Double Feature: Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) & Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017)

Welcome to the next double feature! Its been at least a month since the last one and I’m slowly feeling up to writing reviews after a 2 week (or so) break after Fantasia! I did watch these two around the beginning of Fantasia Festival.

Alice Through The Looking Glass (2016)

Director: James Bobin

Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, Sacha Baron Cohen, Anne Hathaway

Alice returns to the whimsical world of Wonderland and travels back in time to help the Mad Hatter. – IMDB

Alice Through the Looking Glass is the sequel to the live action Alice in Wonderland. While this live action adaptation is usually negatively rated, I see the flaws but somehow these  whimsical things work okay for myself. It becomes quite entertaining. Alice Through the Looking Glass has its issues and sometimes it doesn’t work as well as it might have hoped for but there are a few redeeming traits here. Lets just get it out there that as many times as I have started reading the source material by Lewis Carroll, I haven’t finished it so I have no idea how similar it is to the book. I do feel that some things were a little over the top in possibly the way it was portrayed however, the whimsical suspension of belief is expected and never a surprise. I like over the top fantastical elements so its why I still watch these movies.

There is a lot of silliness in Alice Through the Looking Glass. The redeeming character is still always Mia Wasikowska as Alice. She is such a spectacular actress who takes on different types of roles but excels in them. In this one, I loves her outfits and the journey she takes and altogether, keeping to how Alice is with the character traits. To be honest, most of the characters from the previous film did keep in character. Which pretty much means that if you didn’t like the first one, chances are that you might not like this one as it feels a little bit even more odd than before. Something here doesn’t fit together completely and yet I never pinpoint what it is. Perhaps its the weird Anne Hathaway performance as the White Queen and the story behind her and the Queen of Hearts. There is a slight entertainment value to Sacha Baron Cohen as Time.

Visually, Alice Through the Looking Glass delivers just like the first film. The characters also carry a lot of fun elements to them and are a joy to watch. However, the story behind her fighting to retrace the Mad Hatter’s childhood and learning about the White Queen and  Queen of Hearts story as well as having Time chase her through time and space felt a little lacking. Maybe its just not so personal when Alice does learn something about herself through this but the link of everyone in those stories just doesn’t feel like it adds up to more than it should.

Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017)

Director: Simon Curtis

Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie, Kelly MacDonald, Will Tilston, Alex Lawther

A behind-the-scenes look at the life of author A.A. Milne and the creation of the Winnie the Pooh stories inspired by his son C.R. Milne. – IMDB

I’m not much of a biopic person. If you haven’t noticed, I try to stay away from biopic or drama or something like that. Movies are a means of entertainment to escape from drama so its one of the reasons why they tend to be the least chosen genre in film. I still watch them but they are infrequent. With that said, its hard to resist the biopic of A.A. Milne, the man who brought to life Thousand Acres Woods and Winnie the Pooh and his gang. As much as this is about the fame of Winnie the Pooh and this world, this biopic focuses on A.A. Milne’s relationship with his son and the reason of why this fun and fictional world even exists in the first place.

If there’s something more than Pooh Bear that I can’t resist, its a father and son relationship, well any parent and child relationship usually tugs pretty hard at my heartstrings. It feels pretty genuine in the way that this whole thing is portrayed. Domhnall Gleeson has a huge part in this because he does a fantastic job at portraying A.A. Milne. His character and the father he is and the man that he is and just how what he has gone through has changed him but no one quite understands him, especially his wife, played by Margot Robbie. However, we all have something to thank in this world and even adults sometimes make the choices when they get carried away with a situation and this is how Winnie the Pooh may have saved a lot of kids and was the world for so many people but in the end, it somehow deteriorated this father and son relationship and created a misunderstanding. Its this story and this human relationship that makes this film really good.

Goodbye Christopher Robin is a fairly simple story and the feelings and relationship is so genuine that it makes it tug at our heartstrings even more. There’s a lack of communication and a bonding that grows over time because of the choices made by everyone. In some ways, it makes us wonder about this world that has given joy to so many people and yet the bittersweet feelings that come with learning about how there were sacrifices to sharing this world that A.A. Milne created with his son with everyone else and the fame and popularity ate away at their relationship. After you watch this, it feels like its a conflict that never quite gets resolved and whether it feels like everyone else had invaded into someone else’s imaginary world. Maybe I’m thinking too much into it but this movie is pretty bittersweet by the end.

