A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Date Viewed: 7/17/05

Details:

Johnny Depp

David Kelly

Helena Bonham Carter

Deep Roy

Freddie Highmore (Charlie Bucket)

Anna-Sophia Robb (Violet Beauregarde)

Julia Winter (Veruca Salt)

Jordan Fry (Mike Teavee)

Philip Wiegratz (Augustus Gloop)

Director: Tim Burton

Score: 1/2

The Review: Oddly bizarre rendition of Roald Dahl's children's book. It's hard to recommend blindly, since it will prove an acquired taste for fans of Dahl, Burton or Depp.

A mysterious candy factory has been operating for several years with no obvious employees; its owner, Willy Wonka, decides to offer a lottery to select five children (and a parental figure for each) for whom to open the factory and take them on a tour. Of course, with one exception, the kids are caricatures of excess & annoyance. In this version, Depp seems to model his character more after Michael Jackson -- the entertainer, not the beer and malt whisky taster -- and this makes the movie all that more spooky, although granted, Wonka does not like kids at all.

Several throw-away allusions, homage or jokes in musical form: 60's pop songs ("Good Morning Sunshine"); at least one Busby Berkely production number; "2001" and Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra." These add substantially to the entertainment. But when the Oompa-Loompa's start singing, my brain went into deep-freeze -- awful, stupid, silly -- and you have to put up with it at least four times.

Really cool opening score with Danny Elfman; but for the majority of the movie, the score is invisible -- perhaps this shows skill, but I like to hear Elfman's work, so that aspect was a bit disappointing.

(30-Jul-05)

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