Film: Charlie & the Chocolate Factory

[DJAcetone]

I've got a primo batch of acid saved for the very day this is released....mmmm

 

[kryalkastleE]

omg....why is this taking so goddamn long to come out!

those pictures are awesome !

 

[jasonlee]

are you concerned? do u think the original willy wonka was realistic? could u feasibly do what he did if u were a millionare? 10,000 gallons a day? and him killing the kids was obviously unrealstic, but the other?

 

[smart-e]

^^
He didn't kill anyone. All the kids had things happen to them but they didn't die. And thje 10,000 gallons a day of chocolate doesn't seem that unrealistic to me I think most really big chocolate factories would be producing that much.

 

[bRoken&foRgoTTen]

!! NEW TRAILER !!

charlie and the choc. factory

 

[m885]

Tim Burton will fuck this up with his own bizarre style. This doesn't need to be remade with his twisted, shitty filmmaking.

 

[alasdairm]

...don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted...

alasdair

 

[j22]

I have a bad feeling about this remake.

That being said, I will probably go see it anyway.

 

[Kataklysm]

unrealistic

This looks very cool.
Almost a little to unreal looking though.
The factory, characters etc almost look to fake, too many things look obviously animated.

For fucks sake, it's WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, it's not a documentary, get over it.

Fuck.

Realism in movies. Who fucking cares. It's a movie. If you want real life than walk out your front door and have a sniff.

Fuck.

lol.

 

[Daisybabe]

Saw this in a free sneak preview last night. Holy crap was it amazing!!

I like the original, but this movie is how it should have been done all along. The book was weird and dark and twisted, and Wilder's version made it this happy little kid flick.

I think they did a great job choosing the child characters, the sets are just out of this world. I really hope he wins an Oscar for set design.

Be prepared, superfans - they do change certain aspects of the original film.



***SPOILERS!!!***










There is no Oompa Loompa song in this movie. Their song sounds more like the ooga-chaka baby from Ally McBeal. They have some really awesome dance moves though!

No Fizzy Lifting Drink, either.

No chickens that lay Golden Eggs, but there are *squirrels*.

I am going to go see this again Saturday at the IMAX theater, I can't wait.

 

[wanderlust]

not a nice review... but may be true of the depp preformance


**also includes spoilers in article (1/2 way down)**

'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' amounts to empty calories
By CHRIS GARCIA
Austin American-Statesman
Those teeth, that hair, that smarmy simper and girlish giggle. Ew. Willy still gives us the willies, but no longer in a good way. We miss Gene Wilder, terribly.

As overinterpreted by Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's charmless and totally unnecessary "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Willy Wonka is a waxy freak and mincing creep. He's a pinched, effeminate fop, with the brittle scold of a school marm and the pasty hue of a cadaver. His Louise Brooks page and jutting horse teeth are exaggerations of style that spread to the velvet long coat, top hat and purple rubber gloves.


Depp plays Wonka like a fey silent-movie comedian, though he's not silent, which is too bad, because the actor, in voice and mannerism, channels bits of the Church Lady and Mr. Rogers on mild hallucinogens. He's a space cadet fidgety with vague mischief and whimsical distraction.

Depp is a courageous actor of arch inspiration, and he's wise not to copy the indelibly cockeyed performance of Wilder in 1971's superior "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." (Yes, that low-budget bomb, critically savaged in its time but cherished by fans ever after — me very much included — is the better film.)

But his performance is a chilly, forced creation. Any sign of a real person, a soul and a heart, is entombed in an aggregate of mismatched tics Depp applies like the layers of sickly makeup caking his face. Without cataloging all that made Wilder's portrayal of the eccentric confectioner maniacal genius — his sinister nonchalance and bipolar volatility, that mad scientist's blast of split-ends — we'll just say Depp confuses ornament for character.

Burton, that dark archaeologist of the id, hasn't provided Depp a great vessel in which to romp. His movie isn't a direct remake of Mel Stuart's film version, but a more faithful adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1964 book, which too is titled "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." But he and writer John August have mucked it up with weary psychoanalysis — that is, he gives Wonka a lame backstory not found in the book that's presumably meant to illuminate the choc doc's wiggy personality. It's also the source of the movie's misconceived ending.

Bad Dad. That's what messed up Wonka and made him the heartless sociopath and sweet-tooth sadist he is. Seen in rote flashback, Dad (Christopher Lee) was a tyrannical dentist who forbade little Willy to eat candy. An anti-candy dentist for a father — ta-da! There's your parent-loathing nutcase.

As in the book, there are no Fizzy Lifter Drinks — Charlie, paragon of virtue, would never steal a thing — no Gobstopper handout and no lurking Slugworth who whispers instructions to the five Golden Ticket winners. Suddenly you realize how imaginative the first movie truly was by adding those dramatic elements, never mind the film's second-rate songs, which, save for the Oompa-Loompa ditties, are gone in Burton's take.

The story, of course, follows little Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore), whose family is so poor and famished that his dreams make a beeline to extravagant fantasies about Wonka chocolate. Rubbing things in, the Wonka factory, a menacing fortress of spires and smoke stacks, looms over Charlie's unnamed town, a dead ringer for Dickens' sooty London, like a taunt.

