]]> http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/09/sxsw-2010-preview-hubble-3d/feed/ 0 http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/09/adams-crawl-space-fear-dot-com/ http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/09/adams-crawl-space-fear-dot-com/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:00:06 +0000 Adam http://mediabreach.com/?p=2764 I’d like to start off by saying thanks to Desiree for last week’s Crawl Space recommendation of Beer for My Horses. I had intended on mentioning that in the review last week, but let it slip by.  So thanks a lot for suggesting I sit through that shit, Desiree.

I know what you’re thinking, “Adam says ‘I know what you’re thinking’ in nearly every Crawl Space review.”  It’s true, and I’m going to have to apologize for that.  What can I say, I’m not exactly Roger Ebert here.  But aside from that, you’re definitely thinking that choosing Fear Dot Com to review was too easy.  Everyone knows this movie is horrendous, and it’s a complete mistake to watch this.  This is one of those movies that you catch yourself watching on cable at 4 in the morning when you’ve been drinking all night and the alcohol just won’t finish you off.  Well let me tell you, nothing was too easy about this.  At one point I’m pretty sure I lost consciousness, and when I came to I couldn’t really tell if I’d miss any plot details or if I was still having an awful nightmare.

I’ve actually seen Fear Dot Com before and it was in almost the exact scenario I just outlined previously.  I was severely drunk; like top 10 of all time drunk.  The kind of drunk where you not only make bad decisions thinking they are positively good ones, but also the kind where your senses appear to be sharpened when they are in reality the complete opposite.  The kind of drunk where you drink beer to sober up.  You with me?  Alright then.  The first time I watched Fear Dot Com was in ’04 I believe, and even though I was completely fucked in half, I knew this movie was awful and it brought me to the point of tears.  So when James recommended this movie for a Crawl Space write-up I knew exactly what I was in for with one big difference: I would have to watch it sober.

Fear Dot Com is about a website where you can watch people die.  48 hours after you view this totally legal website, you die.  You read that correctly.  Not only does a website exist that involves killing victims live via the internet, but if you happen upon this site you can pretty much check yourself into the morgue.  This movie is definitely a product of the dot com boom and desperately and unsuccessfully tries to insert a new staple into the horror genre.   Virgins always live, extra marital sex and drugs kill, and now websites make you die.  I have no idea what exactly is really going on in this movie.  There’s a dude killing girls on a website, and something about the negative energy trapped in the ‘wires’ will cause you to die if you view it.  Deacon Frost is in this, and that should give you some indication to strap yourself in for a terrifying ride of epic proportions.   Natasha McElhone is also here, who absolutely doesn’t belong as I actually like her and would sex her in a heartbeat.  Why, Natasha, why???

Once the main characters figure out that viewing this site causes a slow death, naturally they both decide to log on.  Hey I know, let’s check this website out that is causing people to hemorrhage and die!  Fucking idiots, all of them.  I know this movie came out in ’02, but why is Hollywood intent on completely mangling how the internet and computers work in movies?  Just once I’d like to see a character use a browser that is based in reality and not some weird, Fisher Price-style, full-screened Netscape mutation.  And don’t even get me started on why text always has to make a noise.  I get why this technique is employed, it’s used to stimulate our senses and assure that something is definitely happening.  But it’s just so ridiculous every time.  Text is never a static display, it’s always a stream of words that gradually unfold on the screen and make that funny and completely fabricated digital text noise.  You know what I’m talking about.   I don’t know what bothers me more, this or cell phones having absolutely the largest text displays known to man.  I blame War Games for this shit.  Like War Games, the only way to win at Fear Dot Com is to not play.  Or watch.  For the love of all that is sacred and dear to you, just don’t watch.

