Tag Archives: movies

Wonka

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I was not looking forward to this movie. I love the original film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Gene Wilder is the perfect actor for the role. I hated the Johnny Depp Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film and it felt as if nobody needed or wanted more of this. 

So when they announced a prequel featuring Timothée Chalamet as Wonka, I did not find it to be something to anticipate. However, I really enjoyed Wonka after seeing it this morning.

We start with Willy Wonka arriving on a ship, preparing to become a great chocolate maker. Unfortunately for him, he spent through his money in the first song and had no place to spend the night. He was brought to a place by Bleacher (Tom David) run by his companion, Mrs. Scrubitt (Olivia Colman). They seemed kind, but wanted Wonka to sign a contract, one with plenty of fine print. Wonka was warned by a young girl named Noodle (Calah Lane) to read the fine print, but Wonka did not know how to read. He signed and it turned out to include charges for just about everything.

When his chocolate selling was disrupted by a chocolate cartel and the police chief (Keegan-Michael Key), Wonka discovered he owed Scrubitt a lot of money and had to work it off as an indentured servant.

I found the music of the film to be extremely enjoyable and catchy. My favorite song was probably “Scrub Scrub” but they were all very engaging.

Timothée Chalamet was very good as Willy Wonka, bringing a kindness and a sugary sweet disposition to Wonka. It was clear that there was more going on with the character and Chalamet’s performance brought that out. 

However, my biggest criticism with the way Chalamet was presented as Wonka was the original Wonka, as played by Gene Wilder, had a definite amount of sinister aspects to him. You believed that Wonka would be just as happy letting those kids fall into his furnaces or be tortured by stretching or juicing. The manner in which Wonka was presented as barely caring when terrible things happened to the kids made that performance so deeper. There is no way that this Wonka would allow a child to fall into his chocolate river and get sucked up the tube. Maybe you could say that he was still heading toward that, but I was hoping to see some darkness inside of this version of Wonka, and there was none there.

Still, I found the story to be fun, the music to be great and the overall acting was very enjoyable. The film looked good with some beautiful imagery and some powerful moments. 

Some of the side characters and the villains felt too cartoonish to really matter, but there was a really great relationship between Wonka and Noodle, which led to to some emotional moments as the story moved on. 

I am not sure how I feel about Hugh Grant as the Oompa-Loompa. He had some moments, but I am not sure if his inclusion was worthwhile. His song was very funny though as it takes a bit of a twist from the original film with the use of the Oompa-Loompas.

I was thoroughly entertained by Wonka and my criticisms were not that major as to throw off my enjoyment of the film. It was better than I anticipated, even if it were lacking a little darkness in the soul of Wonka.

4.1 stars

2023 The John Carter Memorial Award

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Flop.

It is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the world of movies. At times it is really a matter of opinion. Others it is painfully apparent as to whether a film has flopped. Sadly, 2023 saw more than its share of flops.

Truthfully, even some of the better movies of the year could be considered a flop this year because of the way the box office seems to be going. I know that there will be some films on my Top 30 films list of the year that would be considered a flop. It has been a tough year.

Even the juggernaut of film companies, Disney, has lost its share of money on movies this year. If it can happen to Disney, it can happen to anyone.

The excess of streaming services can be blamed for some of these flops. Who wants to go to the theater when they can just wait a few months and see the film on Disney + or on Max?

The John Carter Memorial Award is given to the film chosen by EYG as the biggest flop of the year. This year was a tough decision.

Past years had some tough choices too.

John Carter Memorial Award

Previous winners:  John Carter, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Lone Ranger, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Expendables 3, Jem and the Holograms, Pan, Rock the Casbah, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Robin Hood (2018), Mortal Engines, Playmobil: The Movie, The Rhythm Section, Reminiscence, Strange World  

This year had plenty of runners-up.

Dis-Honorable mention: One of the reasons that these films are considered flops is the size of the budget. Some of these movies just spent too much money and had no chance of making it back. One example was the fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which was a decent movie, but it seemed as if no one was going to go see it. Certainly not enough to make up a budget of reportedly 294.7 million dollars, not counting marketing. Another film with a budget too high was the first official flop of the MCU, The Marvels. I liked that movie a lot, but it did not make it to $100 million domestically. Killers of the Flower Moon also did not make much money domestically with a considerably larger budget than this type of film usually has. Shazam: Fury of the Gods did not succeed on building on a successful first film. Disney’s latest film Wish should have done much better business than it did, just showing that Disney is struggling to put together that classic animated hit. Big George Foreman only made $5.7 million worldwide on a $32 million dollar budget. I did not see it either. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One was one of the best films of the year, but it just did not make much moolah.

Of all of these, though, there is one that should have been way more successful and should have been a lynchpin of the films this summer. 

Winner: The Flash  

This was a huge DC Comics film, featuring one of the top characters of the company. The Flash had a nine year TV show preceding this. And yet, it was as if everything was playing against The Flash for Warner Brothers. Starting with the craziness of its star’s life over the last couple of years. Ezra Miller made headlines with his behavior and it reflected poorly on The Flash. Though not the sole reason for this film’s downfall, it did play a part. Secondly, the film was not very good. It had some parts that were solid, but a film that saw the return of Michael Keaton as Batman should never have had this much trouble. Third, everyone knew that this was a film that was staggering to the end as the whole DCEU was being revamped into the DCU by James Gunn and this film would not go on. 

I’ve always liked the Flash. He is one of my top DC characters. This was, at best for me, okay and I could see the numerous problems with it. I never would have guessed that it would only make $55 million opening weekend. 

That makes this the John Carter Memorial Award winner for 2023.

Always, Lola

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I have been a fan of Roxy Striar for years, since she was the host of TV Fights. So when I heard she had such a significant role in a movie, I wanted to see it. It was very much an independent feature and with it finally available on Prime, I rented it.

This was a very fascinating movie. These actors are all new faces except for Striar and Andrew Ghai, who I knew from the Movie Trivia Schmoedown. I think you can see the inexperience from these actors, but they did a decent job.

The film dove deep into the concept of depression and mental illness, dealing with grief and guilt that comes with it. I did like the way they told the story, through flashbacks to when Lola, Roxy Striar’s character, was still alive.

The film had a well written interactions between these characters. There was a weird transition about half way through, but I did like the way the film ended up.

I am very happy for Roxy, getting a role like this and doing such a solid job. There was a lot of emotion and sadness, as well as hope and rebirth. An independent film that gives a clear message.

3.7 stars