A Christmas Carol is one of my favorite stories. It's a complete classic, basically Shakespeare. In fact, it's a classic story that references Shakespeare. How perfect is that? Unfortunately I don't think the latest big screen adaptation was nearly perfect enough. Zemeckis'
A Christmas Carol is visually stunning to a fault. The filmmakers seemed to be so enthralled with making a movie that looks appealing, that not a lot of time appears to have been spent on anything else. The dialogue, while I appreciate that most of it came straight from Dickens, didn't translate well to the screen. Additionally, performances by Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman were overshadowed by the glitzy stage spectacles. I also thought Carrey's accent was horrible. Scrooge is supposed to be British, right? Maybe they didn't know. And lastly I have to mention how oddly frightening this film was. It's being marketed as a fun family film (and does have nice moments and elements to that effect), but I would not be comfortable taking young children to see this. It's often very dark and I'm pretty sure The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is a dementor!
On a lighter note,
The Men Who Stare At Goats was a good film that I really liked. Ewan McGregor portrays a Michigan journalist who unwittingly stumbles
into a story about the U.S. Military training psychic jedi warriors. No, really. I have to admit that half the fun is watching McGregor, Obi-Wan himself, discuss real life jedis. There's a nice wink to the audience in that.
Goats is smart and funny and I just loved the overall tone.
A Christmas Carol is one of my favorite stories. It's a complete classic, basically Shakespeare. In fact, it's a classic story that references Shakespeare. How perfect is that? Unfortunately I don't think the latest big screen adaptation was nearly perfect enough. Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol is visually stunning to a fault. The filmmakers seemed to be so enthralled with making a movie that looks appealing, that not a lot of time appears to have been spent on anything else. The dialogue, while I appreciate that most of it came straight from Dickens, didn't translate well to the screen. Additionally, performances by Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman were overshadowed by the glitzy stage spectacles. I also thought Carrey's accent was horrible. Scrooge is supposed to be British, right? Maybe they didn't know. And lastly I have to mention how oddly frightening this film was. It's being marketed as a fun family film (and does have nice moments and elements to that effect), but I would not be comfortable taking young children to see this. It's often very dark and I'm pretty sure The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is a dementor!
On a lighter note, The Men Who Stare At Goats was a good film that I really liked. Ewan McGregor portrays a Michigan journalist who unwittingly stumbles into a story about the U.S. Military training psychic jedi warriors. No, really. I have to admit that half the fun is watching McGregor, Obi-Wan himself, discuss real life jedis. There's a nice wink to the audience in that. Goats is smart and funny and I just loved the overall tone.
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