Ultimate 90’s Blogathon: Batman Returns (1992) by DB Movies Blog

Next up is DB from DB Movies Blog with a sequel of the 1989 Batman by Tim Burton, Batman Returns! One of my personal faves because it has the fantastic Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman. DB Movies Blog has a range of film-related posts from reviews to trailer to lists and awards recap, etc. Lots of great material to check out! Without further ado, let’s pass it over to her to talk about her choice!

Batman Returns (1992)

Three years after directing “Batman” (1989), Tim Burton came up with yet another Batman film “Batman Returns”. Visually stunning and well thought-out, the film is about the rise to power of Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin (Danny DeVito), who has been hidden away and shunned by society for 33 years in the city of Gotham. In his quest to become the mayor of Gotham, Penguin is unwillingly helped by a dishonest businessman Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) as the Penguin’s freaky followers intermittently wreck havoc on Gotham to discredit the present mayor and eventually make it look like the Penguin is fighting crime. Meanwhile, Shreck’s shy secretary, Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer), finds out too much about Shreck’s illegal activities, causing Shreck to try to get rid of her, and the result of his efforts is Selina’s transformation into a Catwoman. Bruce Wayne/Batman (Michael Keaton) is also not indifferent to the crimes orchestrated by the Penguin and is determined to stop the Penguin and his gang while having a love-hate relationship with Selina/Catwoman.

From the very first scenes of the film, we are intrigued. We are confronted with a Dracula-inspired-setting and gothic surroundings as we see a couple who gives birth to a deformed baby, and then some time later, on a cold Christmas night, rushes across a Gotham park to throw their newborn baby into a river crossing the park. The eerie wintry landscape and the menacing soundtrack by Danny Elfman complete this picture as we then see a crib of a baby-monster floating down the sewer of the city.

Prior to “Batman Returns”, Burton also directed “Beetlejuice” (1988) and “Edward Scissorhands” (1990), already establishing himself as the director for shooting the themes of supernatural, odd, unknown and dark. In that vein, Burton makes “Batman Returns” his very own. With Burton’s flair for presenting a Gothic fantasy, “Batman Returns”’s cinematography is moody and grim, now reminding of “Sleepy Hollow” (1999) or “Sweeney Todd” (2007), but with a comical twist, a freaks-show setting and more stand-alone odd characters. Burton transforms the city of Gotham into a lavish wintry high-buildings landscape populated by mysterious pale-faced personalities, odd freaks and brave anti-heroes. In his prior and forthcoming work, Burton relied heavily on the old German expressionist cinematography and “Batman Returns” is no exception. From the very first scenes, the film is all about sharp dark edges, futurism, and the macabre, similar to “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920). We also see the skyline of the Gotham City, and the tall buildings, grim atmosphere and fog reminds of “Metropolis” (1927). The elaborate sculpture work of the Gotham Zoo and the camerawork are also similar to the camerawork and the town scale model found in Burton’s “Beetlejuice”.

Action-wise, “Batman Returns” is also great. From the firebombing of Shreck’s department store to a faulty Batman car racing, the action is fast-paced with great visual effects. Add to this a rich animal symbolism, distinctively-gloomy, but deliciously macabre cinematography and a thought-provoking ending and it is safe to say that Burton has probably crafted the best Batman movie ever.

Having said that, “Batman Returns” is, primarily, a character-driven film. Michael Keaton reprises his role of the Batman, but the spotlight is not on him and he has to give way to “more interesting” and “crazier” characters. Keaton’s performance is unimaginative and unenthusiastic, though he is a very dignified and “intellectual” Batman; that kind of a Batman who will snug in on a weekend in front of a fireplace with a book rather than practise his combat moves in front of a mirror.