To the movie’s credit, it does feature some really cool lighting, or lack of.  It’s got this interesting neo-noir vibe going on, only it’s obviously wasted on the dumbest story you can possibly imagine.  Fear Dot Com clearly takes place in a world where there is the smallest amount of light possible, and everything is underneath a layer of grime.  I haven’t seen a movie feature this much darkness and filth since Seven. Even as cool as that movie is, I was screaming at the screen, “Just flip the GOD DAMN LIGHT SWITCH ON!”.  It also features one of the funniest kill shots in cinematic history.  You know the scene in the end of Jaws where Brody is about to fire at the tank in the shark’s mouth and says, “Smile you son of a bitch!”?  Imagine that, only with someone pushing an enter button on a keyboard killing the bad guy with the internet!  Holy Hell.

This movie probably worked on the page, until it got to the point in the script where it said, “…and the website kills people!”.  I’m actually completely out of energy here, the movie has erased any will to live that I once possessed.  I could just keep on writing in this semi-zombie state , but it’d range from slightly readable to excruciatingly dull and tedious.  I hate you, James.  Why did you make me do this?  I can’t even properly rip on this movie it’s so bad.  I thought Sleepy Hollowman 2:  The  Headless Howling Hollower was terrible but this movie takes things to a whole new level.

Stephen Rea is in this, too.  Shame on you, asshole.

Welcome to Adam’s Crawl Space. Now, exactly what the title of this column means, I’d prefer to leave open to interpretation.  The image that comes to mind personally is that of me, huddled in my dark, creepy “crawl space” if you will (me in my bedroom and a laptop) and watching things that are artistically questionable.  Basically shit that you would never expect me to watch and review, I’m going to do.  It won’t all be Olsen twins movies (although those are definitely coming) but it will as I said, be films that shouldn’t necessarily be called “films.”

]]> http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/09/trailer-tron-legacy/feed/ 3 http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/08/a-evening-with-kevin-smith-in-austin-texas-3-4-2010/ http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/08/a-evening-with-kevin-smith-in-austin-texas-3-4-2010/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:00:10 +0000 Dustin http://mediabreach.com/?p=2745 I don’t know how he does it, but the man can talk for hours (three and a half to be exact) and it’s never boring. Kevin Smith has been known for his question and answer sessions for the better part of a decade now. With the release of three DVD sets covering a collection of his best retorts so far, I’m stunned that the man keeps it up. And add to the fact that anyone, and I mean anyone, that requested Smith sign their memorabilia, call their friend, or just provide them a handshake, Smith obliged happily. The guy may be the most approachable star in Hollywood and seems to be just as genuine.

I’m not going to sit here and review this because that would be silly. Either you love the man and will go see him when he comes through your town or you don’t give a shit and aren’t reading this article. What I will do is cover what I remember from the Q/A session last Thursday.

Southwest Airlines-

At first I was little mad when some dude asked Smith about his Southwest debacle. I mean, seriously? Have we not heard enough from Smith himself or from CNN? And yes, it took him 30 minutes to get through it but I found hearing the whole saga all at once to be pretty fascinating. I also hadn’t heard about the woman they tried to make an example of on his following flight. It came across as some sort of appeasement for wronging Smith. “Look, she’s fat too so we’re kicking her off! See, we don’t hate you at all!” Pretty funny stuff. He also had a great line that he supposedly said to a Southwest representative- “The manager handed me a brochure and said, ‘You’ll find a support team to contact in this if you’d like to discuss the incident.’ I just told him, ‘Keep it. Within an hour you’ll be coming to me.’”

He also rented a tour bus for his trip to Texas on this leg of the tour. Nothing crazy, just though I’d point that out.

Cop Out-

He didn’t have as much to say about the movie as he had to say about Bruce Willis. Someone asked him what challenges he had during production and he admitted that working with Willis was pretty much the hardest thing he’d ever done. Not that he’s an asshole or anything but because Willis has been around for 25 years and just does what he feels is right. Smith also mentioned that Willis would start saying lines in scenes that they weren’t even written for. Sometimes the dialogue was just a joke and other times it might be central to the plot. Although it baffled him at the time, he realized while editing the movie that Willis was actually helping him. Say, for example, that it is an important piece to the flow of the movie (for those that have seen Cop Out, Smith referenced, “I need to find my baseball card!”) Without this line, a reshoot would be necessary. So when the original scene it was written for was deemed unnecessary, Smith lucked out because he had three other scenes to choose from where Willis read that mandatory piece of the script.

