Alice In Wonderland

[Bob Schroeck]

Peggy and I just got back from an IMAX 3D showing of Burton's new "Alice".
Go see it.  As soon as you can.  The effects are spectacularly well done but at the same time do not distract you from the story.  The actress playing Alice is exceptional, and of course Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are great.  They've also got some surprise voice talent for the CGI-only characters, including Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman, and for all of two lines Christopher Lee.  The story is ... well, they've done a wonderful job of concealing this in the marketing, but I will give away a small secret -- this is not a new version of the classic story.  Alice is not Dawson-cast at almost 20 instead of being 7.  There's a reason she's almost 20 -- It is a sequel to the original stories.  And it works.
Oh, extra bonus:  A new, long, detailed trailer -- in 3D -- for Tron Legacy precedes it.
Like I said, go see.
ETA:  Just discovered that the main theme -- written by Danny Elfman -- is available for free download in MP3 format from Amazon.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Black Aeronaut]

Awesome. Gonna see if I can catch it with my girlfriend as soon as it starts showing here in Japan.

[Sweno]

I'm going to be seeing it tomorrow, and now I'm looking forward to it even more
-Terry
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"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[Bob Schroeck]

I've discovered since posting the above that most critics appear to hate the film -- my favorite of their comments so far has been "Pretty on the outside, but soulless on the inside. Like Ann Coulter, if Ann Coulter was pretty on the outside." The biggest complaint seems to be that it replaces the math/social parody logic of the original with the logic of a quest/action-adventure film. Yeah, that's more or less true. But it's still a good quest film. It might help if you think of the original Alice books as being the muddled recollections of a confused 6-year-old who finds herself in an alien world for a short time, and this film as what the adult version of that girl discovers is really going on when she returns.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.