Every imaginable Hollywood actress was considered for the role of the Catwoman: from Demi Moore, Nicole Kidman and Jodie Foster to Cher and Meryl Streep. In the end, Annette Bening was cast, but was replaced by Michelle Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer is perfectly cast and gives a very convincing, almost iconic performance. She is good as a sexually-frustrated shy secretary Selina and as a confident and blood-thirsty Catwoman. Selina’s duality and her transformation into a Catwoman are particularly well-presented. We see something close to the nowadays “Black Swan” transformation, because Selina is first surrounded by her pink soft toys and immaculate kitchen and then goes berserk and lusts for a dark and mysterious side of life. Her chemistry with Bruce Wayne is also very good, and it is interesting to watch how the pair is mentally trying to figure out each other’s true identities and thoughts.

The real revelations in the film are Danny DeVito in the role of the Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot and Christopher Walken in the role of Max Shreck. DeVito’s Penguin is very memorable: he is hideous, totally demented and power-hungry. Walken’s Shreck is also a show-stealer. Cool, strange and menacing, Walken as Max Shreck makes the atmosphere very uncomfortable, and it is a pity that the Shreck’s energy aspirations idea is left underdeveloped in the film.

It is true, however, that “Batman Returns” is not a perfect movie. We hardly get to know anything about the title character and his personal development (a hero’s journey) is questionable. The reason why Batman as a character is so neglected in this film is maybe because Burton/Waters/Strick is not really interested in him. In fact, Burton agreed to do “Batman Returns” only on condition that the studio gives him more creative control over the material and that Daniel Waters, a screenwriter known for his black-comedy “Heathers” (1988), comes on board. The influence of both is evident in the final product.

Another weakness of the film is that it has too many villains which form surprising partnerships, but the biggest criticism at the time of its release was that Burton’s version of a Batman movie was too gloomy and grotesque, sexually too suggestive (e.g. the Catwoman finds herself often on top of the Batman) and violent (e.g. child-kidnapping takes place on a regular basis). There are valid points, but should be seen in a perspective. Unlike the Superman and even the Spiderman series, the Batman series is all about the dark nature of humanity, mysterious personal duality, masks and camouflage, the colour black, unclear freaky characters’ origins, underlying childhood trauma and gloomy settings. Taking this into account, Burton’s gothic, macabre and dark take fits the Batman adaptation perfectly.

“Batman Returns” may not be the film to immediately spring to mind when you think “the films of 1990s”, but its unusually presented-superhero theme, advanced computer-generated special effects and the director’s distinctive influence on the style and plot of the film are the features which later came to define films shot in 1990s (wasn’t it the decade of the rise of independent cinema after all?). “Batman Returns” is a Tim Burton film through-and-through. Rich in visuals, it is grim, dark, fantastical and strangely enticing. It also a film which is very entertaining: it has an interesting plot, perfect casting, great soundtrack and a very memorable presentation of such oddball characters as the Penguin and Catwoman.

8/10

Thanks to DB for a fantastic review of Batman Returns. Definitely a great title (with its flaws) from the 90s!
Remember to head over to Drew’s Movie Reviews on Monday for the next entry!

Triple Feature: Killing Me Softly, Dark Shadows & The Next Three Days

Something about these triple features are very refreshing.  Its just a quick recount, straight-forward.  Sometimes, its just efficient and easier to do that because there are movies where there isn’t that much to say.

I did watch a fourth one with my boyfriend but I’ve already reviewed it and its the “so bad its awesome” Sharknado.  You can check out that review right HERE!

Lets move on to check out these three!

Killing Me Softly (2002)

Director: Kaige Chen

Cast: Heather Graham, Joseph Fiennes, Natascha McElhone, Ulrich Thomsen

A woman faces deadly consequences for abandoning her loving relationship with her boyfriend to pursue exciting sexual scenarios with a mysterious celebrity mountaineer.-IMDB

The last time I remember seeing Joseph Fiennes was in Shakespeare in Love which was really pretty good.  I watched it when I was younger and not really so knowledgeable about movies but I will see it again and I’m positive that it won’t disappoint.  BUT, to see him in this just makes my heart break.