He also mentioned a scene where he asked Willis to read the line like his character from Moonlighting. Willis was stunned that he had even requested such a thing- “You want me to do emulate a performance I did 25 years ago?” Smith jokingly replied (to us, not Willis I presume), “Well it’s actually from Season two so it would be 24 years ago but at any rate…” In the end, Willis said the line as Smith requested and then added afterwards, “That was for you, Kev.”

George Carlin-

Kevin gave a pretty heartfelt response to a question asked about Carlin’s acting. The query referenced that Carlin was always unhappy with the way he acted in films. Smith detailed how devoted to the craft Carlin was. Even with something as widely dismissed as Jersey Girl, Carlin apparently wrote and memorized a complete back story for his character, independent of anything in the script. Smith also recalled how proud everyone was when Carlin produced tears for the end of that film. And tragically, his last conversation involved a schedule conflict Carlin had with a role he was supposed to play in Zack and Miri Make a Porno. “Looks like I can’t work it out for this one. But I’ll be there for the next one.”

I know it's a shitty iPhone pic, but that's the man right there, robe and all.

]]> http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/08/a-evening-with-kevin-smith-in-austin-texas-3-4-2010/feed/ 7 http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/08/sxsw-preview-the-runaways/ http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/08/sxsw-preview-the-runaways/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:00:45 +0000 Dustin http://mediabreach.com/?p=2746 I decided to preview some of the mainstream flicks hitting SXSW for this week’s set of previews.  We’ll start with The Runaways, starring Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart.  It’s a movie about the titular group, which includes Joan Jett (Stewart), and their rise to fame in the 70s.  So far, this will be the last film I see at the festival.  I read luke warm reactions from Sundance in January, so we’ll see.

]]> http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/08/sxsw-preview-the-runaways/feed/ 1 http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/08/82nd-annual-oscar-nominations/ http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/08/82nd-annual-oscar-nominations/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:40:18 +0000 Dustin http://mediabreach.com/?p=2512 Figured I would repost this so we could discuss the Oscars.  The winners are all fine in my mind but the show itself was a bit of a mess.  That strange acceptance speech interruption for the Documentary Short winner, the complete lack of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin after having to endure those cheesy commercials, and a bunch of strange sounds off stage throughout all combined to make a bizarre show. But enough with that, here are the winners.

Editor’s Note:  It seems we’re getting a lot of traffic regarding the Documentary Short winner interruption.  Or that lady that “Kanye West’d the Oscars.”  Here’s the best video I could find of it if you missed out-

Performance by an actor in a leading role

• Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart” (Fox Searchlight) Winner
• George Clooney in “Up in the Air” (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
• Colin Firth in “A Single Man” (The Weinstein Company)
• Morgan Freeman in “Invictus” (Warner Bros.)
• Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker” (Summit Entertainment)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

• Matt Damon in “Invictus” (Warner Bros.)
• Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger” (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
• Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station” (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones” (DreamWorks in association with Film4, Distributed by Paramount)
• Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds” (The Weinstein Company) Winner

Performance by an actress in a leading role

• Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side” (Warner Bros.) – Winner
• Helen Mirren in “The Last Station” (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Carey Mulligan in “An Education” (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lionsgate)
• Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia” (Sony Pictures Releasing)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

• Penélope Cruz in “Nine” (The Weinstein Company)
• Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air” (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
• Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart” (Fox Searchlight)
• Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air” (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
• Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lionsgate) Winner

Best animated feature film of the year

• “Coraline”
• “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
• “The Princess and the Frog”
• “The Secret of Kells”
• “Up” Winner

