Frankenweenie 3D

Mad Science and Man's Best Friend

★ ★ ★ 1/2 out of 5 buckets | Matinee or DVD

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Rated: PG Action, thematic elements and scary images

Release Date: October 5, 2012

Runtime: 1 hour 27 minutes

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Director: Tim Burton
Writers: John August, Tim Burton, Leonard Ripps
Cast: Catherine O'Hara, Robert Capron, Conchata Ferrell, Martin Short, Christopher Lee, Winona Ryder, James Hiroyuki Liao, Atticus Shaffer, Dee Bradley Baker, Charlie Tahan, Frank Welker

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SYNOPSIS: Young Victor, agonizing over the passing of his beloved dog Sparky, experiments with lightning to bring his dog back to life. Unfortunately, word gets out about Sparky's return from the dead, resulting in other kids abusing the work that Victor has completed.

REVIEW: A prolific and utterly creative force in moviemaking, director Tim Burton returns for more stop action cinema with the expansion of a Frankenstein homaged film about a boy and his dog. Known for masterful films such as Corpse Bride, Alice in Wonderland, and the big screen adaptation of Dark Shadows, he takes his 1984 short film of the same name created with Leonard Ripps and develops it into a feature with help from Dark Shadows writer John August.

Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan, Charlie St. Cloud) is a solitary boy who loves creating monster films with his best friend in the world, his dog Sparky (Frank Welker, Futurama). When Sparky chases after a baseball into the street, he is killed. Victor is distressed and distraught, mourning the lost of his best friend. When Victor's science teacher Mr. Rzykruski (Martin Landau, 9) demonstrates that electricity reanimates, albeit temporarily, a test frog. Taking matters into his own hands, Victor uses a lightning storm to bring Sparky back to light. Keeping Sparky's return a secret from his parents and his classmates, schoolmate Edgar "E" Gore (Atticus Shaffer, The Middle) discovers Sparky wandering around the schoolyard and confronts Victor about Sparky's vigor. When Victor repeats the process with a dead goldfish, Edgar later tells fellow classmates that he is going to win the science fair. Toshiaki (James Hiroyuki Liao, Battle: Los Angeles), Nassor (Martin Short, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted), Bob (Robert Capron, The Three Stooges), and Weird Girl (Catherine O'Hara, Where the Wild Things Are) decide that they can create bigger and better reanimated pets for the science fair, but with disastrous results for the town of New Holland.

Tim Burton and Disney create another stellar film. Using his vast experience of cinema, Burton reanimates his half hour 1984 live-action film, based on his idea and a screenplay from Leonard Ripps, into a full fledged stop-action feature. Shot in black and white (or with everything decored in grays, more likely), Burton incorporates several monster themes into one. The classic Frankenstein motif embodied by Victor and his dog Sparky is joined by 'The Bride of Frankenstein' in the form of Victor's neighbor Elsa van Helsing (Winona Ryder, The Dilemma) dog Persephone, classic Japanese cold war monsters, sea monkeys resembling a more monstrous version of Gremlins, and a strange mayor of New Holland, Mr. Burgemeister, whose name and look is a homage to a certain stop-action Christmas classic. Even the windmill on the top of the hill of the town of New Holland is a Universal Studios monster mainstay.

In addition to a carefully crafted tale that centers primarily around the love of a boy with his dog, Tim Burton's long time musical composing partner Danny Elfman provides a haunting, beautiful and fine score that accompanies and completes the film. The precise silences left by the characters is filled with an excellent symphonic melody. During every frame of celluloid filled with sadness by Victor over the passing of his friend, to the romping play of Sparky and his puppy love of the dog next door, to the climactic fire-wielding mob processional to the town's hilltop windmill, Danny Elfman proves once again that his style of composing is a perfect match to Burton's sideshow cinematic brilliance.

