Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - jbmcb - Films/DVD Asylum

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Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Saw it tonight at the AMC Forum 30
Woah, this one is hard to pin down. You have Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory running in the back of your head while watching it, so it's odd seeing familiar scenes with semi-familiar characters doing things differently. The easiest way to do this is a scorecard:
Positives:
More filled out story
Oompa-Loompas are even more creepy and strange
The chocolate factory is as nuts as the first movie, but even more so
The actors were pretty good, played slightly different than the original movie, but in a mostly good way
The TV scene is now outstanding, very nice movie references in there
Negatives:
More fleshed out story removes some of the mystery and craziness
The oompa-loompa songs were rather uneven
Some of the scenes seemed kind of clunky
My favorite scene from the first, the invention room, is very slimmed down
The slick new effects sometimes detract from the strangeness of the original
Draw:
Wilder vs. Depp - Very differently played, but both good
The end of the new one is more complete, but there was nothing really wrong with the end of the original
The audience, very mixed adults and kids, seemed to love it. It's really very funny, with the twisted humor of the original. I wish I had read the book before, to compare, but I've read the sequel and this version of the movie seemed to capture Dahl's off-kilter humor very well. If you liked the first one you'll probably like this one.
Overall: 80/100 on my patented absolute scale, which is about what I'd give the original

/*Music is subjective. Sound is not.*/

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Topic - Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - jbmcb 19:52:57 07/16/05 (12)

Back to the Chocolate Factory - WinthorpeIII 11:43:49 07/23/05 (0)

Re: Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - HOK 11:52:36 07/17/05 (0)

Wilder was magical, Depp was dark. * - mr grits 09:48:46 07/17/05 (5)

Re: Wilder was magical, Depp was dark. * - Bolt 20:39:44 07/20/05 (0)

Depp had the correct take on the character, which should be dark. Wilder was just goofy (over the top). - Audiophilander 16:42:01 07/17/05 (3)

Re: Check out his wonderful - Jeff Starrs 08:12:09 07/18/05 (2)

Excellent! And in Spain it was being played as an "appetizer" to ... - orejones 08:25:16 07/18/05 (1)

Re: That's it! - Jeff Starrs 08:47:38 07/18/05 (0)

Did you have a problem.... - Cetaele 20:12:37 07/16/05 (3)

Re: Did you have a problem.... - Bolt 20:43:29 07/20/05 (0)

I bet Ebert to that punch. With the "Neverland" title of his last movie, - tinear 10:36:24 07/17/05 (0)

Willy Wonka & Michael Jackson? - jbmcb 20:18:43 07/16/05 (0)

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