Very Brief Film Reviews: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
2005
Tim Burton (director), John August (screenplay), Roald Dahl (story)
Starring Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, David Kelly


I'm really not so hung up on the old film version with Gene Wilder, and I was looking forward to this new version. It was deeply disappointing.

Yes, a lot of the visuals were great, I certainly liked Charlie and Grandpa Joe (all of the Bucket family was good, actually), and I do like Johnny Depp as an actor in general. But this movie just really didn't work for me either, and it wasn't just the characterization of Deep Roy's computer-replicated Oompa Loompa overtly embodying and reinforcing the imperialistic colonialism/industrialization paradigm rather than drawing attention to or questioning it.

Although that was pretty fucking uncomfortable, too.

First of all, the backstory. Seriously, what the fuck? It was utterly unnecessary, it was forced, it made no sense within the context of the rest of the story, and it was untrue to the entire concept of who and what Willy Wonka is.

They then stretched that to the point of the grotesque with Depp's actual portrayal. He was just...childish. Regressive. A creepy Wonka, I don't mind. Effeminate, I certainly don't mind (and we all know Depp is super hawt in eyeliner). But a drugged-out eight-year-old with daddy issues? With gross flat teeth? Just couldn't hack it. It just ended up feeling like a vehicle for Depp to be Crazy and Weird and Look At Me I'm Just So Out There and Amazing Whoa Me.

Wonka is a trickster figure, on the side of chaos and joy and mischief and, ultimately, justice, with karmic punishment meted out to those who deserve it and fantastic rewards granted to those who win his favor. Like all tricksters, he is neither truly good nor truly malevolent, and his lack of empathy sets him apart from ordinary human characters.

Unlike the rest of us, he doesn't have a reason to be the way he is. He doesn't need one.


IMDB: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Very Brief Film Reviews: Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Pan's Labyrinth / El Laberinto del Fauno (The Labyrinth of the Faun)
2006
Guillermo del Toro (director, writer)
Starring Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi Lopez

This film deserves every glory it won: it is beautiful, it is wildly imaginative, it is captivating, and it is ruthlessly painful.

It is physically brutal, set during the Spanish Civil War, and emotionally brutal; it is frightening in many different ways, but it gives as much as it takes, and it is unrelentingly brilliant. It has a vocabulary, visual and thematic, that encompasses nearly every major work of children's fantasy of the last century, and not just books: Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Narnia, the Labyrinth (of course), the Neverending Story, a dozen others. The cinematography and special effects are hauntingly beautiful and well-woven.

But this is not a children's movie. This is a dark and powerful film, and you should absolutely see it but know that it is not a pretty story.

In Spanish with subtitles. Rated R with good reason.


IMDB Link: Pan's Labyrinth

Very Brief Film Reviews: House of Flying Daggers (2004)

House of Flying Daggers
2004
Zhang Yimou (director, writer), Feng Li, Wang Bin, Zhang Yimou (writers)
Starring Takeshi Kineshiro, Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi, Dandan Song

During the Tang dynasty, a rebel group arises against the government. The police engage in subterfuge in an attempt to find and take down the leaders, including a beautiful blind woman they believe to be an assassin, but their plots are complicated further by continual layers of betrayal, secret loyalty, and secrets.

Frankly, I didn't like House of Flying Daggers nearly as much as Hero - the story was less skillful and a little too complicated, the fighting was less interesting and varied, and the cinematography was less stunning. That said, all those things were still deeply enjoyable, it was still lovely and interesting and fun, and - as typical of Zhang's movies - things are never as simple as they purport to be. Basically, I enjoyed watching it once very much, but haven't bothered to rewatch it since. In Chinese with subtitles.


IMDB Link: House of Flying Daggers

Very Brief Film Reviews: Hero (2002)

Hero
2002
Zhang Yimou (director, writer), Feng Li, Wang Bin (writers)
Starring Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi

An ostensibly simple story of how a simple man defeats three would-be assassins of the first Emperor of China, which unfolds slowly and gracefully as the newly celebrated hero tells his story to the Emperor himself.

The extended combat scenes use the surreal fighting style with lots of wire-work first popularized in the West with Hidden Tiger, Crouching Dragon: very balletic, not terribly reliant on physics. The pace is slow - too slow for some - but I feel that as long as you let yourself be absorbed into it, it serves to draw you in, with long lingering strokes that draw out the tension, the secrets, the questions. Visually, the movie is breathtakingly beautiful. One of Zhang Yimou's greatest strengths as a cinematographer is his use of color and textures, in my opinion, and it is nowhere shown off as strongly as in this film.

