Through the looking glasses

Pot smoking caterpillars that sound like Alan Rickman and a large grinning purple cat who belongs on QI. Weird and wonderful. Ka and myself were at the flicks again today and once again donned our Blues Brothers style 3D glasses to see Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland'.
I miss the old 3D glasses. You know? The simple card ones with the green and red lens for each eye (can't remember which was which). You'd think these new black ones would look a bit cooler but when you've got to wear glasses to see the screen in the first place, walking around with two pairs of glasses on simultaneously could never be seen as cool. I think I was halfway down the escalators on my way out before I twigged I still had my two pairs on.
Anyway, Burton has did it again, creating another visually fantastic fantasy, bursting with detail, vibrant colour, visual gags, fantastic characters and artistic flair complete with his usual dark edging and quirky frames. What the movie lacks in plot it more than makes up for in effects and visual brilliance making all the scenes that you know are coming more than great fun to watch. Mia Wasikowska was fairly good as Alice, playing the part a little older and wiser to the Alice we remember from Disney's old cartoon. Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter is brilliant with Depp once more going haywire with glee, really getting his teeth into the part. Not to mention his tongue as he hits out with around four or five different accents throughout the movie. Bonham Carter, as the Queen of Hearts, is equally as good alongside the many computer animated and readjusted characters. Crispin Glover, for instance, (whom we all remember as George McFly in Back to the Future) is stretched by some kind of computer wizardry whilst Bonham Carter's head is enlarged to three times the size for some insanely brilliant Burtonesque reason. Michael Gough and Christopher Lee's voices also cropped up?! KA and myself played a vague 'whose voice was that?' game afterwards which she probably won by recognising Timothy Spall as the voice of the hound. If only Steve Whitmire had done the frogs... then again, maybe we should just be thankful it wasn't Paul (£90 a ticket?!!) McCartney.
The movie drags a little in some places and the plot is pretty simple, presumably for the kiddies sake, though I'm not sure how closely matched it is to the original book so that could perhaps be Carroll's fault. In all, the movie was great fun, especially in 3D but like 'Avatar', which we seen a few weeks ago, I suspect it won't hold the same 'fantastics' for me on DVD in the living room. That is, of course, unless I suddenly appropriate a giant screen TV from somewhere in the near future. Apparently 3D is the future at the movies and according to some also the future of home entertainment... Total Wipeout in 3D... wow, that wall of boxing gloves would look a hell of a lot scarier!?

Two days slow

Watching movies and eating crisps. That's how I spent the weekend - or, at least, that's what it feels like. Back in work this morning and I've realised I've only got two teabags left in my office drawer. I've got to survive a Monday shift with only two cups of tea?! I'm not sure if it's possible but I'll give it my best shot - I may have to go grovelling though. Some fellow office workers sometimes throw the odd teabag in my general direction if I find myself struggling.
Last night, Sunday, I was forced to sit and watch the epitome of Chick Flicks - 'Bride Wars'. I'm not sure why I allowed myself to watch this piece of nonsense but I have to admit I've watched a hell of a lot worse. Plus I'm probably guilty of forcing Ka to sit and watch movies that she does not particularly want to see so maybe I deserved it. Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson starred as the main characters so this in itself made it a little more watchable along with the copious amounts of Red Sky crisps. Fantastic crisps, by the way, introduced to us by Tom and Linda and well worth paying the extra money for.
Ka was struggling on Saturday after waking up hungover after her Disco Diva night. While she was out enjoying herself I was driving everyone about. Chaz and myself went out for a pint and I, in my eternal wisdom, decided to drive and on walking into EK's new pub, The Byre, we met my parents who were sitting at the other end of the room getting happy with wine. So I was volunteered for lifts home before picking Ka and some of her friends up and taking them all home. The female company ranging from the plain drunk to the disorderly, teary eyed and/or joyously talkative. So it was down to me to carry out all of Saturdays messages such as visit the Wedding photographer, pop in to Your Move, do a bit of shopping and generally clean the flat up.
So on Saturday night, with Ka still suffering, we lounged on the couch and watched, the funnier than I remember, 'Meet the Fockers' followed by Johnny Depp in 'Secret Window'. DeNiro is a hoot as that uptight CIA Dad in the first movie and teamed up with the exuberant Hoffman made a great team. The latter flick was an entertaining enough romp with Depp playing a lonely writer in solitude in a lakeside log cabin out in the middle of nowhere struggling with a weird visitor who appears out of nowhere at his door. This reminded me of Ka with the strange,wee Avon girl that appears at our door occasionally, threatening her with her ridiculously overpriced make-up. It was almost strange to see Depp play a normal guy for the first half of the movie after all the dancing about as a pirate and wild staring of Sweeny Todd that we've seen recently. He seems to switch from the more normal characters to the weird and wonderful with amazing ease and is going back down the wild and crazy path again with Tim Burton's up and coming 'Alice in Wonderland'. Can't think of a better director than Burton to tackle the 'Alice' tale with Depp playing the Mad Hatter, the tea obsessed nutcase with his weird riddles and nonsense words. Sounds familiar somehow...