Burton focuses on always on the scene and the characters. Victor Frankenstein is reminiscent of a young groom from The Corpse Bride. Sparky is the most animated of the entire cast, both alive and dead - and undead. You root for the canine every step of the way. Science teacher Mr. Rzykruski is the spitting image of a long gone but not forgotten Vincent Price, a favorite actor of a younger, more impressionable, adolescent Burton. Nassor is an analgam of both the Universal Studios Doctor Frankenstein and his monster. The girl simply known as the 'Weird Girl' is both weird and hilarious. Lastly, Atticus Shaffer's Edgar "E" Gore is fun to watch, enhanced by a hunchback, crooked teeth, and Shaffer's voicework.

Although a stop-action piece of work, Tim Burton's kids stories are always a little more mature and dark than the normal fare. While some youngsters will love the 'gruesome' monsters that the young citizens of New Holland create during the lightning storms, others may find the subject matter a little scary or unnerving. Even the original death of Sparky (yes, he does die), while done with dignity and taste, may send some of the youngest into loud tears. Regardless, Burton puts his childhood enjoyment of monsters and classic horror into a wonderful children's tale, all with care and love.

Frankenweenie 3D is a dark Burtonesque joy for children and adults alike. Any canine lover will shed a tear for Sparky, and smile with his slobbery and frisky antics. Maybe not for the youngest of crowds, Frankenweenie does brings life to a dying artisan form of filmmaking. 

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Dark Shadows (2012)

Blood is Thicker than Water

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Rated: PG-13  Language, comic horror violence, sexual content, smoking and some drug use
Release Date: May 11, 2012
Runtime:  1 hr 53 mins

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Director: Tim Burton
Writers: Seth Grahame-Smith, John August, based on the television series created by Dan Curtis
Cast: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Johnny Lee Miller, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Lee, Alice Cooper

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SYNOPSIS: Barnabas Collins rejects the love of a servant girl witch, resulting in the loss of his parents, his estate, his true love and his mortality. 200 years later the now vampiric Collins escapes a steel coffin tomb to return to the homestead he remembered, still plagued by the curse that affects him and his descendant family.

REVIEW: Tim Burton, director of Alice in Wonderland and Edward Scissorhands, returns with his go to lead actor Johnny Depp for another look at the bizarre and somewhat revolutionary late 1960s supernatural soap serial melodrama Dark Shadows. With its unique blend of Gothic mystery, romance and grim melodrama, the original Dark Shadows became one of the first 'must see' television series, causing many kids and adults to race home to see each episode in an era before DVRs or VCRs. Now, adding their own unique visions, Depp and Burton take a quirky and funny look at the source material that became a cult classic for a generation.

In 1750, Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp, Alice in Wonderland) and his parents moved from Liverpool, England to the wilds of America's Maine coast. Using their know how to build a fishing port, Barnabas' father and mother creates the town of Collinsport and amassed prosperity and wealth for the town and for themselves. As a young adult, Barnabas makes the mistake of spurning the lustful advances of servant girl Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green, The Golden Compass) in favor of his true love Josette DuPres (Bella Heathcote, In Time). Unwilling to relent, the witch Bouchard curses Barnabas in a way that forces Josette to hurl herself to her death from the top of Widow's Peak. Barnabas follows after her, only to discover that he cannot die and has turned into a vampire. Trapped within a iron coffin, Bouchard buries Barnabas to rot in the ground. Nearly 200 years later, in 1972, Barnabas is accidentally released from his claustrophobic confines by construction workers. He finds himself as a strange monster in a strange new world, finally returning to the familiar surroundings of his ancestral estate, Collinwood. Barnabas finds the estate in ruin and the last remaining Collin clan a dysfunctional mess. The dusty and cracking Collinwood remains home to enduring family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer, New Year's Eve), her budding rebellious daughter Carolyn (Chloe Grace Moretz, Hugo), Elizabeth's scheming brother Roger (Jonny Lee Miller, Endgame), Roger's 10-year-old son David (Gully McGrath, Hugo), a live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech), the long suffering caretaker of Collinwood Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley, Shutter Island), and David's new governess Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote). Realizing that Barnabas has returned from the grave, literally, the still powerful and now fish cannery successful Angelica turns her seductive charms toward the vampire in an attempt to win his love. Conversely, Barnabas looks to return his family's business, fortune, and family honor, as well as woo Victoria as she reminds him of his lost Josette.

