The Dudes Charlie & The Chocolate Factory Review

You've read a bunch of reviews, and maybe have seen it for yourself, but I'm giving you my take on it.

First things first: The movie really made me wish I was still smoking a lot of reefer. Not so much the kind of slow first half, although that opening credits sequence ruled. But once they get to the factory, and its sheer lunacy, I really wanted to alter my consciousness for the experience. And imagine it that way in IMAX? I'd probably freak the hell out. (Remember kids: Don't do drugs! It's horrible and will ruin your life and will make you lambast movies on the internet when you should be doing other things like helping the elderly, or fixing your mini van to become a badass zombie decimating symbol of terror. If Blade Maxim looked like that, I could have cleared through traffic in no time.)

Right. Chocolate factory. I was a big fan of the original movie, and of the book, although I read the book in first grade. The first movie has it's flaws that I pick up on now as a more seasoned movie watcher, but it still holds that nostalgic charm, reminding me of rained in days at the Jersey Shore, huddled with some friends and watching the scene for the umpteenth time. The scene in the giant candy room where everything is edible still gets me and makes me grin like an idiot. Right now, I'm doing it. The movie was definitely a little creepy, and the songs were a bit of a drag until Gene Wilder or the Oompa Loompas started singing. But I have fond memories of it.

This new Burton version doesn't wipe out the old one's memory, which makes me happy. But I still liked this film on it's own merits. There were parts of dialog that exist in both, and are delivered perfectly, and that brought the comparison to the forefront. No matter how much Tim Burton will go on and say he hated the original film, and how much this version is exactly like the book (even though I'm not too sure on that one) this one owes a lot to the memory of the first.

(Real real off topic, I'm listening to streamingsoundtracks.com, an internet radio streaming site that plays soundtracks from movies, TV shows, and video games, all day long. Anyway the thing that's playing right now is from a musical episode of Xena Warrior Princess. It's crazy, and I have a lot more respect for the show, which I already held in pretty high regard, for having the moxy to make a musical episode. Bravo.)

The visuals in this Chocolate Factory are pure Burton, which I like and sort of missed in his films of late. The big candy room wasn't as grand to me this time around, but that was the thing I held above all from the previous films, so I wasn't expecting it to be better. The tunnel ride on the river of chocolate was spectacular, but should have gone on even longer. I loved the elevator sequence. I loved the look of the whole film, actually.

The acting: Man, that Freddie Highmore kid is heartbreaking in this. He's pretty much doing the same thing from Finding Neverland, but here, when he unwraps his birthday chocolate bar and sees no golden ticket, but shows the strength to not be too upset about it and share it with his family, it was moving as hell. And when he DOES get the golden ticket and says that he's not going to the chocolate factory because they can sell the ticket and get a lot of money for it so they can survive, I almost burst into tears. The kid is good. Much better than that Dakota Fanning. (She creeps me out a little bit). And just the sheer joy on his face at the factory, man.

The other actors are good. Depp was a little too strange, and I felt he was kind of trying a little too hard to be weird, but I still like him as Wonka. And David Kelly from Waking Ned Devine is a lot of fun as Grandpa Joe. Christopher Lee is great as Wonka's father, a dentist who approves not of candy, and who makes good on his promise of not being there when his son returns on his quest to find the great candies of the world. i liked that little bit the best). For some reason, I really felt like Christopher Walken should have been in this film. If they were doing it like the original, I would have suggested him as Slugworth.

The best actor though has gotta be Deep Roy, who plays the Oompa Loompas. He's perfectly deadpan, and he brings more lunacy to the table. The songs he sings when the children misbehave are a lot of fun. (And I love that Mike Teevee calls them out on it for seeming a bit rehearsed). Said songs, written by Danny Elfman which is par for the course with a Tim Burton film, are a lot of fun. My roommate and I can't stop singing the main Willy Wonka theme.

There are a lot of great moments in the film, and it's a lot of fun. A lot more fun than I expected it to be, and that's a good thing. It doesn't erase my memory of the original by a long shot, but it stands next to it as an equal.