 When I went into this, I had only seen 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' once before, a few years ago. However, I had the pleasure of sharing this with someone I know is a big fan of the original film, and I'm happy to say that we both left it satisfied. Right off the bat, one would think it has a few strikes against it, just between being an origin story and having someone new playing Wonka, as Gene Wilder is incredibly hard to top. But while perhaps not perfect, I still got pretty much what I expected from this, and that's a good thing.
I will say right from the get-go that this takes place in a fantasy world as a whole, as opposed to the original, which I found only fantastical while inside Wonka's factory. It's pretty easy to forgive because one has to question where the magic came from in the first place, right down to an entire race of dancing, singing creatures with orange skin and green hair. This tells us a lot of what we may have wanted to know about Willy Wonka, the man, complete with his childhood dreams of running the best chocolate factory in the world and the trouble he runs into along the way. Here, we meet Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) as a magician and inventor who has a special skill with making chocolate by using the most fantastically rare ingredients from the darkest, most exotic parts of the world. He comes to Europe in an attempt to establish a chocolate shop at the Galeries Gourmet, set in a fictional town modeled after a combination of London, Paris and Prague. Upon is arrival, and a pretty solid musical number to introduce himself, Wonka finds himself suddenly broke and setting up camp on a nearby bench. Here, Wonka meets a gruff-looking stranger named Bleacher (Tom Davis) who offers him a place to stay at the boarding house of Mrs. Scrubitt (Olivia Colman). He signs a document, spends the night, and in the morning heads to town to try to sell his chocolate for the first time. Despite intrigue from citizens of the town, however, he is quickly shut down by a trio of chocolate company owners, Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Prodnose (Matt Lucas) and Fickelgruber (Mathew Baynton) after which he returns to the boarding house to pay for his night with the little bit left for him. Upon trying to pay, however, Wonka is tricked into staying after failing to read the fine print under the document Scrubitt has him sign upon his arrival. He is then forced into the basement to work in laundry along with several others who failed to read the fine print, namely, a girl who goes only by "Noodle" (Calah Lane) whom he eventually befriends along with former accountant Abacus Crunch (Jim Carter), former telephone operator Lottie Bell (Rakhee Thakrar), former failed comedian Larry Chucklesworth (Rich Fulcher) and Piper Benz (Natasha Rothwell), whose former occupation I frankly don't recall. While Mrs. Scrubitt and Bleacher run things like some sort of sweat shop, Wonka and Noodle try to figure out a way to get his more than worthy chocolate to the outside world and hopefully get themselves free. But even if they manage, they'll have the other three professional choclateeers to deal with, trying to stop him every step of the way. And while this remains a prequel, and we basically know how it all works out in the end, it is nevertheless entertaining to get to see how it all went down, right down to our first meeting with an Oompa Loompa (Hugh Grant). Atmospherically, it's somewhere between 'Paddington' as far as its charm and whimsy and 'Fantastic Beasts' as far as the magical aspects of it. To put it very simply, this is a nice, family-friendly movie that's full of great and, I would say, clevely written music and just a fun time, all around. I can't deny that there were actually several laugh out loud moments for me here, and none of them are really low-brow. I can't promise the die-hards will enjoy this, but I have to argue that it does a very good job for what it is, and recommend checking it out if you're on the lookout for something that is bound to leave you with a smile. 4/5
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 I love when a movie like this comes along in more ways than one. First and foremost, it's a divide in overall criticism. While fans and average movie-goers enjoy it, critics seem to have another thought process. And, as one might expect, when it comes to my own humble opinion, the movie is... okay. But I must admit that I lean more toward the audience on this one because, if nothing else, it could provide us with another decent family-friendly title to watch for the Halloween season. Personally, I tend to have fun with such films.
One may remember the Eddie Murphy vehicle of the same name from 20 years ago. I suppose it's not remembered in the best light when you look at it, so Disney thought a re-do of what could be a really cool concept would be a good move. I would have to say that while there's improvement, things still aren't necessarily perfected. However, what's incredibly refreshing to me was that I thought several scenes in this would work very well for a kid's first toe-dips into the horror genre. My generation had a few Disney movies for "spooky" purposes, which were pretty effective. It's nice to see that come back! We meet Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield), an astrophysicist developing a special camera to detect dark matter. One unfortunate day, he loses his wife, Alyssa (Charity Jordan), in a car accident and takes over her ghost tour of New Orleans. Since losing Alyssa, Ben becomes much more skeptical of the concept of a potential "other side", replacing the idea of her ghost tour with a walking tour of the various historical sights of the city. Meanwhile, single mother Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son, Travis (Chase Dillon), move into Gracey Manor, looking for a fresh start by converting the mansion into a bed & breakfast. They learn how haunted the place is very quickly and run as fast as their legs can carry them. Ben is eventually visited by a priest, Father Kent (Owen Wilson), who hires him to photograph the ghosts using his special camera. Ben visits the mansion, and we notice Gabbie and Travis are back. We eventually learn that if someone visits the mansion and goes home, a supernatural entity will follow them. Kent has also fallen victim to this. It's almost as though the spirits act as sheep herders for anyone who enters Gracey Manor and tries to leave. Soon enough, the four try to get to the bottom of these hauntings by assembling what Kent calls a "Dream Team" for the supernatural - he is a supposed exorcist. This "Dream Team" consists of the four characters above, a well-renowned psychic (or, as she insists, medium) with legitimate abilities, Harriet (Tiffany Haddish), and Professor Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito), a historian for haunted locations who has blueprints to Gracey Manor in his possession. As the group does some digging, they uncover a dark history behind the mansion's previous owner involving a powerful psychic (sorry, medium) named Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis), the mansion's previous owner, William Gracey (J.R. Adduci), and the dark entity he accidentally summoned who messed everything up, the "Hatbox Ghost" (Jared Leto). As mentioned before, it is super refreshing to see something aimed at kids/family with genuine creepiness. It doesn't get hardcore with anything, but the film sets the spooky atmosphere quite well. The film also has a good amount of humour and heart, which act as buffers against the darkness of it all, and it makes for a fun time. I'm particularly impressed with Tiffany Hadish here, as she doesn't play her typical over-the-top loud self. While definitely still meant to be comedy relief, she does things more subtly here, and I enjoyed her performance. This is the kind of movie a family could watch together as a Halloween treat. I'd say it has the fun, family side of 'Casper', but has the dark side of 'The Haunting'. It's creepy to some degree for the younger audience, especially with a kid to relate to. But the film's sense of humour and lightheartedness given to an otherwise terrifying situation makes up for it. The film's likeable cast also spans generations with its talented, familiar names. There's a character here for everyone. Some details, like writing and special effects, could use a makeover here and there, but again, there's nothing that bad about this. Put simply, it's fun. 3/5  Another live-action Disney remake has come along from the Disney Renaissance era of the 90s to cash in on things, and this time it's all about exploring under the sea with 'The Little Mermaid'. I have a tricky time with these remakes at the best of times, but when we're talking about a remake of something from the short time I was laser-focused on Disney animation as a kid, I'm bound to have my problems here and there. But I also get that there's an idea of bringing these stories to a new generation.
'The Little Mermaid' was a particular old favourite of mine, and a lot of that had to do with my love of the character Sebastian the Crab. Heck, I even had an album full of him doing Caribbean song covers, that honestly wouldn't make for a bad summertime fun album using all of the original songs like "Three Little Birds", "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" and "Hot, Hot, Hot". ANYWAY, this was definitely one I went into with low expectations. Like so many of these, I was pretty sure I'd leave thinking the same things I usually do, being a combination of "meh" and "I prefer the original". But having said that, again, I suppose this is aimed a little more towards the new generation. Just to recap for the three people out there who haven't seen the original, Ariel (Halle Bailey) is a mermaid and the youngest daughter of King Triton (Javier Bardem), the ruler of the mermaid city of Atlantica. She is fascinated with the unseen world above, despite Triton's objections towards the human race for once killing her mother.A little more adventurous than her several sisters, with the help of a fish named Flounder (Jacob Tremblay) and a seabird named Scuttle (Awkwafina), she collects objects and trinkets that have sunken to the ocean floor, such as Dinglehoppers, thingamabobs and other whosits and whatsits galore. One day, she comes too close to the humans when she discovers a sailing ship with a handsome young prince named Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) on board. A storm shows up, crashing the ship into some rocks, knocking Eric overboard, and Ariel rescues him. A foggy Eric doesn't quite see Ariel's face but takes her soothing siren song to heart, and soon becomes haunted by the mysterious woman who saved his life. But while Eric is just mystified, it's love at first sight for Ariel, and she wants to be part of his world. Triton, of course, doesn't take this well, and the father and daughter have a bit of a falling out. This leads her to a sea witch named Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) who gives her a deal: She can turn Ariel into a human for three days in exchange for her mermaid abilities - most importantly, her siren song. She must then receive "true love's kiss" in order to become human permanently. If she doesn't, she changes back into a mermaid to be a slave for Ursula. Ariel reluctantly takes the deal and before long meets up with Eric, who seemingly falls for her back. However, Eric is still haunted by the mysterious girl who rescued him, who he doesn't realize is Ariel. It then becomes a race against time for Ariel, aided by Flounder, Scuttle and my dude, Sebastian the Crab (Daveed Diggs)... but will they succeed? One of the things that I wondered about going into this was the musical numbers, and how they would all play out. I experienced the exact same thing here as I did in 'The Lion King' with "I Just Can't Wait to be King". This rendition of "Under the Sea" sounds good, but the overall sequence isn't as fun as the original. Though not without its charm, I still say the only one of these to do the (what I like to call) "Fun Song" well, was 'Beauty and the Beast' with "Be Our Guest", making it a grand visual spectacle. Maybe it's just me, but I simply didn't get the same kick I did from the original here. There are a few new songs here too, so if you don't like musicals, I dunno if this one's for you. But I did enjoy the "Scuttlebutt" song. Performance-wise, everyone did well. The stand-out to me, of all people, was Melissa McCarthy's performance as Ursula. This was definitely a role she had a lot of fun doing, and it shows. Ariel, however, is a bit of a mixed bag. I thought she came across as kind of deadpan in this whereas the original Ariel was more whimsical... but I've gotta give it to her, she has a beautiful singing voice, actually sounding very similar to the original Jodi Benson. Altogether, the film is pretty well-balanced, and it does take away some things that don't exactly stand these days (like the whole French chef song), but much like anything else Disney live-action remakes, I'll probably just stick to the original. 3/5 |
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