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rbugden
Reviews
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Where's the fun?
Although this movie stays close to the book, it's much darker than the book or the original, despite the original including a scene with a chook getting its head chopped off.
Depp is a strange Wonka. He has no interest in children and only became a chocolatier as revenge to his father's abhorration of sweet things, because he was a dentist. Depp's Wonka is much darker than Wilder's portrayal, and it's one that probably caused nightmares.
The Oompa Loompas are played by one person who is CGI cloned a thousand times. He's not even cute! Having the same Oompa Loompa is repetitive and annoying- some variety would've been nice. The songs they sing take the lyrics directly from the book but aren't as catchy as the original's songs. I do like the different genres of music used though.
The children are just as annoying as you'd expect them to be. Freddie Highmore is wonderful as Charlie, although he doesn't come across as the centre of the movie as one might expect. The demise of each child is the highlight of each segment and really moves the film along nicely.
Where the film strays from the book are the parts that annoy me the most. Violet being overly competitive seems out of place, and the subplot with Wonka and his father is silly. It has no place in the film and delays the inevitable ending, which everyone already knows. Delaying it with an out-of-place subplot is completely pointless and unnecessary.
So why don't I like the movie? It's too dark. Wonka is a happy, loving, hyperactive character. Depp's Wonka meanders through his factory like a robot and the occasional amusing comment (when he's not having flashbacks to his demented childhood).
Give it a miss and see the original. Better still, read the book!
The Lake House (2006)
Can't be any more unrealistic
The Lake House starts out well enough- Alex (Keanu Reeves) moves in, finds a note from a "previous" tenant, Dr Kate (Sandra Bullock) and they start having a mail affair and eventually work out they are living 2 years apart. Cute premise.
The time thing is not actually that hard to understand. The timing falls apart at the end when Dr Kate finds out that Alex was the one who crossed the road. I was wondering if it suddenly turned to 2008 and I didn't notice.
There's nothing about the movie that makes me want to see it again. Whatever on screen chemistry they shared in Speed is gone in this movie. They've grown up, grown out, and they are long past Speed.
You might want to watch it when it gets to TV and only if it's a cold and rainy day, otherwise, I wouldn't bother.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Best Sequel Ever
Usually sequels try to capitalise on the success of the first movie, replaying the same storyline, the same jokes, the same characters. T2 takes the story from the original Terminator, brings it forward, adds new characters, and takes the level of storytelling and special effects to a new high.
T2 takes the storyline and continues it, but not just cashing in, it gives more details, a background, and a future.
John Connor is a pre-teen (although the age discrepancy is actually quite funny) but even at this tender young age, he is a criminal: he steals money, knows more about firearms than the average army guy, and could handle himself in any situation. Sarah Connor is now a tough woman, locked up in a mental hospital for actually believing that Terminators exist. It's a plausible scenario.
The action is high class, plausible and adds to the story. James Cameron was testing his budget and the imaginations of those at Stan Winston's and it paid off.
This has got to be the best sequel ever- even better than the original.
The Delinquents (1989)
Perfectly good book ruined
I love the book. It's full of passion, romance, tension... and the movie drags along taking two spunky stars with it. Kylie Minogue was already a major star in Australia, having starred in Neighbours and releasing her first single. The decision to cast her in The Delinquents was surely a marketing ploy. For me, it didn't pay off.
Kylie may have been great in Neighbours, but she was far too sweet and innocent to play the feisty Lola... and, she wasn't of Asian descent as Lola was. Charlie Schlatter was an excellent Brownie, but there was no chemistry between him and Kylie.
By and large, the movie was boring. It dragged on, it lacked the passion of the book, it focused heavily on Kylie and in general, was completely disappointing.