From the start, Burton, his writers Seth Grahame-Smith (the upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) and John August (Corpse Bride), and Johnny Depp intended for their version of Dark Shadows to stray a little from the soap opera without sacrificing what the original material included. Still haunting the shores of Collinwood are vampires, ghosts, witches, and a community with its share of deep, dark dramatic secrets. What sets these summer's film apart is the additional sense of whimsy and fun. While Johnny Depp channels Jonathan Frid's always iconic performances of the protagonist blood sucker, Depp added in his own flare of "flowery language" and "vocal style" to the role. As an England-born man who is turned into a vampire and immediately set into a buried grave for 200 years Barnabas finds absurdity all around him as he prowls the streets before returning home to Collinwood. And while he finds strangeness in his surroundings, his new found Collins family finds strangeness in him and his mannerisms, most notably young Carolyn who finds him "weird". While Dark Shadows is not as campy as portrayed in the trailers, the film still lightens itself out the surreal, grim world from which it sprung.

In Dark Shadows, Collinwood is as if it is a character all on its own. Production designer Rick Heinrichs from Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow creates an elaborate and beautiful estate for the Collin characters to interact with. Costume designer Colleen Atwood from Burton's Alice In Wonderland takes a break from the the outlandish regalia of the patron beyond the looking glass to create detailed costumes and capes for Barnabas that are both fresh and familiar. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, under the guidance of Burton, creates a style and look that hearkens back to an earlier era. When Victoria Winters disembarks from the train in Collinsport, and when she first walks up the drive at Collinwood, the faded soft film and the sharp, obtuse angles is reminiscent of many shots from early seventies horror and dramatic films. And Burton retains some classic soap operatic style by framing camera shots in many scenes with Barnabas and Elizabeth delivering their dialogue faced fully and dramatically away from the other.

The look of the film transported me back to the days of miniskirts and free love. The score and song choices of longtime Burton collaborator and composer Danny Elfman did the same. From the always haunting Moody Blues "Nights in White Satin" that starts off the title sequence, to a dinner accompanying Donovan classic "Season of the Witch," to Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly," Elfman's choices epitomize the tone of the film throughout.

Johnny Depp is, well, Johnny Depp! Every role he takes on is an entertaining adventure to watch. With several pale skinned characters to his credit, he does tweak his portrayal of Barnabas Collins enough to make the part feel original and set it apart from the likes of the Mad Hatter and Edward Scissorhands. Captain Jack Sparrow does bubble under the surface a bit with Depp's use of an English accent, albeit, a clear voice you can understand. Pfieffer is radiant, strong and proud in her role as Elizabeth Collins. Chloe Grace Moretz, one of my favorite young actresses, channels in perfect pitch the troubled, angst-ridden teenager that just wants to come of age and move to New York to live life on her own term. Jackie Earle Haley, a versatile performer, takes on the drunkard curmudgeon of Willie Loomis with relish. The witch of the hour, Eva Green's Angelique, is a beautiful porcelain facade that provides a shell for a lustful emptiness that twists into a devoted vengeance against Barnabas. Helena Bonham Carter's Dr. Hoffman is a sassy, alcoholic psychiatrist fascinated by Barnabas and worried about her own mortality. And Bella Heathcote plays her duel roles of the 18th Century Josette and the haunted nanny trying to escape her past and find a place to belong with equal grace.

Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and the rest of the cast deliver a quirky and fun version of the cult classic long-running soap serial melodrama that had people of the day rushing home to watch each episode - years before Lost ever hit the airwaves. If you like Burton and Depp, then you would be remiss in passing on this new Dark Shadows. Clever, 70s cool, lightly dramatic with a touch of whimsy, Dark Shadows will entertain even if Barnabas's hypnotic gaze does not enthrall.

