Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Review

Well I just saw the film, and to be I didn't think it was all that good. Well it was good, it was enjoyable but it just didn't sit right. I see what Burton was trying to do with the story, however I would of much prefer if it was kept to the original that everyone knows and loves. That said the only other versions i have seen of Alice is the Disney and Svankmajer animations, and the 70s "adult musical".

Comparing it to the Disney animation is probably unfair, but I just feel that it was done more correctly. The characters were introduced one by one, they didn't really know or have concern for each other, they didn't know Alice and they didn't really want to. Whilst here they've been long awaiting her return. In fact they aren't even sure she is the right Alice. The story in fact reminds me a lot of the hapless Return To Oz, where Dorothy returns to a war torn Oz to find her old friends are now prisoners and she sets out to save them. Even in the opening scene when a young Alice tells her father of a strange dream she had had I was thinking how appropriate a nice round of electrotherapy be. When it came to final scene, it looked more like Joan of Arc in some sort of Lord of the Rings rip off. And that's what the visual style was more akin to, one of these modern made, cgi dragon fest fantasy films, when really it should something more humble and childlike with that Grimm-esque fairytale undertone. The Svankmajer version especially would be liken with European fairy tales.


There was a scene I recall from the Disney animation, where Alice starts to sob and her surroundings suddenly starts to become silent and grow dark and eerily lonesome. The characters around her were genuinely more oddball and alienating, making her desire to go home ever increase. In the Burton film the characters seemed more down to earth and in fact only the Hatter and the Hare truely seemed to be suffering from madness. There's a great sense of community, everything seems to in fact be the opposite from the story I know. Even Alice is a much more independently spirited person who sets out to defy the social norms (which goes back to that Joan of Arc comparison) and really her desire to go home isn't really that great.

As for the film itself the performances and accompanying cgi weren't that that bad, I participating found the Red Queen and her castle of frogs to be excellent, whilst Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat to be pure perfection. Johnny Depp wasn't as bad as i was expecting and his makeup turned out to be not as distracting as I originally thought it would be. However he does stick around too long and i feel the story may of been changed purely to give him more screen time and a higher billing (even though this script had in fact been around for several years). As I said before characters originally came and went, whilst here they are around for the long run. Depps charcter really should of ended once he was capturing by the Red Queens knights. Mia Wasikowska, the actual star of the films gives an okay performance.

One thing I found annoying was the continuous use of one liners and catch phrases that seem to be repeated throughout (Alice shouting out 'Off with head', when battling the Jabberwocky), made the script seem completely cornball.

This was the first film I've ever seen at the cinema in 3D, a lot of people have been saying you're perhaps better off seeing this in 2D and I think I'd have to agree. For thing it's £1.50 more and you don't even get to keep the glasses. Seriously though for my first experience with 3D, I thought it was impressive, it gave a great depth to the film. The few moments that the film did try to take advantage of the technique; flying swords and thrown teacups coming in my direction I in fact just found absolutely annoying and didn't add to the film in a positive manner. The that the shot is sudden;t set up like that for that purpose is enough to put a viewer out of the flow. It makes me wonder what the actually purpose of it really is, is film meant to suddenly become some sort of ride like experience. The film in fact was never even shot as a 3d film with the proper cameras and all the effects were added afterwards in post production.

Overall not how I envision 'Alice', it's a story that many people have always said that Burton should make into a film and how he has. Being a consider myself a huge Tim Burton fan (though more of his earlier works I'd admit) I would of most likely have never bothered watching this film if his name wasn't connected.

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Apologies for any mistakes above, this was written in one shot without any checking.

Sheffield Doc/Fest Part 2

A brief summary of the films I saw, even though that was now a few weeks ago.

Dokkoi - a very rare showing, apparently that was the UK premiere. Introduction by the films producer and part of a season of films on Ogawa Productions. Very early screening at 9.15, too early for some as half-most on the people who came left during the film, very disrespectful to any film. I loved it even though i was very tired (had been up since 6am). The film is set around a poor farming town where jobs are limited due to the poor economy at the time (late 70s), it opens with a funeral and death features prominently throughout the film. People apparently came up to the film crew and asked them to take pictures of them so that would have something in case of their own funeral. It wasn't uncommon for the crew to be interviewing someone who only a few days later they would find out who just died. Powerful indeed, there's no DVD release on this or any on major distribution on any Ogawa's work. I may never see this again.

