Fashionably Late Review: Alice in Wonderland

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Felipe M.

Alice in Wonderland is one of the most enduring stories in the history of Western Civilization, helped with the golden touch of Disney who has decided that they needed to revive the already popular tale about a girl who falls down a hole after her undying curiosity attracted her to an albino rabbit.

Tim Burton is famous for showing his audience some of the most bizarre plots, visuals, and settings ever known in Cinema. However, in “Alice” he feels right at home—a little bit too comfortable with just settling for his own standards of status quo as this film’s aesthetics is missing a lot of Burton’s weirdness. As if Burton had decided that he was going to rest on his laurels and take a lackadaisical approach in directing this film. To his credit, he did, predictably so, made this new “Alice” into a very dark world, which undoubtedly was one of his goals. Mission Accomplished!

The real treat in this movie was in the wonderful performances from all actors involved, especially the voice acting, beginning with the always fantastic Alan Rickman (as a hookah smoking, blue caterpillar), Stephen Fry (awesome performance as the Cheshire Cat), and Barbara Windsor (providing the voice of Dormouse). Also worthy of note was the stellar performance of Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen as the author never got tired of hearing her famous catchphrase, “off with their heads!” And of course, Johnny Depp was being Johnny Depp, proving why he and Tim Burton should always be attached at the hip.

The movie, undeniably entertaining, was however missing something. There was no hidden message to decipher as this film should be taken at face value meaning everything that happened in the film should be taken literally. The closest the film comes to commentating about any social issues, past or present, occurs before she falls down the hole and her future mother-in-law asked Alice, at her upscale engagement party, if she knew what her biggest fear was, to which Alice sharply replied, “Is it the decline of Aristocracy?” That’s as far as satirical this movie gets as the rest of the film is very clichéd and has very little originality and creativity (good vs. evil, dark world vs. light world, ordinary protagonist needs to tap potential to save the world, etc.). Also, the film’s supposed bread and butter, the CGI, is not used to enhance the movie, but rather it feels like a gimmick—worse if you paid the extra money to see it in 3D—a style that was implemented because that style is the status quo of the current era.

Nevertheless, let’s not forget that this film was not a vehicle for Tim Burton to take risks; rather it was a chance for Tim Burton and Johnny Depp to make lots and lots of money for the Dinsey (sic) Corporation. Mission Accomplished!

Christmas 2009 Movies

by: Felipe M
So back in January, I reviewed a few Christmas movies for my company's newsletter. The following are the highlights of those reviews: 

--> Sherlock Holmes--2 AND A HALF STARS
-->Guy Ritchie's adaptation of the most famous detective in the history of the world is certainly an interesting one. Our hero is on the teetering brink of bi-polar disorder, but he's not completely mentally handicapped because he has the greatest power known to man: his powers of deduction. Plus our brainy hero also has fists of fury and abs rigid enough to be used as a 19th century washboard. His sidekick, Dr. Watson also comes fully equipped with Mixed Martial Arts skills and a very effective fighter--despite a gimpy leg. Besides turning these 1800s gentlemen into X-Men, the movie's other flaws include a lackluster storyline, yawn-inducing action and fighting sequences, pompous dialogue, horrible computer generated graphics, and a rushed ending.

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THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG—4 STARS

Disney returns to its roots by creating an old-school, hand-drawn animated feature with more dark-skinned protagonists than what they are used to creating. Set in one of the more unique cities in America, a pre-WWI New Orleans, LA, the story tells of a hard working young black woman named Tiana, whose sole goal is to save enough money to open up her own restaurant. However, when she finally has enough money saved up to buy property for her restaurant, the sellers informed Tiana that another higher bid was made and that she was better off not having the responsibility of a property owner citing reasons that were subtly racists and sexist. That's as close as Disney will get to bring up the socio-political issues of early 20th century America, but it is still a wonderful story with unique characters and lessons encouraging hard work, hope, and companionship over materialism. The real treat, however, comes in the quick tour the film takes the audience of New Orleans from the famous Bourbon Street to its mysterious bayous with a soundtrack that will leave the audience toe-tapping to the beats of Louisiana, from R&B and jazz, to country and Cajun tunes.

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UP IN THE AIR—4 STARS

George Clooney plays the interesting Ryan Bingham, a man who makes a living flying all over the country firing people for companies who don't have the personnel courageous enough to do it themselves. Bingham likes the lifestyle his job brings him, even if its a lifestyle of a lonely nomad. The hook that Bingham uses to relieve people of their duties is one of (false) optimism citing that the firing is not the end, rather the start of a new chapter in their lives. This film just seems so appropriate with the current state of the world as director Jason Reitman has created a biography of post-911 U.S. society with its culture of consumerism, individual aspirations of attaining elite status, and the crippling effects, as a result of a decade long horrible U.S. economy, that a job firing has on people and their families that prevent them from, at the very least, maintaining a status quo existence. Even though Reitman's message comes off as sort of pretentious, but positively necessary in a point in history where the greatest country in the world can no longer guarantee the "American Dream" to its own citizens.

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AVATAR—5 STARS

This film is unspeakbly indescribable! Video game developers would have a daunting task in recreating the world of Pandora that James Cameron has built in this movie with an attention to detail that has not been seen since--perhaps ever in the history of cinema. With solid performances from everyone, most notably from the very talented Giovanni Ribisi who brings back memories of Boiler Room. Playing the role of a corporate villain, Ribisi delivers the best line of the movie when he states that a corporations' biggest pet peeve is being associated with bloodshed--however, the only thing that a corporation hates more than bloodshed is a bad quarterly report. The film's storyline is parallel to that of History's conflict between the power-hungry Western Civilizations in their encounters with foreign lands and the Natives who live there; a retrospective look at human-to-human interactions if you will. Whatever awards and praises this film has received heretofore is undeniably deserving.