I think whoever chooses a project opposite Heather Graham needs to be a good actor/actress because she is such a bad/unconvincing actress. Well, you also get to check out her body like totally up close and personal.  So I guess, its not a total loss, right? I’m not trying to be disrespectful because that is a compliment to her.  But her acting really could use some work. Or maybe its just every time I see her, the movie is REALLY bad. I mean the only movie I saw of hers was called About Cherry and that movie was SO boring! (review HERE).

Like Killing Me Softly was killing me so brutally.  I get the passion, lust and attraction.  I’m a romantic, I get all that stuff.  I even get that whole liking the dark, mysterious and brooding stranger but excuse me, this is like the perfect Shitfest contender but I like to stick to bad horror for that segment, so thats why we now have a minor rant session.

The best example was like, Joseph Fiennes is this overprotective guy who falls madly in love with Heather Graham’s character and then this pickpocket steals her purse and runs off.  He chases that dude down intensely and literally beats the crap out of him and then when she catches up, he’s like I will protect you forever and never let that happen again I promise you.  Marry me! And of course, she’s like kiss and totally agrees. Paraphrasing here, ok? Anybody think that this dude’s just totally unknown (which he is because she’s only known him for something like 3 days) and he has some anger management and violence issues. Just saying…

So no, the movie just tries too hard in the second part to turn this first half soft porn movie into a thriller and throws some twists that were completely predictable.  And to make a thriller work, you need a convincing lead and Heather Graham’s character was not. However, Joseph Fiennes was fine. With what he had, I think he was convincingly creepy and mysterious, exactly what was asked of his character. There’s the positive…

Dark Shadows (2012)

Director: Tim Burton

Cast: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Helena Bonham Carter, Chloe Grace Moretz, Bella Heathcote, Gulliver McGrath

An imprisoned vampire, Barnabas Collins, is set free and returns to his ancestral home, where his dysfunctional descendants are in need of his protection.-IMDB

Dark Shadows has a beautiful mix of actors and actresses that I adore helmed by a director that has lost a little bit of steam in the past few years but I still have an immense amount of respect for. I always keep an open mind for extreme weirdness for anything Tim Burton.  With Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter and Chloe Grace Moretz, how can I not already want to see this.  I have to be honest that all the negative reviews held me back a little and to be honest, I could’ve waited longer. Dark Shadows is really nothing to call home about.  The mood and atmosphere is very Tim Burtonesque and the visuals are pretty stylish but beyond that, I really found it pretty blah.  Like blah where I kept fighting to doze off. Maybe because it was a little long and dragged out.

The characters are a little peculiar as they probably should be.  Still, the cast here does the best they can with what they have.  Johnny Depp certainly doesn’t disappoint as Barnabas Collins and everyone has this quirky humor that works for a good bit of the movie.  Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter and Chloe Grace Moretz all have rather interesting characters.  The villain in Dark Shadows is played by Eva Green.  When is she NOT a villain, right? I’m not complaining though because she’s good at being that sort of character.

SO…great cast, awesome visuals, slow and somewhat boring story..makes this kind of an average and disappointing watch.

The Next Three Days (2010) 

Director: Paul Haggis

Cast: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Ty Simpkins, Liam Neeson

A married couple’s life is turned upside down when the wife is accused of a murder.-IMDB

The Next Three Days might be the hardest to review.  For one, I’m really not into extremely long movies.  I feel like my attention span has really decreased over the years and tolerance for long plots don’t really work as well because it always tends to fall apart a little.  Plus, I’m not a huge fan of Russell Crowe.

There’s a lot to digest for this story of a simple professor trying to break his wife out of jail.  On one side, he believes his wife is wrongfully accused even when she gives in to it and kind of gives up.  But then, the question still remains whether she did it and she messes with him (and the viewers) a little.   The whole deal is really in how believable the whole planning out the prison break is, right?

For me, there’s a few apparent flaws.  But then, I’m not saavy in the art of prison break so who am I to say anything. My huge issue was how he tried to keep everything down low but he just was really lucky in a way.  Like, who goes running around sketchy places buying meds and then sneaking in the question of where to get fake IDs? Its just really obvious what he’s doing and a little silly.  Thats just one example.