Then Wonka announces the Golden Ticket sweepstakes, in which finders of the tickets in Wonka Bar wrappers, win an all-day tour of the chocolate factory. The first four winners are "rotten" children — Augustus Gloop, Violet Beauregarde, Mike Teavee, Veruca Salt — who represent a kiddie version of the cardinal sins — gluttony, pride, sloth and greed.

A lot of the chocolate factory innards look suspiciously like the first film's depiction, especially the chocolate-river meadow, a grassy candy land where Augustus gets jammed in the plumbing. When that happens, and whenever a naughty child (each of whom, like Wonka, is a product of horrendous parenting) indulges his lust, troupes of itty-bitty Oompa-Loompas, all played by an eerie Deep Roy, break into elaborate song and dance, using the book's couplets. Their synchronized swimming bit in the chocolate river is best.

Visuals are Burton's forte and they excel, slightly, in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." His scrupulous palettes and expressionistic architecture mingle with Dr. Seussian contraptions and psychedelic visions for some inspired weirdness.

Still, you can't shake the fatal sense of having seen this all before in a sprightlier, fresher film that's 34 years old. That "Chocolate Factory" was stranger, funnier and, appropriately, a whole lot sweeter.

 

[elemenohpee]

I thought this new version was way better than the old one, even though some things were left out. The songs were a little stragne too, but overall a great movie. Anyone else catch the Fear and Loathing reference? When Depp goes into the jungle to look for new candys he does the little tounge flicker and the same sound that he makes while sampling the adrenochrome in F&L. Maybe I was just really high...but I could swear that I saw it.

 

[vibr8tor]

I liked this version better as well. But I never really *liked* the original; it disturbed me too much as a kid.

I thought Depp did a great job. It was kinda creepy how he looks like Michael Jackson, though.

 

[Banquo]

just got back from one of those theaters that serves beer. hopefully, this will still make sense. burton has almost always been about style over substance. sometimes he has a tough time finding a balance between the two. because of this, occasionally, the pacing in his films suffer. to this end, the musical interludes (something that was lacking in big fish) really helped to pull the film along. otherwise, things sometimes seemed slow. the style was beautiful. the old houses, the old factory, and the trucks pulling away in the snow were all very cool. most of the jokes hit the mark, especially the puppets. overall, i would say that this film is an improvement over burton's latest works, but it is nearly impossible (for me) to compare this to the gene wilder version, since it was so different. a good film.

When Depp goes into the jungle to look for new candys he does the little tounge flicker and the same sound that he makes while sampling the adrenochrome in F&L

i caught this also. it totally looked like he dropped into Hunter Thompson for a moment.

 

[notauniquesnowflake]

Saw this at the 12:50 am showing in a theater near UCF, def a good crowd. Thought it was a really good movie. I was kind of worried about this one when the first trailers came out, thought it looked way too cheesy. But turns out I was wrong.

 

[elemenohpee]

i caught this also. it totally looked like he dropped into Hunter Thompson for a moment.

Ok so I'm not crazy, good.

 

[xena]

all these good reviews have me even more excited about this film. i'm going in a couple of weeks- can't deal w/ all the crowds of opening weekend, especially for something this big.

 

[shannabanana]

^^me, too! I am so happy that almost everything I've read/heard has been very positive. I can't wait to go see the movie.

 

[Belisarius]

Saw it; capsule review.

Overall view: Liked it a lot; three out of four stars. Not as good as the original though, IMO.

Depp's Wonka of course eats up the scenery, as Wilder's did in the 1971 version, but the characterization is quite different. Depp plays Wonka as a much livelier person than Wilder, and gone is Wilder's enticing--and underplayed--sinister eccentricity. This imparts the whole movie a lighter quality which a lot of people will like, but which fell short with me. The movie also moves much more quickly than the older version, which I suppose is a neutral change to me.

I thought the casting choices for the kids were great--the actor portraying Charlie himsel was an especially good choice--many of them feel even more hastily introduced and disposed of than they were in the original.

There was a lot about this movie that I liked. The musical numbers are hilarious, though, and there are a number of priceless scenes, supplemented by Depp's superb comic delivery. I particularly liked an hilarious homage to "2001: A Space Odyssey" which comes completely out of left field, and which I won't spoil. The special effects are great, and as usual Tim Burton knows how to set up and shoot beautiful and haunting scenes. He's a director whose work I've always liked, and his talent shows in this movie through and through.




*SPOILER*





What I miss most from the movie is the ambiguity and character richness--I'm referring to Charlie and his grandfather in particular--that was so key to the first movie's appeal to me. In the original, you never find out what happens to the kids that slip up, a scary touch that I like. In this version though, all is revealed at key points of the movie, again lightening the tone of the entire movie. Gone also is the fizzy-lifting drink scene, which I thought was important to the first one because it showed that Charlie wasn't perfect, and could make the same kind of mistakes that the other kids made. I'm guessing most people won't miss that scene, but I felt that it was excluded at the price of some of Charlie--and Wonka's--depth.

Fire away.

 

[keystroke]

just finished watching the DVD this morning, what a fantastic remake!