Chalk Moulin Rouge! up on the list of movies you’ve reminded me that I’ve been meaning to see, TDIT! Shame to hear you dislike the conclusion…I’m curious, but I’ll wait till I’ve seen the whole thing. 
Well, it’s not that bad, just kinda bittersweet and a downer after all the protagonists have been through… It’s still a watch for its sheer inventiveness and outrageousness in using contemporary music in a traditional musical format.
I watched the Psycho remake with my family yesterday. I remember watching the original in English class in high school. It’s a shot-for-shot remake, but it was entertaining to see funnyman Vince Vaughn as the psychotic Norman Bates. And my brother saw the twist coming after I dropped too many clues… 
I’m one of the few people who actually liked that film. I also admire the reasoning behind making a shot by shot remake of Psycho even if I can’t completely agree with it.
It was nice to see Elfman complete his dream of being able to work on a Hermann score as he and Steve Bartek produced and adapted the original score for the remake.
And although it’s a shot for shot remake you may notice some difference. Such as the insertion of dreamlike imagery at key points in the film. They’re almost blink or you’ll miss it moments
The last movie I watched all the way through was Brick. This film was Rian Johnson’s directorial debut and stars rising star Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It’s basically a noir film set in a SoCal high school complete with all the twists and turns you’d expect from the genre. If you haven’t seen it yet I suggest you get on that, immediately.
Summer Wars (B) – Worth a watch.
Tangled (B+): Lovely film, everything was awesome (characters, soundtrack, voice actors…)
The Last Airbender: D-
Need I say more?
The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story (B) – Worth a watch. It’s definitely not all smiles for something relating to Disney, but I don’t mind that at all in a documentary. Check it out on Netflix if you have it.
Quest for Camelot (D) – Wow. I remember disliking this as a child and when I tried to rewatch it in high school, and now that I’ve taken an even closer look at it: yep, still terrible. The animation is incredibly sub-par, although I don’t have issues with the effects work or whoever did some of the animal characters (Griffin, two silly dragons, falcon, etc.). The soundtrack is okay, but in the context of the film I’m not crazy about it, especially when certain songs are supposed to be sung by characters. All of the bashing over and done, I’ll still be buying this on DVD for my collection, and I may even try to watch it again in the future. But hey, it’s cheap!
Exit Through the Gift Shop (A) – Whether everything presented in the film is real or not, I do not care. It doesn’t change my opinion of the film, and I love it.
Kung Fu Panda: C- A bit dissapointing and cliché.
Yes…why didn’t you grade it lower? 
The effects were okay and held my attention for about 60 seconds.
I suppose I should post what I saw this Christmas:
The Polar Express - An instant classic that’s horribly underrated and perfectly captures both the spirit of Christmas and the spirit of childhood. Quite frankly, it’s one of the only movies I watch every single year. A-
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York - I’ve been a fan of the Home Alone movies since I was about six, and although now I’ve come to my senses and see parts three and four as utter filth, I still love the first two. I definitely think the second one is funnier than the first, but the original still wins me over with its various scenes of Kevin “home alone” before the traps even occur. However, I still view them both as eye to eye movies that deserve to be seen together. “Merry Christmas, you filthy animal…and a happy New Year.” B+
Die Hard - C’mon, it’s Die Hard. Do I really need to explain this one? A
I watched the commentary for How to Train Your Dragon. It was pretty good, pretty informative. I really admire the directing duo, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois. They’ve probably got some neat projects up their sleeve, even if that includes a HTTYD sequel. One of the things I thought about during the end credits were the drawings one artist had done of dragons, some of which are seen in the movie (please don’t throw rotten fruit at me for saying this…). I don’t like those designs in a dimensional form. In fact, the only dragon whose appearance I like in the whole film is Toothless. Now I like the idea of Toothless being different and having cat-like behavior while the others are reptilian/bird-like. That said, the dragon designs just look SO much better in 2D form, not as computer-animated figures.
My favorite thing about this movie are the moments of silence (this could also include music + no dialogue), which Sanders discusses in the commentary. They really take the film to another level, and I don’t think I would admire it nearly as much if these scenes were never included.
I Fidanzati (B) – Nicely shot, but doesn’t nearly achieve the same level of intimacy with the protagonist as with Ermanno Olmi’s quiet masterpiece Il Posto.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (C-) – Not my favorite, despite having seen it several times. The music is obnoxious (sorry, Elfman) and the character of Charlie is SO dull and flat. Those two parts are where I think it’s most inferior to the original adaptation. I mean, I also like the characters and story more in the ‘70s version. However, I understand that in Burton’s version the children and their parents are intended to be cartoonish and exaggerated, and that Depp had a completely different approach than Wilder. And nothing can beat Charlie and Grandpa Joe sneaking out to test the fizzy lifting drink without permission, or Willy Wonka’s outburst in his office. Come on. It had so much more depth (not to mention wonderful, unforgettable songs), although the father-son dynamic in the new version was certainly an interesting addition.
The real test is to see which film will continue to be watched by people of all ages decades from now. Somethin’ tells me it won’t be Burton’s… And I’m a fan of his, by the waysies.
Jesus Camp (B) – You know, I didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would. It just wasn’t as interesting as others made it out to be, and I usually love documentaries.
Fantasia (A) – Gorgeous, but I still think they should have squeezed in the “Clair de Lune” sequence.
