Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Movie Monday - Alice in Wonderland - the Tim Burton version

Just some stuff before my AIW (which is also an eye/brain condition - look it up; it got some publicity recently when the WSJ ran an article on it) review:

1. I returned to Sam's Club yesterday around 10:30 am, well before the 11 am start of the Holiday Tasting. But, there was food everywhere. I didn't come to eat but I was surprised that the manager took my suggestion: If you advertise the food, the food should be there. Did he read my blog? I was also surprised to see him roaming the store the whole time I was there (you never see "suits" at Sam's) and I stopped him to thank him for putting the food out, unlike Friday.

2. I know your burning question is: What were you doing back at Sam's so soon? Well, remember the 10 pounds of turkey breast I bought at Sam's on Friday for Thanksgiving?.......Wait for it......I bought deli meat! Oh, the embarrassment! I am never allowed to shop for the holidays again - banned for life. How did I make that mistake? Beats me. Anyway, Sam's takes back everything. Some day I'll tell you about the boat we returned.

And now to Alice in Wonderland. The good news is I did not turn it off after 10 minutes as I thought I would. The bad news is that once again this became a Johnny Depp vehicle and unfortunately, Depp is becoming a parody in this type of movie (see POTC also.) Which is a shame because I think he's a fine actor.

I liked the look Burton got in Alice. His wacky vision fits perfectly into Carroll's work. Helene Bonham Carter was great as the Red Queen and Anne Hathaway gamely played the thankless role of the good White Queen in broad visual caricature. (Yes, the Red Queen's bulbous head was also caricature but in character; the exaggerated lips on the White Queen seemed to be parodying Hathaway's prominent mouth - a big difference.)

Special effects and visual beauty kept my interest until about 2/3 through when the movie suddenly started to drag. Too much Depp in the Mad Hatter role there? Possibly. But I was able to sit through it all until the end, though I was getting more and more disturbed as this movie began to play more and more as a women's lib drama than a classic fantasy.

I really am tired of the heavy-handed movie message that women can chart their own courses and the world will magically open up opportunities for them. This especially annoys me when the source material is tweaked to fit this POV and then this POV is heavy-handedly crammed into the theme.

Who convinced the writers/director that a fit end to the movie would be Alice embarking on a business career in the Far East? A visually beautiful, scary, supernatural story became a polemic. What a waste!