Starring: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway
Director: Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd)
Running Time: 1 hr 48 min
Release Date: March 5, 2010
Budget: $200 million
Critics Thumbs Up: 57%
a one-of-a-kind movie experience. Pete Hammond, Boxoffice Magazine
A charmless, vandalized version of a classic. John DeVore, Premiere
First Alice downs a magical potion reading Drink me. Then she gobbles a cake reading Eat me. Well, the poster of this fantasy film should read Watch me. Based on Lewis Carrolls classic childrens novel, Burton creates a whimsical, gothic, immensely inspired tale. Newcomer Wasikowska plays Alice, an imaginative 19-year-old suffocated by the upright rules of a stuffy Victorian society and faced with an unappealing engagement to a dweeby aristocrat. As the story goes, Alice falls down that notorious rabbit hole, falling into Underland where she meets familiar faces like the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) and the Mad Hatter (Depp) before embarking on her journey to taken down the evil Red Queen (Bonham Carter). While the storyline is simple and often predictable, Alice boasts breathtaking set pieces, dynamic dialogue, vivid characters and exuberant performances. Wasikowska is understated as Alice, yet deftly captures her mix of innocence and idealism. Depp is also delightfully kooky as the Hatter, but Bonham Carter rules not only Underland but also the film with her daring, boisterous performance as the ruthless but vulnerable queen.
Starring: Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle
Director: Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, King Arthur)
Running Time: 2 hrs 13 min
Release Date: March 5, 2010
Budget: $17 million
Critics Thumbs Up: 40%
worth catching Andrew OHehir, Salon.com
shallow, dumb, derivative and infuriating Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
It features interesting, complex characters and solid performances, but the overabundance of violence and a weak script make it enough not to recommend Brooklyns Finest. From the director of Training Day, Fuqua unsuccessfully tries to recreate the formers grittiness and intensity in his latest crime thriller. Gere, Hawke, and Cheadle play three NYPD cops who are battling with suicidal thoughts, moral dilemmas and professional misconduct, respectively. Besides the performances, Fuquas imagining and creation of Brooklyn are vivid, but the film is too long and its storyline is weighed down with cop clichs and lazy imitations of other cop movies while essentially ignoring any contemplation on the obvious theme of morality.
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