lines. Well, as everyday-looking as Depp could look, that is. Anyhoo,
I love that Wonka didn't call the kids by their names - because they didn't matter to him. "Little girl," "little boy." He was beautifully snarky, and the kids were pretty spot-on, too. Why did Mike TeeVee remind me of Billy Joe? Am I on crack? I loved Violet Beauregard - and really liked the way she and Veruca eyed each other like models at a sample sale. I liked that the young characters were toned down from the original. They weren't so much broad parodies of flawed kids as just...kids who happened to have flaws.
I usually have major issues with the pacing of Tim Burton's movies, but didn't get that so much with this film, thankfully. There were a couple of spots where I wondered why the hell people were just standing around not doing anything but again, that didn't happen often, so yay. I have a problem with movies ending too many times, and it seemed for a second that Burton was going to derail the thing right at the end. Luckily, tying up the loose ends in Wonka's past didn't make me want to hurl things at the screen - and even though I think they could have tightened that up just the teeniest bit, I was still left loving the hell out of the film.
I can't believe I'm going to say this, given the amount of love I have for the 1970's version, but I do believe this one has just nudged it into second place. !!! Yes, I liked it that much.
Watched Hellboy this afternoon. Oyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, that's about three thousand hours of my life I'll never get back. BORING! Not sure where the movie went wrong, but not a whole lot in the movie clicked for me. I loved John Hurt (and the kitties!), and that was about it. The young FBI agent was forgettable (see? I've forgetten his face already) and Jeffery Tambor's characters *always* drive me nuts, even though he redeemed himself in the end. Yikes, Ron Perlman's acting was pretty snoozeworthy. Hmmmm, maybe that's the biggest part of what killed it for me. I can forgive a lot when at least the actors/characters are interesting, but...bleh. Boring (and bored-sounding), shticky delivery and oddly enough, not a lot of screen presence for a muscular, 6'5", blood-red horned dude. Your mileage may vary, of course.
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Date: 2005-12-21 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-21 04:04 am (UTC)I would heartily recommend it. I loved the first version and didn't expect to enjoy this one quite as much. Absolutely hilarious in spots - Johnny Depp completely killed it.