Do be warned that if you cry easily at movies, bring a tissue. Or a box. In Chinese with subtitles.

Highly recommended.

IMDB Link: Hero

Very Brief Film Reviews: Spider-Man 1, 2, 3 (2002, 2004, 2007)

Spider-Man
Sam Raimi, director
2002

I love it! I really do. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is so nerdishly cute, and so sweet, and I like that he has his superpowers but is also very humanly vulnerable, physically and emotionally, in ways that superheroes weren't always portrayed before that (the recent run of Batman, Superman, Avengers, etc. movies have continued this trend, but Spider-Man was the first I'd seen). The friendship between MJ and Peter is sweet, with just the right edge of something more hovering on the edges, and I think Kirsten Dunst is an underappreciated actor.
I love that Spider-Man is a poor kid from a working-class family in a crappy suburb, that he has to work terrible jobs to get by, that he lives in a terrible little apartment and nobody takes him seriously, that he has to fight for everything he gets honestly. Comparing that with Ironman or Batman can be uncomfortable in what the latter two say about our social values, as much as I enjoy them.
It was also cool to see the movie again in 2005 after getting to know NYC a little better.



Spider-Man 2
Sam Raimi, director
2004

Middling rating. I did really enjoy watching the combined strain of being poor and exploited and miserable, and of being a superhero responsible for the welfare and safety of all these people, tear Peter down. (Call me a sadist, but you know you enjoyed it too.) It was real and believable that his emotional stamina would finally wear out. Being a hero is damn hard work if you do it right, and he didn't have all those support systems that, say, Batman does. Like a butler and regular meals and no day job or other career goals.
But I felt the overall story didn't hold together quite so tightly, and the whole wedding storyline was odd and felt forced in there. I liked Doc Ock but there was some very awkward dialogue and predictable plot that could have been avoided, I felt.
Generally, it was a decent movie, some scenes were very enjoyable, but I'm not exactly running out to buy it.


Spider-Man 3
Sam Raimi, director
2007

The third of the trilogy, on the other hand, was shallow, obnoxious, and way too chaotic. They had three more villains in there than they needed, and the plots were completely ramshackle and unsupported. Even with the power going to his head, Peter seemed totally out of character, and his decisions didn't really make sense. There was also NO chemistry left between Peter and MJ, leaving that whole dramatic plot completely flat.
It's a shame they wasted the Venom storyline in a poorly constructed movie, because I think that could have been a really fantastic topper to the trilogy. Yes, deal with his growing ego and sense of importance; yes, deal with temptation, and the corruption of power; yes, deal with revenge and anger and jealousy.
Couldn't they have just done it better?
Lousy movie. Don't freaking bother.


IMDB Link: Spider-Man

IMDB Link: Spider-Man 2

IMDB Link: Spider-Man 3

Very Brief Film Reviews: The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship

The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship
Based on the Russian folk tale, adapted by John Hambley
1990


The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship: An animated short based on a Russian folktale, made for the show Long Ago and Far Away. The Tsar decrees that whoever brings him a flying ship shall marry his daughter; a naive young woodcutter sets out to find his good-for-nothing brothers and stumbles upon ship and a haphazard collection of very strange shipmates.

Stop-action claymation, absolutely gorgeously done; the story is a terrific folktale, the characters are kind and memorable, and it's wonderfully funny to boot. It used to be very hard to find but well-worth the search; now I think you can buy the DVD on Amazon. Highly recommended.

 IMDB: Fool of the World

Very Brief Film Reviews: Labyrinth

Labyrinth
Jim Henson
1986




Labyrinth: Jim Henson's classic, and one of the great modern works of art of the fantastic. As with all of Henson's great works, the comedy and the cuteness and the slapstick are perfectly balanced with, and delicately undermined by, the grim and the gruesome and the truly terrifying, with the edge of the unearthly and very, very real that he and Brian Froud could tap into when they were at their height.

I first came to this movie as an adult (and wish I'd grown up with it as many did), but I love it deeply, and have watched it again and again over the years. I'm still not a fan of Jennifer Connelly's acting, sorry, but the puppetry of all forms is mind-blowing, and David Bowie really is terribly, hella sexy.

1986
IMDB: Labyrinth

Film review: X-Men III: The Last Stand

X-Men: The Last Stand
2006
Directed by Brett Ratner, written by Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn

Edited: A really, really, really long review in here. Warnings: Spoilerific and not at all complimentary.