(USA) Comedy/Horror/Fantasy. Directed by Tim Burton. Starring Johnny Depp, Eva Green, Helena Bonham Carter, Michelle Pfeiffer. Category IIA. 113 minutes. Opened May 10.
(USA) By far Tim Burton’s best film in a long, long time after lackluster projects like Big Fish (2003) and the half-baked musical Sweeney Todd (2007), Alice in Wonderland, based on the Lewis Carroll classic of the same name, is a lot of fun, with flashes of comic spark, great 3D effects (in the vein of Avatar, but more playful), great costumes and overall spiffy pacing—Burton hardly wastes any time and gets the ball rolling in the weird and wonderful Wonderland (or rather, Underland), where the film is set.
Category III. This is the best thing to happen in the world of musicals since Andrew Lloyd Webber’s cat destroyed the score to the “Phantom of the Opera” sequel. Who would have thought a hefty dose of murder and misanthropy could bring a traditionally divisive medium to the general public? The answer, of course, is the same twisted minds that could welcome the notion of a struggling pie business winning over the masses by stuffing its products with human flesh.
Bring lots of chocolate to snack on while watching the Tim Burton directed “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory” - you’ll need it just to get through the long credit sequence during which Wonka bars are made and shipped. Later on, there are several scenes taking place on or around the thick, sumptuous chocolate river. If this doesn’t make you feverishly crave a bite or two of the stuff, you’re at the wrong movie.
