Movie Reviews By Movie Reviews Pro

Alice in Wonderland

Rating:

Movie: Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Studio : Paramount Pictures

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 108 min

Website : aliceinwonderland

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcevm5

Review:

Roger Ebert was the person who got me started reviewing movies for my middle school newspaper. In preparing for my reviews, I usually read his, and he came to an epiphany about Alice in Wonderland: Lewis Carroll didn’t write it for children. As I watched the film, I reflected back to when I was six years old, when I first saw the film. I remembered being completely confused throughout the film and somewhat frightened when Alice was being chased by the Queen and her mob of cards (I also thought back to why my friends and I were so fascinated by it during college). As I write this review, I realize Tim Burton was the perfect candidate to direct this version, which plays like a tripped-out nightmare (which Carroll’s story essentially is).

This version starts off with little Alice having just returned from Wonderland, being comforted by her father. We quickly cut to Alice at age 19 (likably played by Mia Wasikowska), who is about to enter an arranged marriage with Hamish Ascot, a total doofus (Leo Bill). Rightfully afraid of the monotonous life that awaits her, she flees in the middle of the ceremony and chases another white rabbit down a hole. Two seconds later, she’s back in Underland and off on a new adventure.

The visual elements here are amazing, as is characteristic of Burton. Bonham Carter has (literally) taken on a swelled head for the role of the vengeful, jealous Red Queen, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum are complete grotesques. Burton also gives this world a very dark-looking tone, which is actually even more fitting for the story than the generally pleasant-looking one of the 1951 animated version.

Burton mainstay Tim Burton gives the Mad Hatter (who turns out to be an instrumental ally in Alice’s quest) a third dimension. The story, while slow in spots, picks up when Alice is thrust into a war between the Red Queen and her sister, the benevolent White Queen (Anne Hathaway). There’s also one memorable exchange between Carter and Hathaway that allows us to peer into the mind of the evil Red Queen and infer how she came to be the creature that she is.

I enjoyed the movie, but I’ll warn parents of very young children that this is only for ages 8 and up. A very young child left the theater with his mother, in tears at one of the more violent sequences. However, in a few years, the kid probably will be enthralled by it, as will the parents.

-Craig Wynne

Adventure, Family, Fantasy Adventure, Alice in Wonderland, Family, Fantasy, tim burton

Shutter Island

Rating:

Movie: Shutter Island (2010)

Studio : Paramount Pictures

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 138 min

Website : shutterisland.com

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbyi72

Review:

Having been a huge fan of such classic Martin Scorsese films like The Departed, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull, I had been anticipating the release of Shutter Island ever since I saw the first preview. And I’m glad I got the opportunity to see it.

Set in 1954, the movie starts Scorsese regular Leonardo DiCaprio as Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshal who’s been sent to Ashcliffe, a hospital for the criminally insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient who drowned her children. Accompanying him is fellow Marshal Chuck Aule (played by a characteristically muted Mark Ruffalo).

The hospital is located on an island just off the coast of Massachusetts, and we open as Daniels and Aule are introduced to each other on the ferry ride in, but there’s something about the gray skies and rough waters on their journey that give ominous hints of things to come.

We meet Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow), who carry a friendly guise, but appear to have something more sinister lurking beneath. They’re reluctant to offer information to the lawmen on their investigation, so DiCaprio does some snooping around on his own.

DiCaprio digs into his character well, as he shows a man troubled by his experiences in World War II along with the recent death of his wife. As he spends more time on the island, he begins to undergo hallucinations starring his wife, and there are hints that he could just become one of the patients.

The first half of the movie appears to be a hyped-up whodunit, and an excellent one at that. Scorsese appears to layer the investigation piece by piece, as DiCaprio and Ruffalo meet with a wide assortment of characters on the island that seem to lead them towards something more complex than the case of an escaped murderess.

For this part, the hallucinations, while necessary in establishing DiCaprio’s character, seemed to be overdone and were somewhat distracting from the actual case itself. However, this being a Scorsese film, there are a few surprises, and I can’t write too much more about it without giving away a twist that I half-predicted. However, it did end up surprising me and had me thinking the next day.

The movie is visually impressive as well. A hurricane approaches, and there are a couple tautly filmed sequences starring a lighthouse at the edge of the island, as well as some harrowingly tight cliffs and high-splashing waves that echo of Cape Fear. This movie proves once again why Scorsese is the legend that he is.

-Craig Wynne

Drama, In Theaters, Mystery crime, Drama, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Mystery