Tuesday Movie Reviews

Alice In Wonderland
Starring: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover
Directed by Tim Burton

I'm sure someone, sometime, when I was young, read Alice In Wonderland to me. I don't remember it though. My only knowledge of what transpires in the story comes from a Jefferson Airplane song and a Tom Petty video. So when people tell me that this is a re-telling of the story, making it creatively different than the original, my only thought is "THANK GOD"!! I would hate to have thought of all the young children that would have to grow up with this version of Alice. Boooorrrrring!!!! First of all, why is the Mad Hatter speaking in a Scottish accent?? Why is the little door-mouse so incredibly violent?? Why does the story become a bad version of The Lord Of The Rings?? I was so confused and bored by the entire movie. The only two things I enjoyed, which saved me from turning the film off early, were the performances of Mia Wasikowska as Alice and Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen. What??? You didn't think Johnny Depp was great?? NO!!!! He took Edward Scissorhands, Willy Wonka and Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice, mashed them together and came up with one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen. He even looked bored doing it! Mia, on the other hand, was totally engaging and believable (except for the crazy "battle" scene at the end). I really liked her and will have to find other movies she was in. Helena Bonham Carter was the real star of the show and I wished she was in the movie much more than she was. You could tell she was having a great time hamming it up as the Red Queen. Even though the character is one dimensional, she definitely did the most she could do with it, and then some. Kids may like the bright colours and inventive sets, but all in all, for the most part, this movie sucked!

GRADE: D-

Now a movie that was released on video about a month ago that I just watched this weekend...it's called...

Peacock
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Susan Sarandon, Josh Lucas, Bill Pullman, Keith Carradine
Directed by Michael Lander

I had no idea what this movie was about when I took it home, but people at the store were saying it was really interesting. I have to say, I really liked it. We start with a woman bringing in her laundry from outside, very quickly, and her motions make the viewer think she's agorophobic. She prepares some breakfast, a bagged lunch, and watches the kids across the street get on the school bus, all behind tightly drawn curtains. She goes upstairs, takes off her dress, and lo and behold, she's a dude! OK, I saw that coming. What I didn't see coming was the complete schizophrenia that Cillian Murphy's character experiences. The female, Emma, has no idea what the male, John, is doing and vice versa. This all comes to a head when a train derails near the house and Emma is "discovered" by the startled neighbours. This gives Emma the opening she's been looking for, to take over John for the body the both inhabit. I may be making this sound more confusing than it is, but I have to tell you that Murphy is absolutely brilliant! Every move he makes, as John or Emma, is totally believable, as if we're watching a real person suffer from this illness. Ellen Page and Susan Sarandon are pretty much painting by numbers, but the movie is definitely worth seeing for Murphy alone, who appears in just about every scene. I also found myself getting caught up in the story as well. Try it, you might like it...I did.

GRADE: B+