Alice in Shutter(is)land

I know I have a million things to review, but these are the most recent, so I thought I would mention something about them while they're still fresh in my mind.

Shutter Island: ★★★★★
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Dicaprio team up once again for a psychological thriller about an inescapable island which contains a hospital for the criminally insane. Dicaprio plays a federal marshal, who goes to the island to find a missing patient. Wackiness ensues. First, let me just say that both of the full yellow stars go to the cast for outsanding performances. In fact, the bits of the movie that were just movie were really, really good. Unfortunately, there were parts of the movie that tried to be art, fell drastically short, and just ended up being annoying. The biggest bone I had to pick with this film was with the soundtrack. Honestly, this rates worse than the Troy soundtrack in terms of trying to convey meaning to an audience which is apparently too stupid to gather it from the information provided. Instead of music, they may as well have had a voice over saying "something suspenseful is happening" or "something is going to jump out at you now" or even, "this is creepy, in case you didn't know". For a better understanding of what I'm getting at, both in terms of music and movies attempting to be art, see the Mirror, Father Mirror scene from Ghost World here.


Alice in Wonderland: ★★★★★
Being that this was number (I think 7) of the Johnny Depp + Tim Burton movies (I think it's number 4 with Helena Bohem Carter (with Johnny Depp), number 2 including Alan Rickman), I expected to thoroughly enjoy it. I was not disappointed. Along with the aforementioned cast members, Stephen Fry joined the mix, and was, as expected, quite excellent.

This movie does not follow the book (thank jebus). It's more of a sequal to the book, with some familiar scenes, but mostly just completely original. Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter had a lot more depth to him than I was expecting. Also, newcomer Mia Wasikowska did very well as Alice, and Chrisopher Lee was the best Jaberwocky ever, even if it is actually called a Jaberwock in the book and Jaberwocky is the name of the poem.

The only things I wasn't thrilled with were the ending (which made me kinda sad) and the Mad Hatter's dance (which was just ridiculous). Those two things cost the movie a whole star, but still, I'd watch it again (and again, and again)