Sucked!!!!

Rating: 1/10 (3 December 2005)

I don't even know where to begin with how disappointed I was with this movie. Having grown up with the incredibly talented Gene Wilder as "Willy Wonka," I expected my view to be tainted, but I tried to watch this film with an open mind. Nice try. Johnny Depp, who has made some wonderful movies in his own right, cannot hold a candle to Gene Wilder in this role. Whereas Wilder played Wonka as mysterious, a bit mischievous, but good-hearted, Depp played him like he had just done a serious amount of cocaine. His dislike for the children was overplayed and I was waiting for him to beat the crap out of them at any moment. Wilder's performance was more subtle and sarcastic. Depp's June Allyson hairstyle did nothing for me either. Whereas "Willy Wonka..." was made years before all this computer graphics crap, it seemed more real. "Charlie..." seemed like a film student's graduate project. Bottom line: "Willy Wonka..." is for adults. "Charlie..." is for children with a low I.Q. Some movies just don't need to be remade; in fact most don't. Look at "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Yours, Mine, and Ours." The people who made these movies took classic comedy and turned them into fart jokes and basic toilet humor. Doesn't anyone in Hollywood have an original idea? Or has America lost its integrity when it comes to movies? The best movies being made these days are independent films. What does that tell you?