Alice in Wonderland
Is anyone buying what Tim Burton is selling anymore?
Starring Johnny Depp, check. Co-starring Helena Bonham-Carter, check. Music by Danny Elfman, check.
Tim Burton? Do something else for a change, or give it a rest.
And why did they make Johnny Depp up to look like Elijah Wood?
I'm not really that interested. I love Johnny Depp, but Tim Burton rarely gives him the opportunity to act anymore. Now it's enough to just be weird and creepy for the sake of being weird and creepy. Edward, for example, was weird and creepy but there was a deep element of pathos and love that Johnny Depp brought with nothing more than his eyes. I only enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a little and didn't like Sweeney Todd at all, so I doubt I'll see this one. Or maybe I will when it's on HBO.
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Because Johnny Depp's "brilliant" performances are always just ripping somebody else off. When he isn't actually playing a historical figure, he finds somebody to copy. For example:
Captain Jack Sparrow = Keith Richards + Pepe LePew
Willy Wonka = Michael Jackson with candy
Hell, he openly admitted the first one. I'm not sure if he ever said he was doing a Michael Jackson impersonation as Willy Wonka, but it was obvious enough.
I'm really, really Depped out at this point. I will probably end up seeing this movie eventually, but from the previews it looks like a Depp extravaganza.
I was surprised how good a job he did on Sweeney Todd but this just does not appeal. Everything about Tim Burton just seems exhausting to me.
Plus, honestly, and maybe this should go in the Controversial Opinions thread, but I don't particularly find Johnny Depp all that exciting.
I actually don't agree with this. I think that Depp can be a fine actor but that Burton allows him to be lazy as fuck. I really can't blame his performance in CatCF on Burton. A great actor will always give a great performance, regardless of the movie. One that sometimes needs to be prodded (or I think in this case, reigned it) might give a shitty performance in inept hands.Originally posted by pepperlandgirl
Well, all I know is that I adore Depp in films like Dead Man (oh my god, why don't more people know of this movie and love it? IT'S SO BRILLIANT!) and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. So maybe that means he needs a director the caliber of Jarmusch or Gilliam to be a really good actor? I also really liked him in Once Upon a Time in Mexico but that was purely for the camp factor ("Are you a Mexican or a Mex-i-can't?" probably shouldn't make me laugh but it does). I eagerly await his return to indie films but I guess Tim Burton is Heterosexual Life Partner or something.
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Those are some fantastic Depp roles, I agree. Anything involving Disney or Burton, on the other hand, makes me get an eye twitch.
Ha ha, me too.
I've never seen any of those movies but "Mex-i-can't" is making me laugh already.
Not on my list of movies I want to see, that's for sure. I like Depp okay, I actually liked him as Jack Sparrow. But I have never succeeded in reading Alice in Wonderland, have never seen the Disney movie, am seriously creeped out by Alice and unless I'm kidnapped and tied to a chair with my eyes taped open I probably won't watch this movie.
Everything about Alice, etc., is creepy freaky to me. And then add in Lewis Carrol . . .
Sophmoric Existentialist
But you have to admit, that hat on the Mad Hatter is kind of awesome.
The hat itself is great. It's interesting and implies character background while still being fairly subtle.
The hat on top of the fright wig and eyebrows, the make-up, the contacts and no doubt what will be a completely unhinged performance by Depp? So over-the-top as to be boring. Next, please.
Last edited by Myrnalene; 19 Feb 2010 at 01:11 PM.
Yeah, I can't argue with that. It's just too, too much.
Also, congrats on your 2000th post! WOO!
Unhinged is a good word. Johnny Depp is slowly morphing into an artfaggier version of Jim Carrey.
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."
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Ouch, OneCentStamp. That is a scarily accurate description.
I generally love Alice in Wonderland related stories (I even enjoyed the recent SyFy miniseries), but this looks
a) boring as hell (Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp in a wacky, Tim Burton movie? SHOCKING.)
and
b) UGLY AS HELL. Every single poster or commercial I've seen for this thing makes me involuntarily shudder and go "ew".