SWTH - a local short film that seems to be bordering on acted drama. Quite good, i enjoyed it.

Japan - Nicely (but no intentionally) follows n the subject of Japanese economy, this shows modern day poverty in a successful Japan. A BBC/NHK co-production that will be on TV in the new year and an extended version will be shown in Japan. McAllister was there to answer questions afterwards as was the star Naoki who got a huge round of applause. I loved this documentary and there were alot of heart warming and funny moments. I recommend this to all when it shows next year.

No Manifesto - Rough cut, still has a bit to go. Bit difficult to work out what this film is about watching it. It's stuck between a retrospective of the bands career, darting back to various events and themes at several moments and a look at the band current working process as they are seen working on the album Send Away the Tigers (probably too much footage is shown on them working on Imperial Bodybags) Another great film, but then I enjoyed the whole day. Lots of fantastic interviews and footage. Can't wait till its finished.

Ratatouille (2007)

A rat with a keen sense of taste and smell finds himself in Paris where he helps a restaurant garage boy become an expect chef.

Of all the animation mediums CG is one of my least favourites but I still admire Pixar greatly for it high standards in film quality. That said there are still a lot of there films that I haven't seen but Ratatouille is one i did get excited about, if only because it's directed and written by Brad Bird. One of Brad Bird earliest works that i was exposed to was this screenplay for the sci-fi *batteries not included a film i would always watch when growing up. There after his filmography is primary directing in animation such as on The Simpsons, the Family Dog pilot and The Iron Giant.

I found Ratatouille to be a delightful and very funny movie.

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Lately I've been a little lazy with these film reviews, so here's two more I saw recently:

Amadeus - Directors Cut (1984)
A film i've been meaning to see for a while, i liked it.

For Your Consideration (2006)
Christopher Guests latest mostly improvised film. This time taking place on a film set. Not actually done as a documentary like his previous but probably would of improved it. Completely forgot that Ricky Gervais was in it even after his appearance. It has its moments.

Film: Bartleby (2001)

A new boss at a public records firm decides to hire a new employee to help handle the work load. In enters Bartleby, the only man who applied for the job. At first he's a model employee but then trouble starts when he refuses to work simply uttering 'I would prefer not to'.

A very funny yet bleak film that captures the true essence of 'quirky'. The tagline will probably go down as one of my favourite things to say.

From the DVD theres a few notable extras, an interview with Crispin Glover and the 11 minutes or so mini commentary. Overall the video quality of the actual film leaves a lot to be desired.

Cinema: Persepolis (2007)

An autobiographical film of a girl growing up in Iran.

This film is superb, animated brilliantly and contains the right balance of humour and drama. Persepolis is also the final showing at my local art cinema until summer time as it's in the process of relocation. Being the last for a while, the screening (which i believe is also an advance showing) was free, with free drink and a small free raffle.

Cinema: Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (2007)

AKA The Bands Visit

An Egyptian police band become stranded for the night in Israel when they go to the wrong town.

I thought this film was absolutely wonderful. A light charming comedy with some outstanding music, I can't wait to see this film again.

The only qualm i had about the showing however was the that subtitles were provided throughout the films and a lot of it was in English (though a fair amount in Arabic and Hebrew). How sometimes subtitles are required even for English dialogue in cases of heavy accents or a jumbled interpretation of a language but not in this case. The subtitles became a bit of a distraction and I found myself at times reading them when i could understand perfectly.

Cinema: Sanxia haoren (2006)

AKA Still Life

In a small village which is being prepared to be flooded two people come searching for those they've lost contact with. The first a man looks for his wife and child who he hasn't seen in 16 years. He must wait whilst there before her brother allows him to speak to her, he takes a temporary job demolishing the evacuated buildings.

The second tale follows a woman who searches for her husband after two years of lost contact. Whilst the two protagonists never cross paths they are connected through several sub characters.

Advertised to me as a documentary, this is anything but. Still I thought it was a wonderful movie which continues to feed my interest in Chinese cinema.

Film: Various

Matango (1963)

A group of friends out sailing become shipwrecked on an island inhabited by strange mushroom creatures.

A classic and practically unknown horror from the director of Gojira.

The Savages (2007)

Two siblings have to deal with putting their father into a care home when he starts suffering from dementia.