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WORTH:  Matinee or DVD

The Wicker Tree

Up in Flames

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Rated: R  Sexuality, nudity and violence.
Release Date: January 27, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 30 min

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Director: Robin Hardy

Writers: Robin Hardy, from the novel "Cowboys for Christ"
Cast: Graham McTavish, Honeysuckle Weeks, Brittania Nicol, Henry Garrett, Keira McMillan, Christopher Lee

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SYNOPSIS: Two born again evangelical Christian missionaries travel to Tressock, Scotland to spread the word of the Lord. While there the pair accepts an invitation to participant in the village's yearly Mayfair, unaware of the dire consequences.

REVIEW: Robin Hardy, director of the 1973 original The Wicker Man, returns to direct a quasi followup to the original based on his own 2006 novel 'Cowboys for Christ'. Neither a remake of either the 1973 or the 2006 films but containing several elements from the original film he directed, The Wicker Tree is neither a sequel or a remake. 

Successful pop singer and devout evangelical Christian, Beth Boothby (Brittania Nicol) is the jewel of the Cowboys for Christ church in Texas. Deciding on a two year missionary trip to Scotland to spread the word of Jesus to those who have forgotten Him, she and boyfriend Steve (Henry Garrett, Red Tails) travel to Scotland under the patronage of the local church and benefactors Sir Lachlan (Graham McTavish, Colombiana) and Delia Morrison (Jacqueline Leonard, 'Holby City'). When the folks of Glasgow continue to rebuff Beth and Steve's attempts to teach them the word of Christianity, Sir Lachlan suggests that they all travel to the the Morrison's remote village of Tressock in the Scottish lowlands where they assure Beth and Steve that the local "heathens" would be much more receptive to their preachings. While the locals seem a little strange, they are happy at the new visitors and anxious to make the pair feel welcome. In exchange for listening to Beth and Steve preach the Lord's teachings, Sir Lachlan asks and succeeds in getting Beth to join their Mayfair celebration as the chosen May Queen and Steve to act as the Laddie. Little to either realize that the Mayfair, and their participation, spell certain doom for both of them.

Any fan of The Wicker Man, original or remake, will probably be interested in adding The Wicker Tree to the supposed trilogy - consisting of the 1973 original based on the uncredited David Pinner book, "Ritual", the unsuccessful Nicolas Cage 2006 remake, and now the companion piece, The Wicker Tree.
The pagans of Scotland stand in stark contrast from the Texan evangelical born again Christians, although both groups are devoted to their own practices and beliefs. As the story rolls out, Delia Morrison asks Beth about the practices of the born again Christians and how strange those beliefs struck her. Of course, the modern day practice of worshipping pagan goddesses seem utterly foreign to Beth as well. Furthermore, Beth and Steve believe the Bible, claiming that every word was inspired by God himself. The practice of sacrifice, from the son of Abraham to Jesus himself, is considered in high regard, while the continued practiced in the Scottish pagan rituals stun their Christian sensibilities. Finally, while Beth and Steve hold to a chaste relationship symbolized by matching silver purity rings as part of their purity in faith, the Scots revel in their sexuality and their bodies.

The film is a slow, plodding effort that crawls along until the third act. The acting is okay by Nicol,  Garrett, and the rest, only highlighted by the smug calm performance of Sir Lachlan's Graham McTavish. Once the film reaches the third act and the night before the Mayfair, the story actually starts taking off in the spirit of a 1970s cult slasher flick. When Beth wakes up from a poisoning, naked and ready to be prepared as the May Queen, she stumbles upon the horrors of several of the previously chosen May Queens.

Even with the flashback cameo of Christopher Lee as Sir Lachlan's father, The Wicker Tree does not stand up scrutiny, nor does it even approach the cult status of the original film. Filled with interesting anecdotes about extremist religious belief systems and a strange surreal third act most comfortable in a British Hammer film, but not much else, The Wicker Tree in its limited release may just wither and die.

