- Friday night MK and I caught Wily Wonka. We saw it at some super huge mall in upstate New York, a four-story ultraplex with about a billion different stores, which meant plenty of places to kill time before the movie. MK chose H&M, I chose the Japanese bookstore and the Lego store. Plus there was a Target, and of course one of us had to get DVDs, and that person was me (hey, Jaws 30th Anniversary edition for just $16!).
Then there was a Barnes & Noble was jam-packed with Harry Potter freaks all waiting for the midnight release, and it was loads of fun goofing on them. Again, I consider myself a pretty big Potter fan, but even I have to laugh at the diehards, especially at some doofus with stupid fake plastic Potter glasses running around the store, high on excitement and on sugar, with chocolate cake visibly wedged in various parts of their braces, and this person is like in their mid twenties.
Anyway, the movie? It was awesome. Seriously. And… get ready to raise those pitchforks…. I thought it was just as good as the first film interpretation. And while in some instances that film is superior, I honestly do feel that this new one is actually better in a few areas as well.
First off, some people need to get over themselves and accept the fact that its not a remake of the Gene Wilder pic, but is its own thing, which is actually far closer to the source material than the first flick. I myself haven’t read the whole book, but MK did (she’s a big fan of it actually) and stated that it tapped into various aspects which helped to define the characters and stories that the first film either changed or ignored. Hey, I’m the guy who doesn’t mind changes to the original source material, so long as the changes work for the better. Plus even I didn’t have to read the whole thing to realize that whole “Charlie, you fucked up, you’re not getting the chocolate factory after-all!” scene seemed totally out of place and tacked on, which for me drags the whole film down.
And speaking of, while I’m a fan of the first movie, even I am willing to admit its not the greatest thing ever. I’m a huge Gene Wilder fan, and in my opinion, he’s pretty much the only really good thing about it. Without him, the original is actually nothing special and pretty boring IMHO.
As for the rest, the new kids are awesome; they all played the parts of arrogant shit-headed pricks to perfection, making what happens to them all the more satisfying, whereas the originals were just dumb. The kid who played Charlie was great, as was his parents and grandparents (we get all four like in the book this time around). And Johnny Depp, whom I’m also a big fan of, was simply amazing, and I just feel his version of Wonka was far more interesting and served the story and character better than Wilder’s. Wilder was good, but Depp was doing something totally different and I happened to like it better.
Plus the art direction and the music were all top-notch, and the story was pretty decent to boot; you even get to see a bit of Wonka’s past, and when this first popped up, I got flashbacks of the Grinch’s bullshit backstory from that movie, but it actually worked this time. Everything just worked so incredibly well… and yes, I also prefer the new Oompa Loompas.
Overall, a rock-solid film that will be yet another thing to cause me to get into petty arguments with delusional/irrational fanboys, this time Gene Wilder ones I suppose. I guess they can get in line after Joss Whedon fans who seem to be ones I’m annoying off the most for the time being (more on that later).
- And on Saturday was the Siren Music Festival at Coney Island. Gotta say, this one wasn’t as impressive as year’s past. Some commented that the line-up had no real obvious stars, which I guess might be true, though I couldn’t really say since I’m so out of the loop music wise (though its true that I didn’t recognize a single act save one). It might also explain why the turn out was so low when compared with past.
My beef was how everything felt so all the same, with no real stand outs, like a guy playing the guitar in a fighter pilot’s helmet (that would be Bob Logg III from two or three years back). But none of that mattered to me as much as the absence of the side stage; every year the bar Puzzles has its own stage ste-up to feature a wide range of bizarre acts which always provide the most fun. But as Joe, June and myself discovered at the Mermaid Parade, Puzzles is no more, which meant no side stage (and no Vic Thrill goddamnit)
But Siren really isn’t about the music, its about hanging out with friends, sitting on the beach, eating hot dogs, and laughing at Willamsburg art fags, and there was still plenty of that. In addition to the regular Coney Island gang of Joe, June, and Jay, Robin joined us. It was his first time ever on the bumper cars and the guy seemed to have a real blast. Plus its always nice to have someone around for a 2 player session of Ms. Pac Man. Plus Joe and I got one ride on the Cyclone in, which has totally re-ignited my need for roller-coasters. Thankfully there’s talk about a trip to Great Adventure early next month. Richie from the BDF was there, but sadly, no Mike.
As for the music, we caught Nine Black Alps, an up and coming band from the UK which were actually pretty damn awesome. Just straight forward rock, but not the whiney emo-pussy variety. They were the first act of the day and easily the best. Next was Morningwood, a local NYC act which started out with two great songs, but quickly went generic. Plus its another band that has to remind you every fifteen seconds that they have a “sexy”. She lost me with “Alright everyone, clap your hands! I said, everyone clap your hands! Not everyone’s clapping their hands! I ain’t gonna start the song till everyone claps their hands!” Jesus, shut up and fucking sing lady. I wanted to check out VHS or BETA simply cuz I’ve heard of their name but missed them, so I still have no idea what they sound like. The big headliner was Spoon which, from a hundred or so away sounded decent I guess.
Hey, I’m just happy that it didn’t rain. It was fucking disgusting (as its been for a while now, the humidity has been insane) but it didn’t rain.
- Yesterday I just chilled out at my place, watched Jaws, plus some Futurama, and finished hooking up all my systems to my set. I finally got component cables for the GameCube (Resident Evil 4 looks f’n nice!) which opened up a space to hook up my modded PSone, which led to a long Ridge Racer 4/Xevious 3D+G /Vib Ribbon play session. Believe it or not, I think I’m developing “Nintendo thumb” (I refuse to call it by the updated term “PlayStation thumb”) which is odd since I don’t play that much.
In other news, Karakuri, a cute little game from Tecmo which as far as I can tell, is pretty much the only thing to really look forward to for the PSP just got a homepage. Plus Tokypia just posted a review of some porn for the system. And now there’s apparently an app in the works that lets you play old Lucasarts point-and-click adventure games on the Sony handlheld as well. Now that is hawt.
Finally, my copy of Napple Tale has yet to arrive. Yay for eBay.