Sweeney Todd is the greatest movie of this century. It is as wonderful and engaging as Star Trek was horrible and boring. This post makes me love you 0.00014566% less.
That said, if Burton has turned Alice in Wonderland into a fantasy epic for control of the aforementioned fantasy world, he and all his kith must die.
"Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon." (Chesterton)
I just wanted Sweeney Todd to be over. It was like going to the dentist, but less fun.
Sweeney Todd is the greatest movie of this century. It is as wonderful and engaging as Star Trek was horrible and boring. This post makes me love you 0.00014566% less.
That said, if Burton has turned Alice in Wonderland into a fantasy epic for control of the aforementioned fantasy world, he and all his kith must die.
I'm still swimming in harmony. I'm still dreaming of flight. I'm still lost in the waves night after night...
Do you have an idea or an article you would like to see on the Electric Elephant? Email me at theelectricelephant(at)gmail.com!
I liked Sweeney Todd and Star Trek so what do I know?
The Charlie and the Chocolate Movie was a nightmare though.
As to Tim Burton his last movie that I loved was Big Fish. I thought that was a great movie.
BTW: Johnny Depp was great in Don Juan DeMarco opposite Brando in probably his final good role. I've loved Johnny Depp in many other movies, including the first Pirate movie. (the other two I sat through for the sake of my kids, they were not good.)
Me too, I loved that movie. I should rent it again.
It was, because it did not follow the Tim Burton formula. It did not star his normal go-to cast (except for the ubiquitous Helena Bonham-Carter) had a more gentle fantasy element and a real, adult storyline. It wasn't LOOK HOW WACKY AND CHILDLIKE I CAN MAKE THIS FILM.
I feel like I should watch more of Tim Burton's movies because I share in you guys' dislike for him but I haven't seen enough to justify it. It seems so wrong to hate from a place of ignorance.
As my wife says, the problem is that when Tim Burton and Johnny Depp get together, no one is willing to tell them: No.
"And I hope I don't get born again, 'cuz one time was enough!" -- Mark Sandman
Local paper review actually liked Depp as the Mad Hatter for being less over-the-top and frenetic than they expected. And also said Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen?/Queen of Hearts?/Lady in Red?/Hester Prynne? was scene-stealing. Doesn't really make me want to see the movie any more.
Not only is there a thread, but I posted in it!!! Well, there you are.
I did not much like the movie, which I saw last night in 3-D. My grandson wanted to see it for his 13th birthday, so we did. We had to line up for nearly an hour. A kid dressed like The Mad Hatter prowled about. I was not enthusiastic.
I guess it would have been more impressive if I hadn't seen Avatar first. When I saw Avatar, I totally believed that Pandora was a real place. Not for one second did I think that Wonderland (Underland) was a real place.
And the beginning, which was set in Victorian/Edwardian England, was so ridiculously WRONG that it set my teeth on edge. Is Tim Burton an American? That would be the only possible excuse for the idiocy of the garden party. All aristocrats are evil, stupid, bad-mannered, and dumb, as movie English people like the valet in Titanic would demonstrate and as the posh people in these scenes are. Everything about this is wrong, stupid, and off-putting, and it would have made no difference to the movie if it had been done with some view to historical accuracy, it might have made a better movie. Not that important, I guess, but jeezus it cheezed me off.
The girl that plays Alice is good. Johnny Depp was fine, except he would lapse into this sort of over-the-top Scottish accent now and again. But he wasn't being Jack Sparrow, maybe a little Edward Scissorhands.
The Cheshire Cat was good. The Caterpillar was good. There was a cool dog.
Sophmoric Existentialist
We saw it yesterday, 3D.
I like Tim Burton. I heart Johnny Depp. I didn't like this. It felt like Disney and American McGee's Alice were in a wrestling match, and not in a good way. And it wasn't that fun to look at, which is usually half the point of a Tim Burton film.
The Caterpillar was indeed cool, but he was voiced by Alan Rickman, so of course he was cool.
