Movie Reviews

Saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last night with Jeep.

I definitely liked it better than the original. Apparently it was more true to the book. Personally for me, it was a matter of Johnny Depp versus Gene Wilder. Gene Wilder played some sort of mellowed-out, groovy hippy Willie Wonka, in keeping with the decade in which it was made. Depp plays more of an arrogant but earnest Peter Pan type (although I did get a very greasy Michael Jackson vibe at times). Tim Burton was much more suitable for this story... taking it away from the psychadelic pastels of the original and into the chocolate browns and blacks, where it should be.

Also, Roger Ebert reviewed a Thai movie that came out last year and is now on DVD in America: Ong Bak... a martial arts film, Thai Style. (In Thai Style, there is a lot more judo, limb locks, et cetera. Also, you see elbows and knees used for striking, as opposed to just hands and feet.) I've seen another Thai martial arts movie since seeing Ong Bak, and they definitely have that "we want to impress" approach: Ong Bak uses no special affects or strings. Tom Yung Goong (the second movie) has a now-famous uninterrupted 5-minute fight scene shot in one take. Personally, the fight scene with the 7-foot-4 Australian guy was the highlight for me.

Still though, the movie from Thailand I want every American to see eventually is Shutter, which is from the movie genre that Thai people do best: Horror films. It's a movie about a photographer and his girlfriend who are haunted by the ghost of a girl they hit with their car... but the ghost can only be seen in the photographs that the photographer takes. Shutter had the greatest ending to a horror film ever. It wasn't as much of a mindfk as Blair Witch, but did have it's moments. It's more visual than Blair Witch... my second-most favorite horror movie after this one. It's definitely my favorite Thai movie - by a half.

Stealth is the stupidest movie I have seen in a while. Of course, it only cost me 100 baht so I'm not too angry. My principle gripe is this: Three, count-em-one-two-three, times in this movie, pilots take off in their jet planes in broad daylight (once — the first time — they actually stated the time of day: Mid-morning), and then drop their bombs minutes later in the middle of the night.

Still though... I love my action movies. Cars / planes / spaceships / people / things zipping around / exploding / racing / or just looking eye-candy cool... that's good enough for me to enjoy the movie. (Which tells you how bad Stealth had to be, since it had all of the above.)

So my favorite movie for the foreseeable future is Spiderman 2. Love it love it love it.