Willy Wonka the amazing chocolatier

Sorry I haven't written in so long...there just hasn't been anything to write about.

I got the day off from work today (which never happens!) so I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory then dropped by Barnes and Noble to pick up my pre-ordered copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which came out today at midnight.

My schedule has been more lenient at work, probably because we have a new employee that they're training, so in the last couple days I've been catching up on movies I haven't seen. On Tuesday I saw Fantastic Four and the next day I saw Bewitched. Then after two days when I couldn't go (cause of Str8 Talk on Thursday and closing on Friday), I went and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today. So, except for Herbie: Fully Loaded and War of the Worlds, I have caught up on movies, sacrificing seeing Madagascar and Star Wars Episode III in the process since they closed.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was really good. I had heard that it would be more like the book than the 1971 musical Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (with Gene Wilder in the title role), and whoever wrote that was right. It was almost exactly like the book, even down to the songs sung by the Oompa-Loompas (who are all played by one guy--Deep Roy--who has a striking resemblance to Bob Newhart, only with a samurai topknot). Veruca Salt is played almost exactly as she should be, and as spoiled as in the original movie. Freddie Highmore, who was also in Finding Neverland with Johnny Depp (who plays Wonka), plays Charlie. There are some stuff added, but it doesn't deviate from the book as much as the original movie did. There are some minor changes, but they're not detrimental to the plot. Wonka is given a backstory, where he wasn't allowed to have any candy growing up cause his father was a dentist. His father is played by Christopher Lee, who is a great actor (most recently known for his role as Saruman in The Lord of the Rings).

The wierd thing was, if you've seen the original movie, listen to Wonka's voice as it comes out of the loudspeakers when the group first enters the factory's gates. He sounds like Gene Wilder!

I love Johnny Depp...he is SOOO versatile as an actor, right up there with Robin Williams, Kenneth Branagh, and Pierce Brosnan. Robin Williams has done a LOT of comedy, so it would seem he is only good for that. If you think so, watch Bicentennial Man or Dead Poets' Society and you will see you are SOOO wrong. He is very serious in those movies. Pierce Brosnan is known mainly as the suave James Bond, but remember he did Evelyn too, which is a very different sort of movie. He also plays a minor role in Mrs. Doubtfire, as the love interest of Robin Williams's character's ex-wife, and that is a different sort of role than Bond. Also watch an episode of "Remington Steele" sometime. This was his first acting role in America (that I know of) and he actually could've become Bond a lot sooner had he not been in it (he lost a chance to be Bond in The Living Daylights due to a renewed interest in the series prompting a new season to be made in 1986...his co-star Stephanie Zimbalist had a similar situation, having to turn down a role in Robocop). Oh and Dante's Peak...another very different role. Okay well not so different. And Kenneth Branagh's work speaks for itself.

I'm tired and don't really have anything else to say. Bye.