Last edited by artifex; 07 Mar 2010 at 11:17 AM.
This and what Myrna said. I don't find this appealing--I don't find Burton's "vision" of any of his worlds appealing-Scissorhands was great, but since then (for me)...meh. I have no desire to see Alice as a grown woman (nor did Lewis Carroll--rimshot!) or see her slay the Jabberwock etc. It's not that I need Alice Disneyfied--I just don't need any embellishment to the book. The New Yorker had a tepid to negative review of it and (for once) I agree (the review said essentially what I said, so of course I agree.).
Wait--I'm confused. Alice(both Wonderland and Looking Glass) take place in Victorian England--not the wonderland bit, but the beginning when she's with her sister, dozing by the hedge. It's been years since I read Alice or Looking Glass and I have no desire to reread them (they weren't awful, but they're not something I want to read just to read). So I don't get what your pissed about: was there inaccurate detail as to Victorian England or was it the stereotyped Upper Crust Bigot/Snob thing? Or both?
Just looking at that pic of Johnny Depp turns me off to the film. It's all too much--why overplay something that is already so bizarre? Wonderland is fantastical and surreal--it doesn't need any pimping.
I don't think I'd know Johnny Depp if I fell over him - With very few exceptions all male actors look alike.
Mrs Depp, on the other hand, is brilliant and seriously cute
I just saw it and from word of mouth I did not expect a lot.
Both kids liked it and an overcrowded movie theater on a Sunday afternoon was pretty quiet which means the movie did its job for the kids. There was also a lot of clapping at the end.
Now for me, I actually enjoyed it. I liked the Dormouse, I liked the Rabbit and the way it moved, I liked the Cheshire Cat, I liked Alice despite myself though her dressed as Joan of Arc was a little odd, I loved the Caterpillar and I even liked the Mad Hatter.
I was not impressed by either Queen and I do not dislike Helena Bonham Carter
and I like Anne Hathaway.
Crispin Glover was Eh.
The movie needed more Alan Rickman in my opinion.
The FX were fine.
Grabbed from CNN:
The 3-D spectacle starring Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter earned an estimated $116.3 million, the highest grossing weekend ever for a spring release. Not only that, but IMAX -- which pulled "Avatar" from all its screens in exchange for "Alice" -- was rewarded handsomely with its highest weekend gross ever, $11.9 million in only 188 theaters. (IMAX's 9 additional theaters plus "Alice's" shorter run time gave the company the added boost over its "Avatar" numbers.)
This is exactly what he did.
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."
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Hold the phone, do people clap for movies in New Jersey?
I have never been in a cinema where people clapped at the end.
everything in nature is sort of gross when you look at it too closely. what is an apple? basically the uterus of a tree - terrifel
It is not common and I was surprised by it, but it does happen sometimes. I think more with kid's movies.
I haven't heard any applause at a movie since I moved to Wisconsin, but it wasn't entirely unheard of back in Nevada. I recall Mulan getting a lot of applause and that wasn't just from me.
Lion King and Incredibles both come to mind for me, but I know there were others.
It was indeed the stereotyped Upper Crust Bigot/Snob thing and they even got that wrong. It doesn't make any difference, just a personal loathing of mine own - like women outdoors without hats on, etc. Little details, but important to a nitpicker like me.
Had the movie been better I could have overlooked it all.
Sophmoric Existentialist
I didn't see the Incredibles in a theatre, but I do remember applause at the Lion King. I think you're right that it's mostly kids' movies.
We saw The Sting when it first came out. At the end of the movie, there was lots of applause, and whistling and people saying, "Yea!!!"
I've been at a number of non-kids' movies where the audience clapped. Maybe it's a regional thing?
Sophmoric Existentialist
For me, it's only in the past decade that I haven't heard clapping in the movie theater. I miss it. It is still there after some films: Harry Potter, MommaMia, Star Trek and Avatar that I can recall.
I like it, but I grew up going to live theater.
I won't bother seeing Alice in the theater or on DVD. I'm not a fan of Burton--in fact, he creeps me out.
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