Achievement in art direction

• “Avatar” Winner
• “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
• “Nine”
• “Sherlock Holmes”
• “The Young Victoria”

Achievement in cinematography

• “Avatar” Winner
• “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
• “The Hurt Locker”
• “Inglourious Basterds”
• “The White Ribbon”

Achievement in costume design

• “Bright Star”
• “Coco before Chanel”
• “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
• “Nine”
• “The Young Victoria” Winner

Achievement in directing

• “Avatar”
• “The Hurt Locker” Winner
• “Inglourious Basterds”
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
• “Up in the Air”

Best documentary feature

• “Burma VJ”
• “The Cove” Winner
• “Food, Inc.”
• “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”
• “Which Way Home”

Best documentary short subject

• “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province”
• “The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner”
• “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant”
• “Music by Prudence” Winner
• “Rabbit à la Berlin”

Achievement in film editing

• “Avatar”
• “District 9″
• “The Hurt Locker” Winner
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
• “Inglourious Basterds”

Best foreign language film of the year

• “Ajami”
• “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Winner
• “The Milk of Sorrow”
• “Un Prophète”
• “The White Ribbon”

Achievement in makeup

• “Il Divo”
• “Star Trek” Winner
• “The Young Victoria”

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

• “Avatar”
• “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
• “The Hurt Locker”
• “Sherlock Holmes”
• “Up” Winner

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

• “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog”
• “Down in New Orleans”
• “Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36″
• “Take It All” from “Nine”
• “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Winner

Best motion picture of the year

• “Avatar”
• “The Blind Side”
• “District 9″
• “An Education”
• “The Hurt Locker” Winner
• “Inglourious Basterds”
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
• “A Serious Man”
• “Up”
• “Up in the Air”

Best animated short film

• “French Roast”
• “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty”
• “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)”
• “Logorama” Winner
• “A Matter of Loaf and Death”

Best live action short film

• “The Door”
• “Instead of Abracadabra”
• “Kavi”
• “Miracle Fish”
• “The New Tenants” Winner

Achievement in sound editing

• “Avatar”
• “The Hurt Locker”
• “Inglourious Basterds”
• “Star Trek”
• “Up”

Achievement in sound mixing

• “Avatar”
• “The Hurt Locker” Winner
• “Inglourious Basterds”
• “Star Trek”
• “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”

Achievement in visual effects

• “Avatar” Winner
• “District 9″
• “Star Trek”

Adapted screenplay

• “District 9″
• “An Education”
• “In the Loop”
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Winner
• “Up in the Air”

Original screenplay

• “The Hurt Locker” Winner
• “Inglourious Basterds”
• “The Messenger”
• “A Serious Man”
• “Up”

[via www.oscars.com]

Here’s what I mean.

Top 5 Songs Played in Their Entirety in a Movie:

5 – Name of the Game (Blade II)

4 – Swingin on a Star (Hudson Hawk)

3 – The Blue Danube Waltz (2001: A Space Odyssey)

2 – So Happy Together (Adaptation)

King Jareth

1 – Magic Dance (Labyrinth)

Wristcutters is written and directed by Goran Dukic (who didn’t catch on in the business) and based on a short story called “Kneller’s Happy Campers” by Etgar Keret… which I haven’t read. And I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t discover this movie because I’m plugged into the Austin indie movie scene. I don’t even know what that scene is. I was browsing through movies that I was supposed to love. Netflix recommended it to me because I like Futurama, The Machinist and The Virgin Suicides. Whatever – it had a cool title, so I checked it out. And I gotta say, I see the Futuramaness about its happy go lucky romance, but The Machinist? What? And I’m guessing The Virgin Suicides because it’s about suicide. But it stops there. Not only that, but the trailers opening for this sweet, semi-innocent romanticomedy are as follows (don’t worry, I’ll start actually talking about the movie in a minute):

* the rock and roll trailer for The Eye (which features no voice-over and is actually pretty awesome)