There seems to be competing factions for these two films that I just can’t seem to understand. I really don’t see it as a “one or the other” deal as both explore different aspects of the same narrative. One’s weakness is another’s strength it seems. I think a blend of both films would’ve been a perfect adaptation, but as they currently and forever will stand, I can see why Dahl went into fits outside of movie theatres.
Don’t take that the wrong way. I love both of these movies a lot. I actually think Elfman’s use of the original lyrics from the book and mashing them up with different eras of British rock was a touch of genuis compared to the memorable but repetitive songs by Newley and Briscusse.
Somewhere in between Wilder and Depp is the perfect Wonka, but if I had them duke it out with no exception the round would go to Wilder no question.
There’s also an air of creepy that’s just absent in the Burton version. The first adaptation seemed very subversive in the amount of weirdness and, for lack of a better word, horror they were able to put into what seemed like an innocuous presentation. While with Burton you knew he’d go with it from the start, so absolutely no surprises.
Screenwriter John August even admits that he avoided watching the film so he could pull off his own take without being influenced. But after finally getting it past pre-pro and watching Willy Wonka he said he found that one much darker. And I’d have to agree. For one thing, we never see the children restored. We just hear it from Wonka and going by what the movie had shown thus far, we kind of had no reason to even believe him.
But in Burton’s film, we get some backstory that was left out of the first adaptation and I think it’s done fairly well… The only thing I might have gripes with is the addition of the dynamic mentioned above. But I can forgive that because, well, Christopher Lee! Nuff said.
This is so true. On the surface, the film is as cheery and saccharine as the candy starring in the film. But there is something disturbing in it to the point where it almost becomes a dark comedy (almost).
One of the huge contributors to this is the fact the fate of the other children is never shown. For all we know, they died. (Haha, I just read that you wrote the same thing). There’s also the infamous tunnel scene, of course.
But I agree that both films combined could become an even greater adaptation. If I had to choose one over the other, it’s Willy Wonka, which I find to be a stronger film on almost all accounts.
Speaking of disturbing children’s movies, I used to love Return to Oz when I was a kid. We’re talking five-ish. What the heck was wrong with me? I also rented Little Shop of Horrors on a regular basis at the same time in my life.
I got into Little Shop during junior high school. They used to rerun it endlessly on Comedy Central. One of the extra treats was that even though they did some very obvious and badly done ADR to sanitize the film for daytime viewing, the captioning kept the original script intact. One of the bonuses being that every time Audrey II talked, his captions were in green!
The fact that the true ending sits in some vault somewhere because Geffen felt he was screwed over by some imagined slight is very galling, to say the least.
One has to wonder why they went through the trouble of hiring Miles Goodman when they already had Menken. Did they think he couldn’t handle the job by himself. If not, what happened in between '85 and '87 that changed everyone’s mind? I guess that requires more research.
Have you ever heard the 2003 revival cast recording that features Menken and Ashman doing demos for deleted songs? An absolute must-listen.
I hear there’s work being done on yet another interpretation of the movie. So far they’ve been 2 for 2. What’s next?
Interesting trivia about the green captions, aerostarmonk! I watched the '87 remake, and I liked Audrey II the most (outrageously voiced by Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops). It’s also nice to see James Belushi, Bill Murray, and the late Steve Martin in their younger days.
queen_of_painting, the artist who drew the drawings for the end credits is the talented Nicolas Marlet, who is somewhat of a star player at DreamWorks (He pretty much hogs the pages of The Art of HTTYD and KFP ). You should check out his work if you haven’t yet. I agree that it would be aesthetically-pleasing if they had done it in 2D, especially if they went with Chris Sanders style.
…
Epic Movie (B-): It’s pretty stupid, but at least it’s not as tastelessly vulgar as the other parody movies like Scary Movie and Meet the Spartans. There were some prime laugh-out-loud moments, like Mr. Tumnus from ‘Gnarnia’ showing off his flat-screen TVs playing Scarface in assorted strange places (in the toilet bowl, under the couch, and even on another Faun’s head!), the Jack Swallow ‘We are the Pirates of the Caribbean’ ditty, and Fred Willard’s obvious stunt double during a zany kung-fu fight with the albino monk from The Da Vinci Code. But most of it is just made up of movie references and, when all else fails, slapstick comedy of the crotch-punching kind. I had lots of fun since I’m a mash-up/spoof enthusiast, but it ain’t in the same league as Naked Gun or Team Americ: World Police.
The Swan Princess (B+): I remember loving this as a kid, and after my brother rediscovered it recently and persuaded my sis and I to rewatch it, we finally gave it a go. The animation is sub-standard, and the plot isn’t exactly epic-fantasy material, but the characters are endearing, and some scenes like Odette’s transformations and the ‘No Fear’ musical sequence are quite spectacular. Kudos to John Cleese as a delusional French frog and Steve Vinovich as a swashbuckling Irish puffin.
The Princess and the Frog: (B+) I think I liked it better than Tangled. I actually enjoyed the songs, and the characters are lovely.
Kick-Ass: (C-) I read somewhere that this movie was as crazy as Scott Pilgrim, and I liked SP, so I decided to watch it. Oh, boy, it was horrible. I didn’t even finish it.
This is one of the only non-animated films I saw this year, and I liked it!
Late? He’s still alive!
I have The Swan Princess. It’s a cute one.