Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory (2005)
reviewed by Brian "The Naked Gun" Felts
& Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell
Charlie, played by Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland,) is one of five children to win a worldwide contest
issued by candy maker Willy Wonka, played by Johnny Depp (Secret Window,) to visit his world famous chocolate
factory.
I liked Willy Wonka when I saw it as a kid. As I got older each time I watched I liked it less and
less to the point that I don't watch it now. I can't really say why I don't like watching it except
that it was a movie that spoke to kids and I just didn't care to watch it anymore. I feel the same
way about Charlie, there is nothing particularly wrong with the movie, and I just don't like it.
Now there are problems with the movie, namely the musical numbers with the Oompa Loompa's. The songs
they sing have been given a demented 70's 80's ballad as they sing about each kid and after the first
song, the lyrics get so mumbled that by the last song I couldn't understand a word they were saying.
Another problem that I have is that all of the kids in the first movie were very distinctive, in a way
that I had a love/hate relationship with them, specifically Veruca Salt. In this movie, none of the
kids inspired anything out of me, love, hate, annoyance, anything! The only kid who was enjoyable,
if I can call it that, to watch was Violet Beauregarde, played by Annasophia Robb (Because of Winn
Dixie.)
The production design was first rate and I would expect to see the designer Alex McDowell, get an
Academy Award® nomination for his work. Tim Burton brought his unique style of dark humor to this
movie that he has brought to Batman and Sleepy Hollow. I just don't think it worked for this story.
It did work for Johnny Depp, who seems to know exactly how to act in a Burton movie. However, this
is not Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka, more like a mix between Ichabod Crane and Ed Wood. It was very
weird.
I can't recommend this movie yet I would say don't listen to me, this movie is not for fat single
males. However, a friend of mine called, Erika, and she just told that her four year old was crying
at the movie because it was freaking her out, so maybe it doesn't appeal to kids either. I guess the
movie only appeals to women who like 5'10" 42 year old men who look 25 that can speak French and have
a I don't give a F**k attitude, gee wouldn't that be a surprise.
Brian - the Naked Gun This was a well made, new attempt at a classic children's book, but for some reason, like the movie musical "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" starring Gene Wilder, I simply couldn't make a connection with it.
Eventually, we find out Wonka was trying to weed out an heir for his fortune, factory and madness, and Charlie, having been chosen, has to decide whether or not to leave his poverty-stricken family behind. There were no surprises in this picture except for the four extremely annoying Umpa-Lumpa musical numbers. They drove me nuts and dragged the movie down. I was really looking forward to a telling of this story without a bunch of little people singing in a series of ridiculously choreographed scenes; apparently, that was too much to ask. Depp was as always very amusing and consistent. I can imagine he made director Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood) very happy once again with his abilities as a character actor. Academy Award®? No, but still very good. I thought the film was very well made, minus the musical numbers, and deserves to be seen; however, I simply didn't get into it. I think the film's greatest flaw is, it does not reach out and grab its viewer. I had a tough time connecting with characters or the messages it was sending. I also thought Burton's dynamic between the Veruca Salt and Violet Bowregard characters was a lot better than the Wilder featured version of Dahl's book. Highmore didn't exactly make his part special as Charlie. Burton seemed to limit him by having him simply stand there and look in wonderment all the time; he definitely didn't get to shine like he did in "Finding Neverland." Overall, as a friend of ours said, I think one could wait to see this picture on DVD. It is very grandiose, but I don't think it'll lose much translating to the small screen, since in my opinion, the movie doesn't even have much to lose in the first place. I felt the same way coming out of this movie as I did coming out of "Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events." People should really like this movie. Just not me. Benn - Where's the Humanity?
A remake of the 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, based on the Roald Dahl book, Charlie
is a beautiful movie with a great acting performance by Johnny Depp, that is completely uninteresting to
me and that is mostly because I am a grownup.