Review Time!!
Reviews on the:
1. Thriller: Shutter Island. Visually beautiful, with a little bit of darkness and uneasiness thrown into the mix. It wasn't hard to figure out the end. If you're the kind of person that really picks up on foreshadowing, then you're likely to figure out the ending as well.
However, that won't change the quality of the film. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was intriguingly dark and well put together, the way a good book is bound together. I'm still wondering why Leo doesn't have an Oscar by now.
My Rating: ★★★½
1. Classic: Alice in Wonderland. It would have been easy to mess up this classic, and some people might tell you that Tim Burton did mess it up. I would have to disagree.
I thought it was compelling and playful with the right amount of Tim Burton-strangeness sprinkled into the mix. It's his signature, after all. While I think he did a disservice trying to remake Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I think he has redeemed himself with Alice.
The movie is a little slow-moving at times, which doesn't bug me, but it may bug some people. Like Shutter Island, it reminds me of a book, and reads like a book. Each scene is a turn of a page--there is no instant gratification there, but the whole effect is outstanding. And that's how you have to take both movies, as a whole.
Rating for Alice: ★★★
I loved Shutter Island. I'm a total wuss when it comes to movies and I thought it was going to be a total scare and jump fest, but it was PERFECTLY creepy without scaring me to death. I did kind of see it coming, but not the whole way - very good movie!! I'm seeing Alice next week, can't wait!
ReplyDeleteI know I'm completely fickle regarding books and movies, but I have to disagree with you on Tim Burton. I completely loved what he did for Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (Esp. the new interp. of Willy Wonka), and I am fan of the classic film.
ReplyDeleteI watched Alice in Wonderland with my nieces, who loved it (which is all that really matters to me, anyways; they had a good time), but I couldn't stand it. It lost it's motivation after the first third of the movie. It appeared as if they used Lewis Carroll's story to allow Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter to run the acting engine on this one. Mind you, they were good (even Johnny's switch from a British lisp to a Scottish brogue during talks of war with the Queen), but I just think they threw it away.
This is similar to how I feel about Terry Gilliam's piece of crap Doctor Parnassus's Imaginarium (without Heath leading it, it changed the entire story). I am a huge fan of both Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton, but in these two works. I am very much interested in seeing Scorsese's Shutter Island, though. I hope to see it soon.