*a commercial for fearnet.com (the Ring ripoff with the girl who looks like she’s got a bar of soap *wedged in her mouth)

*the first Afterdark Films horrorfest event from 2007

*and Fido, the zombie comedy with Billy Connolly and Carrie-Anne Moss

The action opens on young Zia prepping himself to do the do with the amazing song you should be listening to right now playing in the background. Then he bleeds himself out in the bathroom sink and imagines his girlfriend getting on with her life. It’s an atypical starting point for a movie. So after Zia dies, he gets a job at Kamikaze Pizza as a cook and rooms with an incredibly large Austrian who sits when he pees. It’s kind of a rule of the house. It’s sweet, but they don’t get along too well. And I swear to god, Patrick Fugit has got to be the son of Harvey Keitel.

Fugit Keitel

The short explanation is that the afterlife (for suicides) is just like regular life, only everything sucks a little more. No smiling. No stars. That kind of thing. And the deterrence to committing suicide again is the risk that that place might suck even more. So Zia makes a friend, Eugene, a Russian guy who’s pretty cool, and is in the afterlife with his mother (who missed Russia), his gay brother (who had a generally teen-age malaise), and his father (who couldn’t live with a gay son). The plot centers around Zia and his recently suicided ex-girlfriend. Zia meets an old friend (Jake Busey) who tells Zia his girlfriend killed herself. So Zia, who’s missed her more and more ever since his death, enlists the help of his new friend to go on a road trip to find her and fall in love all over again.

Underappreciated actor of the week: Jake Busey
The Frighteners, Starship Troopers, Contact, Home Fries, Road House 2. All this guy does is steal scenes. The coolest acto to be a son of an actor since Lon Chaney, Jr., and he squeezes everything out of every second he gets in Wristcutters. We love you Jake.

Super Taranta!

But no romanticomedy is complete without the girl who gets in the way. Shannyn Sossamon (the cute girl from the Heath Ledger two-pack, A Knight’s Tale and The Order) is Mikal- who recently-deceased, is hitchhiking her way around the Elysian Plains looking for some people in charge, all the while defacing prohibitive signs. Zia and Eugene pick her up and become fast friends and bump into a few other incredible actors along the way, headlined by:

Tom Waits

Tom Waits as Kneller – a friendly, crackpot running a camp commune in the middle of nowhere.

and

Will Arnett

Will Arnett as King Messiah – a nutjob, crackpot claiming to be the savior of all suicides.

I’m gonna be honest – I don’t really have any idea where to take this review. I don’t have any grander topic of conversation I want to explore here – there’re no ideas on the business of movie-making or the duty of filmmakers in any larger sense. I’ve got nothing really except to say that I really love this movie, and I want to recommend it to you. There’s a real tone here that’s hard to find in movies. Dark comedies have a thin line to walk, and I’ve honestly haven’t found another that feels so tragic (but in an it’s-ok-really kind of way) and has the upbeatness you find in great romances (like Amelie or The Princess Bride).

Zia, Eugene and Mikal

Honestly, I love this movie too much, and just can’t seem to explain why but it’s ok. I’ve found a solution. Next week: a movie I hate:

Sleeper Cell is a weekly column that will reflect movies that you perhaps missed or have always been meaning to watch but are too much of an asshole to place into your Netflix queue.  This could be a movie from 50 years ago or a movie from last year.  Bottom line, these are choice flicks and you missed out so Zack and our other writers are going to tell you what’s up.

]]> http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/05/sxsw-2010-preview-cyrus/feed/ 1 http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/05/alice-in-wonderland-2010/ http://mediabreach.com/2010/03/05/alice-in-wonderland-2010/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:00:13 +0000 Dustin http://mediabreach.com/?p=2716 Well here we are, the first tent pole 3D film to follow Avatar.  Alice in Wonderland blasts into theaters this week and promises to keep your eyes busy with visual rape.  The trailers seem to sell you that this is Johnny Depp’s movie in his turn as the Mad Hatter.  I can’t say that I was unconvinced since his character is nearly as fleshed out as the titular Alice (Mia Wasikowska) but I have to admit that even with the many reservations I had for Wonderland, I still came away enjoying it.  I’m just not certain I actually liked it.

