Bad acting, bad remake. Go rent the original.

Rating: 2/10 (4 January 2006)

Skip this horrific remake and rent the original. It had far more class, charm, better performances, and vibrant energy from its cast with rousing, memorable songs. You see, that's what happens when you rely on ACTING and DIRECTING and CREATIVITY instead of special effects. This new one belongs in the garbage heap with the rest of the recent CGI-animated pop-culture trash.
In this new film, Tim Burton has sucked the life out of the chocolate factory, and put it all into computer graphics. That said, Christopher Lee and Deep Roy are decent, and Johnny Depp tries his best to breathe some life into into his character (which is quirky and at times funny), but this dull, thudding remake of the original is so full of sneering, boring, sullen, plodding, snotty performances from the dregs of a supporting cast...it sucks! Each snotty spoiled brat is dutifully trotted out to screw up in Willy's factory and meet some horrible fate...and then the hundreds of clones of actor Deep Roy's Oompa Loompas come out and sing totally unintelligible songs. Willy Wonka keeps yelling at the "TV kid" to "Stop mumbling" ...and yet every song the Oompa Loompas sing is garbled gobbledegook. I felt embarrassed for Christopher Lee, Johnny Depp and Deep Roy. You don't give one rat's butt about the rest of the cast. I haven't seen a worse group of actors in a long, long time. Perhaps Burton was hoping the CGI would save them? Each scene is delivered with such a lack of enthusiasm and energy, I almost couldn't believe it.
Skip this shlock, and go rent the wonderful original with Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka.