Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a review by Tom

Title: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Year: 2005
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: PG
Length: 115 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Surround EX, French: Dolby Digital Surround EX, Spanish: Dolby Digital Surround EX
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Johnny Depp
Freddie Highmore
David Kelly
Helena Bonham Carter
Noah Taylor

Plot:
What wonders await you in Willy Wonka's factory? Explore fields of soft minty sugar grass in the Chocolate Room...Sail along the Chocolate River in a pink sugar boat...Experiment with Everlasting Gobstoppers in the Inventing Room...Observe talented squirrels in the Nut Room and travel to the Television Room by a glass elevator. You'll find a lot that's funny, a little that's mysterious...and an adventure as sweet and satisfying as a Wonka Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight bar. This dazzling film adapted from Roald Dahl's classic children's novel, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp and Freddie Highmore, is your Golden Ticket to a world so inventive, so imaginative, you won't want to miss a delicious moment!

Extras:
Closed Captioned
DVD-ROM Content
Featurettes
Interactive Game
Scene Access
Trailers

When I have first seen the trailer for this movie, I was thinking that they have Willy Wonka looking and acting too much like a parody of Michael Jackson.
But then when I saw this movie, I was proven otherwise.
At first I thought, that this movie wouldn't come close to the "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" movie (especially the performace of Gene Wilder in that one). But because this is not a simple remake of that movie, but actually stayed closer to the original book, this movie has its own merits.
Though I must admit, that I liked the songs in the old movie better. But I liked that they used different music styles for each song in this movie.
Just why must any Danny Elfman opening theme music sound like his Batman theme? I noticed this in Planet of the Apes, Spider-Man and here.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on May 2nd, 2009)

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Carnival of Souls, a review by addicted2dvd

This weekend I decided to do some classic movies. I have not been a fan of classic movies for very long at all... I would say probably just a few years. Before that it was like pulling teeth to try to get me to watch anything earlier then 1980!

This weekend I decided to go with classics when I started to profile all the disc that came in a free boxset I got for subscribing to the Total Movie & Entertainment Magazine. This boxset has 40 classic movies (well what they consider classics) on 20 DVDs.


Carnival of Souls (1962)
Mary Henry is enjoying the day by riding around in a car with two friends. When challenged to a drag, the women accept, but are forced off of a bridge. It appears that all are drowned, until Mary, quite some time later, amazingly emerges from the river. After recovering, Mary accepts a job in a new town as a church organist, only to be dogged by a mysterious phantom figure that seems to reside in an old run-down pavilion. It is here that Mary must confront the personal demons of her spiritual insouciance.

My Thoughts:
As soon as I popped this one in it looked vaguely familiar. Turns out at some point I did see this one before... not sure if I caught it on cable one evening... or if I watched this disc shortly after I got it... but I did remember it more and more as I went on. It is a movie that I enjoyed a lot! I would love to get a better version of it. The quality on this one left much to be desired... but it was better then I was expecting it to be. It felt like I was watching a VHS tape that someone had recorded... on the slowest speed. I also had to turn up my volume quite a bit since the audio was rather low. but other then that it was just fine. But as I said... I will be looking for a better version on this one... hopefully with some extras!

(From Weekend Movie Marathon: Classics on August 17th, 2007)

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The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

JAG



What's the show about?
The JAG ist the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the United States Navy. They are charged with the defense and prosecution of military law as provided in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. We follow the cases of Lt. Harmon Rabb jr., a former fighter pilot and his partner Maj. Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie all around the world.

"Pilot"
The CAG of the aircraft carrier USS Seahawk and his female Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) shoot down two MIGs over the Adriatic Sea. In the night after that the RIO is being thrown overboard and killed. Lt Rabb and Lt. jg. Pike take over the investigation of the missing RIO...

My Opinion
This show had its highs and its lows. Being not an US-american the patriotism was sometimes a bit to much for my taste, especially when it came to the Iraq war. Also that "we are the best of the best of the best"-attitude was an overdose at times. But in the big picture I liked the show.

(From The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon on January 5th, 2008)

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