However, when I did believe what Russell Crowe’s character was doing, there was some pretty decent moments.  Plus, when the movie gets to the last part where the actual prison breaking happens, it gets pretty intense. And thats good because it ends it off in a much more gripping way than how it began.

My major issue with this one is the length.  Aside from that, if they edited it or chopped it a little, it could be a much better movie even if some parts a little not so believable.  I can deal with that, after all, I am watching a movie 😉

THERE WE GO! Another three done! I have to burn through probably another 3 more before January 1st but I’m pretty sure with the few housekeeping posts that have to go up, it’ll only be reviewed in the new year!

Anyways, next thing to look forward to is FINALLY that 2015 announcement posts which is going up tomorrow. I was going to do a poll but I’m still having a few second thoughts on next year’s projects. Back to my brainstorming…

Have you seen any (or all)of these 3 movies? Thoughts? Comments? 🙂

Daily Prompt: The Artist’s Eye for Tim Burton!

Yesterday’s daily prompt:  Is there a painting or sculpture you’re drawn to? What does it say to you? Describe the experience. (Or, if art doesn’t speak to you, tell us why.)  Photographers, artists, poets: show us ART.

Art is quite an abstract and sujective way to express ourselves.  We will interpret what we see differently and as an artist probably is portraying something that is deep inside of them.

As much as I love Monet and Van Gogh with their landscapes and flowers, the most recent art exhibit I went to that totally blew my mind was the Tim Burton exhibit in Toronto a few years back.  It was the one time where an exhibit was able to wow me to the point where I’d go and buy the whole Art of Tim Burton book that weighed about 10 pounds or more, cost me a whole lot of money and still had to lug it around for a good part of the day.

I love Tim Burton and I’d love to eventually own all his movies and then do a crazy movie marathon of them all.  It’d be exploring something out of the world and completely weird.  For those who love Tim Burton, you already know more than I do why he’s so awesome but most people have seen his creative thoughts and dreams interpreted into movies but seeing the concept art and the drafts is a completely different thing.  Looking at the art that he makes is really an eye-opener.

Those two on the top were found on searching on the Internet where the picture I took of the art in the Tim Burton book was the concept of it.

As much I love the art up there, I found the one that really shocked and showed Tim Burton’s creativity to the maximum level of weird and crazy (if anything) is one that I don’t have a picture of but I did find this one!

Its built in the form of a little house.  Stainboy is holding some weapon and through the windows, we see the Christmas tree, a the feet of a man in one of the rooms while all the walls and floors are drenched with blood.  Crazy stuff but so amazing that this stuff goes through his mind!

The Last of its Kind!

Stepping into the world of Tim Burton and his creativity of his movie projects and his other pieces was definitely an experience that was dark and profound.  It came to wonder how a man could possibly dream up these ideas. To normal people, those would be nightmares full of monsters, weird alien-like creatures, distorted images, etc.

To think that when he first started, his drawings looked like those of Dr. Seuss! I know that this exhibit did some touring back when I saw it.  Definitely a memorable experience that drew to love Burton’s work even more! 🙂

If you’d like to see more responses to this prompt, please go HERE and check it out!

Frankenweenie (2012)

I love Tim Burton.  I’ve been slacking off a bit on the more recent movies that he’s made.  I haven’t seen last year’s Dark Shadows yet, but I intend on owning all his movies and I do own quite a few as of now.  If I wanted to do a Tim Burton marathon, it would be pretty much successful.  The newest animation from Tim Burton is the film version of his short from early on in his directing.   I’ve been looking forward to watching this a while…

Director: Tim Burton

Cast: Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Charlie Tahan, Atticus Shaffer, Winona Ryder, James Hiroyuki Liao, Robert Capron

This is a story of a young boy and his dog.  When Victor Frankenstein(Charlie Tahan) loses his dog Sparky, under the inspiration of his new science teacher Mr. Ryzkruski’s (Martin Landau) lesson in class, he decides to use electricity to bring Sparky back to life.  However, he knows that Sparky can’t be revealed and he tries to hide him.  Beyond his control, Sparky ends up wandering around the neighborhood and get seen by his fellow classmates, Edgar (Atticus Shaffer) who then leaks it to Toshiaki (James Hiroyuki Liao) and a few others, who get inspired to change the odds of their chances in the coming science fair and experiments with something that ends up more than they bargained for, the town learns the difference between the good and bad in science.