Excellent comedy/drama

Before the Devil Knows Your Dead (2007)

Like The Savages, this stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and is about two siblings and their relationship with their parents.

Two brothers both desperate for money decide to rob a jewelery store which it turns out to be owned by their parents. Things go wrong when the mother is shot.

Told in a non linear manner, the film is split into segments focusing on either one of the brothers or the father at different time periods often jumping back. I thought this film was ok but but the transition between these segments was a bit much.

Film: Mr Baseball (1992)

Tom Selleck stars as a washed up Baseball player for the Yankees who reluctantly gets transfered to a Japanese team.

Playing like a 90s more mainstream version of Lost in Translation Selleck wanders through Japan taking in all blinded westerners find surprising about modern Tokyo, a woman reading erotic manga on the train, torture game shows and TV commercials starring western celebrities, and also along the way breaking Japanese customs such as not washing before entering a bath and placing chopsticks erect in a bowl of rice.

Likewise with Lost in Translation a lot can be debated whether this film is offensive, a few cheap jokes are made about height and I personally think the reactions to Sellecks blunders are a bit over the top (he mistakenly doesn't take off his shoes before entering the changing rooms, does this rule really apply here?). However this is not enough to cause too much of a problem, the bigger stereotype I found was in fact Sellecks character, he is a obnoxious, arrogant and ignorant American who represents all Westerners misplaced perceptions of the rest of the world. Unwilling to adapt to the new surroundings he must as we expect find his way to doing so by the end of the film not only to succeed professionally but personally. It is a film about a foreigner in a foreign and so the focus is directly placed on the American and doesn't truly bring out the rest characters until towards the latter half, which is a shame as the film could of had a lot more depth then the simple cultural window.

As a comedy the film is not that funny, it does have a few moments placed near the end when most of the culture clash hurdles have passed.

Film: Freaks (1932)

A woman pays the price for making a midget think she loves him at a circus' sideshow.

Tod Brownings controversial film brings together a unique array of characters from the popular sideshows or 'freak shows' of the time. We have women born without arms, a man born with no limbs at all, a human skeleton, a chicken woman and many more. Freaks is a compelling drama and a fine example as both exploitation cinema and sideshows of the early 20th century.

The DVD comes with commentary, a in depth documentary that equals the film in length (60 minutes) and a featurette on the alternative endings. The featurette shows the ending we see in the film plus two shortened versions which make little sense. A third longer ending is talked about both unfortunately looks to be lost like almost 30 minutes worth of footage cut from the original print.

Film: Casino Royale (2006)

For the 21st film in the series the makers not only go back to the original novel but also the beginnings of 007.

A financier commits acts of terrorism in order to control the stock market to make money for his clients, the currently headstrong and recently promoted Bond races against time to stop his latest act of blowing up a plane. They end up head to head in a multi million dollar poker game, a game that could ruin the corrupt financier as he misuses this clients money.

Firstly i didn't now that the story of James Bond was going so far back for this film, I imagined it would be treated as another follow up like the rest. Casino Royale is an exciting and enjoyable film throughout and certainly a lot less confusing then the 60s 'adaption' starring Peter Sellers.

Cinema: Die Büchse der Pandora (1929)

aka Pandora's Box

A vaudeville dancer (Louise Brooks) in Germany goes on the run when she accidentally kills her husband.

The showing was preceded by a small introduction into gay silent cinema in which Pandora's Box was used as an example by depicting one of the earliest lesbian couples on screen. Actually it was really a couple as described but a character played by Alice Roberts. This aspect is actually so small in the film that one of the gay cowboy films mentioned in the introduction would have served as a better example. But in actually this may of just been the better film full stop as it is wonderful. The huge downside to the showing however was the fact that it was shown straight off a DVD and not a print, i feel slightly cheated by that.

Film: Swiss Family Robinson (1960)

A Swiss family hoping to start a new life in New Guinea after Napoleon invades France become shipwrecked along the way on a deserted island. They quickly adapt to their new life, building a tree house, making friends with the animals and spending the days having fun. Two of sons whilst surveying the islands coast rescue a girl from pirates. The families life is once again turned around, if it's not the boys fighting over the girl then the pirates coming back for their hostage.