Let’s get down to brass tax here- the main reason anyone will be seeing this movie is because of the 3D or, as was the case for my screening, IMAX 3D.  For those of you that don’t know, the movie was not shot in 3D as it was rather converted to 3D in post-production.  Given the large amount of CGI that would be added after the fact, this wasn’t really that big of a deal.  Anyone that’s seen a computer animated 3D film in the last year will tell you that the 3D works.  And while that’s consistent for the most part here, there are a couple of things that stuck out.  Mainly that the 3D technique used for the beginning and ending bookends in the “real world” don’t look like anything special.  This is significant because I seem to recall a scene in a small room at the beginning of Avatar clearly looked unique due its dimensionality.  If this is the same conversion process being used for the upcoming Clash of the Titans, count me out.  Along those lines, can we stop throwing shit at the audience with 3D?  There are parts of Wonderland, especially when Alice falls down the rabbit hole, where you can hardly tell what’s going on because debris and such are flying in front of your face.  I guess kids will like that but it was just a little too much. Overall, I came away questioning why the movie was in 3D to begin with.  It actually might be easier to digest everything in a 2D presentation.  Good luck finding that though…

The story is old hat these days with virtually every piece of narrative borrowing something from the original 1865 Lewis Carroll novel.  But there a few things are added so I’ll go through the plot.  Alice is betrothed to a man she does not love.  He asks for her hand in marriage and she requests a moment of privacy.  She follows a rabbit to a hole and viola!  She’s in Wonderland.  Or Underland, as it’s referred to throughout the film.  From the moment she arrives, and perhaps this is a departure from the original material, she is told she’s not “the right Alice” and is continually thrust into situations that would apparently be a cake walk for her doppleganger.  She of course meets the Mad Hatter, who quickly explains how the evil Queen of Hearts (Helena Bonham Carter) earned her malicious title.  The Mad Hatter is then captured by the Queen’s guards and Alice is forced to look beyond deficiencies and save the day.  Anything more would be spoiler territory but you can likely glean where it heads from there.

So with that in mind, the one thing that really works for this movie is the pacing.  All 108 minutes flew by and there wasn’t any point where I was forced to check my watch.  I think some of that quickness sacrifices logic but when you’re in a dream world, such a thing is not your concern.  As soon as Alice drops into Wonderland, everything is at light speed until the end.  There are a few moments of downtime for character beats and such.  But for the most part, it’s just a lot of fun.  The variety of characters and effects certainly help reinforce this.  Not a single character has a similar color scheme or costume, save for the Queen’s army of course.  Hell, there are even two rabbits that are so completely at opposite ends of a spectrum; no one could mistake them for the same character.  I know I referred to it as visual rape in the opening, but if you’re bored during this movie, you’re dead.  Or you like Toby Keith.

A word of warning to anyone taking their children to seen this: there is some pretty heavy shit going on here.  There is an eye that gets gouged out in addition to a tiny sword being thrown into another eye.  There is lots of talk regarding beheading folk and we see the aftermath of several victims in a moat around the Queen’s castle.  Not to mention, a lot of these big scary monsters are flying at you.  There were several children at the screening I attended and none of them seemed too traumatized.  If you have a kiddo that’s a little on the wussy side, wait until How to Train Your Dragon comes out.

So upon reflection here, I liked it.  Didn’t love it, just liked it.  A couple things I failed to mention are a particularly bizarre dancing sequence by the Mad Hatter and the awful and unnecessary CGI body that Crispin Glover’s character uses.  But for a guy like me who kind of enjoyed Burton’s Charlies and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd but was ultimately disappointed with both, I can say that this one is better.  Call it a cautious recommendation, but check it out.  Just save the 3D money for another time.