Tim Burton is definitely great at stop-motion animation.  This is Burton to the core, reaching back to a him that I haven’t seen in his recent works in a long time.  It was missed and this was energetic and passionate piece of work.  The black and white filming really gave it a nice touch and kept it eerie but fun.  Only Burton can actually bring that in, especially when he tosses up the character designs and gives a lot of them some really weird or evil or gentle looks to show their personality.

Victor Frankenstein showed such awesome personality and passion for his project as he learned more about science in itself along with its consequences, we also learn and feel as he loses and fights to keep this best friend with him.  We suffer the loss of losing a pet and a part of our family.  In this animation, Victor doesn’t get all the credit though.  Just the classmates involved each had their own charm and magic, whether they were hardcore or mean and he gave it a nice twist by making the characters multicultural.  Plus, it was a mix of evil and some look bad but wasn’t really that bad, some was purely weird and then we have genuinely nice but left out.  All the children was voiced very energetically.

It was definitely a fun film.  My favorite character had to be Mr. Ryzkruski because he was so blunt and not caring about his consequences.  He was the mentor and inspiration of Victor even till the very end.  Plus, Winona Ryder’s Elsa was really great also.  It was a captivating animation.  There was a charm that really kept this movie engaging the whole time.

Definitely great watch! If you are a Tim Burton fan, this is definitely a must-see! You can see his passion and energy just by how he perfectly sets everything up.  I loved it! The story was totally awesome, the physical character designs were fitting and they were voiced enthusiastically.  All around fun film.  It never gets too serious even when we hit the peak but it also teaches us lessons and even hits on little signs from the original Frankenstein novel.  It has a lot of style especially with the black and white.

Loved it to bits! 🙂

Whats your Tim Burton fave? Did you like Frankenweenie? Are you a Tim Burton fan?

Christmas Marathon: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

A Tim Burton Classic.  I wasn’t really sure if I should have put this with Halloween or with Christmas, but seeing as I didn’t get a chance to see it during Halloween. I decided to put it into my Christmas marathon.  I’m a huge Tim Burton fan so if there was a movie for every event in my life to see one, I would put one in.  Although, do I really  need a reason to put a Tim Burton movie in the Blu-ray player? Honestly, not really.

So for Christmas, we have this beautiful flick:

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993)

Director: Henry Selick

Writer: Tim Burton (story)

Cast: Danny Elfman, Catherine O’Hara, Chris Sarandon, Ken Page

This sets in Halloweenland.  Halloween has just passed and everyone’s job there is to be scary to the max during Halloween.  Jack Skellington, the Pumpking King is tired of always hearing screams, instead he wants to look for something different.  That night, he walked with Zero, his ghost dog, in the forest and he walks up to trees with different doors on them.  One of the doors shaped like a Christmas tree attracts him and he falls into a colourful bright town which he learns is called Christmas Town.  This is where Santa Claus lives with his elves and prepare for Christmas.  He discovers all their traditions and tries to bring it back to Halloweentown and be the new Santa Claus.  If you haven’t seen it, then you’ll just have to watch it to see what happens.

This movie is filled with songs and music.  The stop-action animation is absolutely stunning.  The concept and the story is amazingly fun and entertaining.  You wouldn’t expect any less from a story thought up by Tim Burton and his stories.  Who else would think of bring Halloween and Christmas together? Actually, as I was watching it this time around, its the first time after I finished reading through a book about Tim Burton’s art/concept art that I bought from the Tim Burton exhibit a few years back, I appreciated this even more.  Jack Skellington’s expressions had so much variety.  The characters all had such detail.  Its a beautiful movie in general.  I just love everything about it. The voices, the music, the story, everything is so perfect.

I own the Collector’s Edition of this movie so with it, there was also a reading of the original poem from Tim Burton and it was based on.  That was narrated by Christopher Lee and supported with Tim Burton’s art in the background.  That was really fun to watch.

Whether you choose to watch this for Halloween or Christmas, its a must see.