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WORTH: Rental (for the completists)

Hugo (3D)

A World of Wonder

Director: Martin Scorsese

Writers: Brian Selznick, John Logan
Cast: Sir Ben Kingley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee, Helen McCrory

SYNOPSIS: A young orphaned boy living in the Paris train station looks to keep the memory of his father alive by fixing a mechanical automaton, but finds more adventure than he bargains for.

REVIEW: Martin Scorsese, the director of Taxi Driver and The Gangs of New York, returns to the directing reigns in the period piece Hugo, set in Paris in the 1930. Based on the Brian Selznick book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" and the adapted screenplay by John Logan (The Last Samurai, Rango), Hugo is larger than the gears that keep the Paris train Station clocks running.

Young orphaned Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) steals bread, milk and gears to survive and try to keep the memory of his father (Jude Law, Sherlock Holmes) alive. The son of a clock maker and a museum curator, Hugo helped his dad try to repair a mechanical automaton left abandoned at the museum. A fiery accident leaves Hugo an orphan in the care of his uncle (Ray Winstone) forced to help the old drunkard keep the Paris train station clock in accurate working order. Once his uncle disappears, Hugo keeps the clocks in working order, left to stealing to survive and to continue repairs on the automaton. All the while, Hugo keeps tabs on what the patrons and shop owners in the station are up to, ever watchful to avoid the orphan-catching station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat) and his faithful guard dog Maximilian. Enter toyshop owner Georges Méliès (Sir Ben Kingsley, Shutter Island) who catches Hugo stealing from his shop and takes from Hugo a notebook that belongs to Hugo's father, but holds some strange emotional familiarity to Mister Melies. When Hugo pleads for Mister Méliès' goddaughter Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz, Let Me In) to keep the notebook from being destroyed, the two soon strike up a friendship that leads to adventure and unraveling mysteries.

The acting is filled with emotion and brilliance. Sir Ben Kingsley is both hopeful and hopeless, his eyes giving away his hidden grief and determination to forget the pains of the past. Sacha Baron Cohen sheds his past with a role that is comical, whimsical, and broken-hearted. The young leads, Asa Butterfield and Chloë Grace Moretz, both show that they are currently and will continue to grow into a fine actor and actress. Asa's bright blue eyes and emotional expressions are perfectly balanced with Chloë's confidence and crooked smiles. If ever a better pair was prepared for adventure, I cannot come up with quick names to offer. Helen McCrory (The Queen), as George’s wife, stands by her man for what he has lost while relishing once she and they once had.

Beautifully captured, Scorsese grounds the film in a surreal and artistic backdrop. Almost like a painting at times, Hugo's cinematography is a feast to the eyes. When the camera flies through the station, whether the caverns of the train platforms, the cavernous beauty of the sculpted central station, the steamy corridors of the forgotten passages behind the station walls, or the tick-tock symphony of the whirling gears of the clock towers houses, Scorsese provides a character that is both stationary and filled with life. Even the seemingly insignificant comings and goings of rail riders adds to the richness of the story.

Although a large part of the story, Hugo is more than just the quest to of a young boy bring a complex mechanical toy to life. The film recurs themes of romance. Throughout the film characters try to connect with others from across the large central train station. With Hugo and Isabelle’s adventure to unravel the mystery they find themselves in, they come across beautiful romantic notions about the advent of film from the early days of motion pictures, ticking lights and motion on a screen that captured the imagination and allowed dream of places never been.

Scorsese becomes somewhat self-indulgent in the history and genesis of film, but he has a right to do so. Only a person with a passion for what film began as and what films should continue to be need apply for the job. Scorsese creates a wonderful and nearly magical 3D experience, pushing steam from pipes, the illumination from movie projecters, and the snout of a curious Doberman right in front of our faces. Hugo is filled with sights and sounds that secretly and unknowingly put a smile on the face and a spark in the heart. True cinematic fans will appreciate what Hugo offers in all its forms.

WORTH: Matinee and DVD