Tag: Johnny Depp

video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street

video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street

A horror flick about a dead man who kills people in their dreams is an interesting concept, but rather than offering up an interesting narrative, director Wes Craven presents his boogieman almost on the strength of that idea alone. “He wears a weird hat and a red and green sweater,” says the girl with the overbite, “and he uses these knives like giant fingernails.”

It’s mostly to annoy us with the screeching sound they make when he slides them against metallic surfaces before slashing some kid to death. His name is Fred Krueger; the guy from “that old jump-rope song”. After being burned alive by parents angry because he avoided a murder sentence on a technicality, he’s back from the flames of Hell to continue his wrath of terror.

my rating : 3 of 5

1984

video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 2 [ Freddy’s Revenge ]
video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 [ Dream Warriors ]
video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 [ The Dream Master ]
video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 5 [ The Dream Child ]
video review : Freddy’s Dead [ The Final Nightmare ]
video review : Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

video review : Black Mass

video review : Black Mass

Use your hand to cover the “M” on the opening title shot. It’ll be the most entertaining part of the movie. Not that this Boston crime story will necessarily put you to sleep. It’s just that director Scott Cooper is a poor man’s Martin Scorsese.

It’s a case of style over substance as Johnny Depp, looking like an actor in costume, plays the role of Winter Hill Gang leader James Whitey Bulger. The plot preludes his life as a fugitive, but it’s barely interesting enough to make you care.

my rating : 3 of 5

2015

video review : Edward Scissorhands

video review : Edward Scissorhands

Edward has scissors for hands, but no one ever says why. All his backstory explains is that the scissors, which, like his mountain home and the personalities of the people in the surrounding neighborhood he eventually pierces, are largely exaggerated, were supposed to be temporary. The man who invented him died just before putting on his hands.

Not that it matters much. Scissorhands, a well-mannered ghost of a man dressed in all leather like a slave in a bondage session, is more annoying than intriguing and I don’t care anything about him. Even when a plot finally begins to develop, it’s all in vain. The fairy tale epilogue, which explains the origin of snow in pastel Suburbia, is cute though.

my rating : 2 of 5

1990

video review : Alice In Wonderland

video review : Alice In Wonderland

There’s nothing wonderful about Tim Burton’s adaption of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, a fantasy novel by Lewis Carroll. It’s one of the most popular children’s stories American culture has to offer. I remember attending a stage play version of it in elementary school. I don’t remember it being this bad.

This is a movie without a clear plot. The visuals; the costumes and set designs that make-up Wonderland; are artsy and imaginative. That’s something a Tim Burton presentation basically guarantees. The story, however, which lands a girl named Alice in an impossible dreamworld of sorts, fails to captivate or intrigue.

The characterization is even worse. I especially hate the incredibly annoying Mad Hatter and the cringe-inducing Futterwacken dance he does, which an otherwise likeable Alice mimics near the end. It’s just stupid and pointless as is the whole movie. Shame on Tim Burton for ruining my childhood memories.

my rating : 1 of 5

2010
 

Andrew J. Holliday :

“It’s one of the most popular children’s stories American culture has to offer.”

American culture? Alice in Wonderland? American? Like that other US classic, The Wind in the Willows….