Smashing film.

Very true to the book: including singing Oompa Loompas and a rather callous Willy Wonka… but I really wish they’d produced an English dub of the movie, because all the talk about “candies” and “pants” (for trousers—“you’ve got mud on your pants”—eeeugh) and “vacation” in amongst the English accents (Charlie & family were English, but they seemed to live in America) was jarring.

Brilliant to see the chocolate room and the boat carved out of an enormous boiling sweetie, and the nut sorting room, and the glass elevator. Quite a nice turn in humour.

Willy Wonka was a bit to shy and weird for my liking, and his ‘issues’ with his ‘father’ were just plain, downright unnecessary, I thought. I’d have preferred a more assertive Wonka, and I’d have preferred if he’d seemed less intentionally complicit in the disposal of the bad children… and the parents could have had a bit more oomph. They were all pretty insipid. Only Charlie and Grandpa Joe had much life about them.

And Charlie’s mum (Helena Bonham Carter) ‘s teeth were pretty manky for the wife of a man who works at a toothpaste factory. (What is it that these Americans have about teeth and English people?)

But amazing to look at, and really a very enjoyable film.

And apparently they trained real squirrels for the film, instead of just using CG ones, which you’ve got to give them credit for.

Bloody hell!

Go and see this film!

I found Kung Fu Hustle morally awkward and I don’t like people hitting each other.

I flinched at this film too, but it’s… well, it’s a work of art. Mind you, it’s a work of art which as you’re walking through the gallery, reaches out of the frame to grab you by the neck and slam your face into the wall before pumping you full of lead, spitting on your face and leaving you for dead. But a work of art nonetheless.

Stellar cast. Bruce Willis is excellent. Mickey Rourke is bloody amazing… but it is the cinematography that’s the star of this film. You’re probably heard that it looks like a comic book brought to life—but it looks like a fantastically well-drawn comic book brought to life. Fantastically well-drawn and über-violent.

I really enjoyed the ride. It’s an involving, visceral thrill of the kind that horror movies strive to provide. Sometimes hard to watch and occasionally very nasty, but the good guys win at the end, kind of.

Now ’scuse me while I grab my shooter and head out to avenge the death of this classy hooker I used to know.

Violent, but funny.

Go see it—unless you feel squeemish at watching people kick seven shades of shit out of each other for an hour and a half.

It’s a bit like watching a live-action Tom & Jerry, but with fewer frying pans and pianos… and in which some of the characters die messily. Mixed in with the usual kung fu/gangster/Western conventions, filtered through with a trickle of Animé and The Matrix.

Like The Matrix Reloaded, there are huge fights and lots of black suits, white shirts and ties… and some obvious computer animation, but unlike The Matrix Reloaded, the artificiality is somewhat endearing. It’s a cartoon knockabout and it doesn’t really matter that you can tell which bits are CG.

Quite a touching ending, but a bit of an odd moral angle. In the world of Kung Fu Hustle godliness is next to fighting ability and there is honour in ultraviolence. That made me uncomfortable.

Topping. Go see it.

Batman Begins: A film which attempts to answer the age-old question “Just how believably serious is it possible to make old-school, underpants-atop-tights superhero Batman while still keeping him Batman?”

And the answer seems to be “holy expunged clichés, Batman, pretty darn believably serious.”
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Duun duun duun, duun, dun-dun, duun, dun-dun.

It’s alwriiiight… Go and see it*.

*If you’re up for a bit of a mindless space romp, though not if you thought the first two films were irredeemable, because this is only as much better than II, as II was than I.
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