Charlie and the Chocolate Factory


It's worth seeing, but it's not a keeper.

Adam and Kayla liked this movie, so we went to see it on a family date. That's saying something, because they find the Gene Wilder version from 1971 to be very creepy: they don't like it. I thought it was fun, but it's not quite the "wow, that was a great movie" experience that I expected from the title. Bear in mind that I usually don't enjoy Tim Burton's dark film approach, so maybe that's part of the problem.

Roger Ebert and others seem to think that Depp's Wonka came from Michael Jackson. Nah. I think the IMDB movie review was more on target: Wonka is simply socially inept and stunted due to (1) Count Dooku is his Dentist Father, and (2) his only company for the past 15 years are cloned oompa loompas. Johnny Depp says he just wanted to do the "dark, dangerous" side of Willie Wonka from the book while avoiding Gene Wilder's version, which Depp adored while he was growing up.

Charlie and his grandpa were loads of fun to watch.


"Everything in here is eatable. I am eatable, but that, children, is cannibalism, and is frowned upon in most modern societies."

Posted: Thu - July 28, 2005 at 12:53 PM           | |

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