Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Well, it's been a few years since I've seen the original movie, and even more years since I've read the book. Somewhere between 20 and 25 I would guess. We watched the remake with Johnny Depp last night. I've always said this, and I'll repeat it again: Mr. Depp is the absolute best actor in all of movie making time. A remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sounded to me like a bad idea. I mean, come on, it's been done before and Gene Wilder did a pretty good job in 1971, but this version was outstanding. I think the thing about Johnny Depp is that every character he plays in each movie he does is a different character. Now, I don't mean different as in "always a gangster," but different in the sense that at times it's hard to tell if it's actually Johnny Depp behind that makeup and costume. Someone like Robert De Niro (except in Raging Bull, he was brilliant in that) or Al Pacino, heralded as the great actors of the day, always seem to play the same character over and over and over and over and... you get the point. Watching their movies is a bit like listening to AC/DC I suppose, if you loved that first song, you'll probably love all the rest that came after it, only because they ALL sound the same. Well, Johnny Depp is far from anything like that in my opinion.

A movie for kids? I don't know so much about that. Tim Burton's style of directing isn't really that appealing to me. I know a lot of people who would argue with me and I'm not saying it's not good, it's probably amazing, just not for me (Rose, don't hit me if you read this). Anyway, enough blathering... Great movie, great acting (the rest of the cast did extremely well), great movie. 9/10