I have just finished reading the book on actor Sessue Hayakawa that I mentioned in previous posts so was quite lucky to see this film again as he appears as the pirates captain. Like the previous film i saw Three Came Home, it's not one of the films he's most famous for.

The film is very enjoying to watch however outdated. The family's carefree attitudes to the local habitants is something you wouldn't see in most Hollywood films today. Treating them almost like toys, the animals are either ridden on or roped up for labour work. These scenes remind me alot of Ki-duk Kim's Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring 2003), where the young boy ties a fish, frog and a snake each to a stone laughing at their struggles. The main difference there though is that the boy is soon punished for his attacks by his adoptive father, a Buddhist priest. The obvious problem that in Swiss these actions go unresolved, but then wouldn't as they are treated as it isn't a problem but just childplay. How times have changed.

Despite this it is a very fun family film. One shot of the very attractive Janet Munro
as 'Roberta' stood out for me:


It looks a shot straight out of an exploitation film, turn this film around a little, make it for adults and it could easily be one.

Film: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Tim Burton's latest is a film adaption of Stephen Sondheim's hit stage musical. After being framed for a crime a barber going under the name 'Sweeney Todd' returns to London finding out his wife was raped and has committed suicide and his daughter now living with the Judge who was responsible for sending him to prison. Opening up shop in his old home he seeks revenge with the help of Mrs Lovett, the woman who owns the unsuccessful pie shop downstairs. When they accidentally kill one too many, they find that the now acquired meat turns the pie business around.

I am a huge Burton fan but honestly wasn't looking too forward to this film when I first heard about it. The idea of a macabre musical just seemed too atypical of a Tim Burton film and the other proposed idea at the time of biopic Ripley's Believe it or Not sounded much more my kind of film and could of been another Ed Wood. With the writers returning from said film and Jim Carrey to star, that project has now moved to other hands. In fact the last few Burton films have not been as good as they should of been. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was nicely shot, had a lot of great moments and a fantastic supporting cast the alterations to the original storyline to bring in the message of the importance of family unity was not required. That said I still prefer it any day over the 70s adaption Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory. Burton's return to stop motion since 1993 A Nightmare Before Christmas seemed promising and again the animation is impressive but lets itself down with a poor script and too many songs which only act as filler. I know that NMBC contained songs but that seemed more appropriate being advertised as a musical, whilst in Bride, the songs came up like a surprise and gave me the impression that it was just following the usual animation route for marketing towards family audiences.

Big Fish I thought was a wonderful film, not perfect but possibly Burton's best of this latter films (I personally feel that works could be split into too eras; The beginning - Ed Wood, and Mars Attacks - Present). Planet of the Apes on the other hand was a dreadful 're-imagining', but still entertaining if only watched the once.

My first surprise when it came to Sweeney Todd was seeing the trailer; there are no signs of a musical number until near the end. Shocked, I almost thought they decided to go back and not even make it a musical after all. In actually the film doesn't go longer then a few minutes without going into another number. It's almost back to back with song after song, probably more then a typical cinema audience is used to. My excitement for the film only came when I heard the response it got. I'm not one to follow trends or to admit to associating with anything status quo that often but this was enough to get me interested.

The film starts with completely CG made opening titles, it looks ugly but is soon forgiven. In sails Todd and his young friend Anthony who starts the film with a song telling of how things came to be. From here the film rarely slows down and keeps up a pace filled with bloody violence, tragic romance and deadpan humour, there's never a dull moment. Todd is a dark, quiet character driven by revenge who becomes a serial killer, despite his misfortunes little sympathy can be given to him but at the same time he stays away from being a complete villain. It's this contrast of images that makes the character so intriguing. The bloody mess created by Todd and Lovetts drive to feed their pie business makes a fun watch in a twisted and sadistic manner.

Sweeney Todd is bloody good.

Film: Mr Moto's Last Warning (1939)

Kentaro Moto travels to Egypt to uncover a plot to blow up a French fleet of vessels.

