I made it out to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tonight, and absolutely loved it. I give it an enthusiastic A.
It is just absolutely demented and delightful from the very first frame. The script is wonderfully twisted and slightly disturbing at times. (Whoever would have expected talk of cannibalism in a children's movie?) I snickered the very first time someone opened the slanted funhouse door of Charlie's family's house, and it only got better from there. And Johnny Depp is brilliant, once again displaying the masterful character creation that got him an Oscar nomination for what should have been simple "summer blockbuster fluff," Pirates of the Caribbean.
Inevitably, you'll ask me to compare this to the Gene Wilder version, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. And here's where I have to confess -- I've never seen it. Well, not entirely. Seems like they're running the thing on cable all the time. I've caught 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there -- enough to know some of the big moments coming in this version (blowing up like a blueberry, the glass elevator, etc.). But I don't have any "fond childhood memory" of the old incarnation to be comparing this new one to. Which perhaps lends credence to the theory I've now heard from more than one person: that people who saw the original as kids are remaining partial to that version.
In any case, CatCF has become the first movie this year to crack its way onto my top 100 movie list. (I'm withholding Serenity from the list until I see the finished cut.) It was a close call, sneaking in at #98, but it still made it.
Sorry, Death and the Maiden, you've now been ousted from the list. Lookout Fellowship of the Ring, you're next to go.
6 comments:
It would be cool if you kept a constantly updated list of your top 100 online somewhere.
I'm planning to get around to that at some point here. I figure in the meantime, I'll talk the list up and build advance "buzz." :-)
Glad you liked it! Depp was his usual amazing. I've seen both films, and I like them both.
Oh yeah, and much appreciate the Duck Soup headline. :)
Just post it on the blog (the 100) and then link to it in your menu of links. I did that with mine mostly because I was annoyed that I couldn't find it easier.
This was like that time that you said you've never seen the Shawshank Redemption.
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