In the 1930s film series about Asian detectives were very popular, most famously the Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto and Mr. Wong series. All of course now deemed slightly politically incorrect due to all the title characters being played by caucasian actors in make up going through the stereotypes. Being that I've just seen this Mr Moto film I'll use as an example, the portrayal isn't actually that offensive, just poor. The brilliant Peter Lorre takes up the role, slick back the hair, add some teeth and put on some glasses and he's ready to go. The only problem is that Peter Lorre still looks like Lorre and is hard to imagine as a Japanese. In the routine of 'Yellow Face' as it's called another touch is put on the 'Engrish', switch the Rs for Ls and so forth. Lorre however sounds like Lorre, which is probably good enough for the producers as his German accent sounds foreign and that's all the audience needs. Moto on the other hand does use 'Engrish' himself, merely as part of his disguise to turn the Magnificant Moto into the humble antique dealer Kuroki. As I say Lorre is hard to picture as Asian even more so when his assistant, played by an actual Asian actor (who is killed shortly afterwards) stand side by side with him.

As much as mis-representation of race offends I can't help but be fascinated by the stereotypes which man has come up with. To me these are like abstract characterizations of human kind placed within Hollywood's reality.

As for the film itself, it's a lot of fun, I enjoyed it very much and plan to look further in to the series as well as the others mentioned.

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Film: Dushi Fengguang (1935)

aka Scenes of City Life

A novelist uses all his money to buy gifts for the woman he loves who in turn is also seeing a business man, using him for expensive presents. As a consequence the writer is unable to pay the rent, whilst the womans family goes hungry as her fathers business suffers.

A joyful comedy that expresses the dangers of consumerism for the careless spender.

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Film: Malu Tianshi (1937)

Aka Street Angel

A street musician helps a girl from being sold into marriage.

Chinese comedy that was also a social commentary of the times for the lower class.

I found this film absolutely brilliant although i had a lot of trouble with the subtitles. I downloaded the film and subtitles separately and they were out of sync for the entirety, fixing it was frustrating and only solved the problem for so long. Next time i see this it will be on DVD with proper subs.

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Film: No Country For Old Men (2007)

After a drug deal goes wrong Llewelyn Moss finds the money claims it as his, unaware that more trouble then it's worth will follow.

I absolutely loved this film. Since I didn't see the Coen Brothers last two films (which are said to be disappointments) Intolerably Cruelty and Ladykillers, I can't really say if this is a return to form as I have loved every one of there films before them. I could even say that this is my favourite of all their works.

Film: Student Bodies (1981)

Ladies and gentlemen, in order to achieve an "R" rating today, a motion picture must contain full frontal nudity, graphic violence, or an explicit reference to the sex act. Since this film has none of those, and since research has proven that R-rated films are by far the most popular with the moviegoing public, the producers of this motion picture have asked me to take this opportunity to say "Fuck you."

A murderer calling himself 'The Breather' is going around campus killing any teenagers who happen to be sexually active in this spoof of slasher movies of late the 70s.



What with the current success of the Scary Movie franchise some may call this film ahead of it's time when really it isn't coming from an era when both slasher movies and spoofs such Airplane and Kentucky Fried Movie were at their peak. Made during the 80s writers strike Paramount uses these as a no risk business model, unfortunately the film was a complete failure which probably wasn't a huge problem since the film was pretty low budget.



The film itself has a few laughs a long, never as memorable as Airplane or KFM but enough to make this film worthwhile partly as a comedy but mostly as a trash low budget horror. And for the connoisseurs of bad cinema you should be happy to know that Student Bodies is produced by non other than [an] Allen Smithee.

Film: Willard (2003)

Being either bullied at work or stuck at home looking after his sick mother, Willard (Crispin Glover) lives an unfruitful life. Then one day he meets a white rat who he calls Socrates. Socrates is both a loving and intelligent rat who brings hoards of friends with him. Willard soon discovers that through Socrates he able to control the rodents to get revenge on his boss, but the tables are turned when another rat, the gigantic Ben, gets jealous of being in second command after Socrates.

Willard is actually a remake of a film of the same name from the 70's. The original spawned a sequel entitled 'Ben' which gained notoriety due to it's more famous theme song by Michael Jackson. The song Ben itself appears twice in the film, the original and a new version sung by Crispin Glover who also directed a music video for it. Having previously only seen this music video I was never aware that the original song was written for such a film as it was, especially by Jackson. Though thinking of the Thriller video the connection makes more sense.

The characters in Willard are all archetypal, the sympathetic outcast who lives with his mother, the over the top and bluntly evil bully and the possible love interest. Overall the film is easy to get into and just plain fun.

Watch Crispin Hellian Glover's Ben