Ridiculous....ly fun...

I will say this about Knight and Day: it is 100% as advertised. After first seeing the trailer for this film, I remember saying something to the effect of "What just happened?" And yet I found myself looking forward to it. It's a rare thing that a film actually delivers what the trailer promises, and here via the trailer we are promised ridiculous, over-the-top action sequences combined with a throwaway plot and cheesy dialog...and that's exactly what we get.

I'm a complete action movie junkie, so it's no surprise that the ridiculous-looking action sequences were the main draw of the film for me. My only complaint is that there weren't more of them and that they weren't longer. The action is so unapologetically ridiculous that they just add to the comedy of the whole situation, and you're too busy laughing and enjoying the ride that you don't notice that the special effects are horrendous. I mean seriously, how can you find time to complain about bad compositing when there's a man in front of you who just pulled a knife out of his heart to continue on with his business of kicking ass, only to get thrown through the window of a moving train and, while holding on only by a chain of sausage, gets obliterated by another passing train? The plot is serviceable enough to hold this string of sequences together, but pretty basic. Cameron Diaz is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets mixed up in the affairs of Tom Cruise, who is a special agent gone rogue. He will stop at nothing to prevent a top secret government project from falling into the wrong hands of another, evil government agent...or will he? You get the idea. Pretty standard stuff.

The weakness of the movie, as if it wasn't obvious, is the part of movie where guys aren't pulling knifes out of their hearts and getting thrown out train windows. The slow parts are just hilarious, in a that-really-shouldn't-be-funny kind of way. This is mainly because there is absolutely zero chemistry between Cruise and Diaz, which could possibly stem from the fact that she's about 4 feet taller than he is. It's interesting, in the slow parts of the movie where I had some time to think, I found myself thinking that if this was a weekly action/comedy TV show I would absolutely watch it. I would completely be on board watching the antics of the crazy ex-government agent every Tuesday at 8 on Fox. This way they would be able to disperse the slow parts of the story over a few weeks rather than getting the equivalent of an entire episodes-worth of boring dialog all at once. I'm just saying...24's off the air now, and Human Target didn't actually wow anybody...so there's room.

If nothing else, this was a way for two people (Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz) to try to prove that they are still relevant. One of them succeeded. I haven't liked Tom Cruise for quite some time, mainly because I found it difficult to dissociate his ridiculous off-the-screen personality from whatever ridiculous on-the-screen personality he was protraying. Nonetheless I found myself very surprised just how much I enjoyed Cruise's performance. He was his old charismatic 80's/early 90's self again (complete with plenty of aviator sunglasses). And given that (arguably) the last big success he's had was the first Mission: Impossible movie, he needed something to breathe some life into whatever career he may still have. He didn't need to do some serious period-piece, or another Jerry McGuire. He just needed to go back to what got him started in the first place, and I think he succeeded in that. Unfortunately the same can't be said for Cameron Diaz. She really needs some project to show why she should still matter, and if there is one, it's not this one. She just came off as very flat to me, and personally I have zero attraction to her whatsoever as she's really starting to show her age. Again, that's just me.

In the end, I think the endless amount of re-writes and re-shoots ended up absolutely derailing the last third of the movie (they were re-shooting up until mid-May for a film that released in June). When you have a film that's so flimsy to begin with, any bit of doubt just comes through that much more and just destroys the whole thing. That's not to say that I didn't have an absolute blast, but that's just because I was with great company and because I went into it expecting nothing more than the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. It's definitely no A-Team, but if you go in expecting to just completely turn your brain off and watch Tom Cruise run around like a crazy person, you will have as good a time as I did. Drugs help too.

Futurama's Back Baby!

And so am I! it's been freaking forever since I've posted anything on here...but leave it to Futurama to bring me out of hiding. In other news, I'm also writing reviews and such for the up-and-coming blog CrimsonMonkey.com, so good times! This is the first actual review I've written for em, so enjoy!

Futurama made its triumphant return last night, this time to Comedy Central, and I am happy to report that it is glorious! Sure we've had the "movies," and those were fine, but something about the long format just made them seem a bit...off. That was the very first thing I noticed about the 2 new episodes we were treated to last night. That the return to the short 30-minute format is much, much more successful. They don't have to worry about filler or stretching to fill time or anything, and it's great.

I had a few concerns ever since it was first hinted that the show was coming back, not the least of which was that they were having trouble getting the original cast's contracts worked out. If any show would have come on the air and called itself Futurama without that cast, I would probably throw my DVR out the window and disavow any knowledge of a "Comedy Central." Fortunately for my DVR, they were able to get everybody squared away and they are all right back on point. The other concern was time. When Family Guy was canceled, we had some great seasons of a great show to watch endlessly, and quote way too much. Then when it came back it was like a completely different show, just constantly looking to see how offensive it could be while sacrificing decent storytelling. I did not want this to happen to my beloved future jerkbags. Happily again, it looks like they still know what they're doing, so far at least.

The first episode was, at its core, a fan-service welcome back to the series. It picks up where the last movie, Into the Wild Green Yonder, where the Planet Express ship has just jumped through some sort of wormhole away from Zapp Brannigan and his ship. On the other end of the wormhole, our crew ends up right back at Earth. From here the Professor proceeds to get everybody back to working order, while Bender is forced to keep dancing in order to stay alive. And of course hilarity ensues.

The second episode wasn't quite as strong in my opinion, but still was great. Just like in the history of the show, even the weak episodes are still better than anything else out there. And it was still just so refreshing to see a nice, short, self-contained Futurama story (no, I'm not going to let that go, thank you very much).

The jokes and the timing made me feel like the show never left, and the short format made all the jokes hit that much harder since they came much more frequently. It all just felt like home, as cheesy as that is. Even the new Leela/Fry relationship worked for me. I didn't think it would, since to me, so much of the drama and comedy of the show always came from that dynamic of Fry always wanting Leela and her always turning him down ("so that's why you said you had to go meet that ghost..."). Them being together, at least so far, just seems to just make sense and isn't distracting.

All in all, for me it's like I haven't seen my best friend in a few years, and now we're finally talking again and it's like we never left. Futurama has always been the best, or at least one of the best animated shows ever created, and to make such an incredible comeback just cements that place, and I promise, The Hypnotoad had absolutely nothing to do with that opinion. All glory to The Hypnotoad!

you've lost your...much-ness...

Along with every mallrat Hot Topic shopping teenager, I too was pretty excited about Tim Burton's latest "re-imagining" of Alice in Wonderland. I've always been a fan of Burton and his style, extending into the awesome art he's done (I wish I had a way to get the MoMA in NY to see his exhibit), but lately I've been kind of wishing he would get back to doing more original work. He hasn't put out anything I would say was particularly bad (I even defended his Wonka remake), but it just seems like the inspiration is starting to wane for him.

I will say right off the bat that visually the film is absolutely stunning. All the environments, costume designs, and set designs just ooze Burton's style and it really is beautiful. That being said, I miss Burton's practical effects. With most things I tend to be a big fan of practical effects vs. CG effects anyway, depending on the situation of course. I just love the way real objects draw you into the universe so much more (for example look at the machinery in the lab of Edward Scissorhands...it just makes everything seem so much more real). There are a lot of subtle CG things that he implements very well, like making the Red Queen's head gigantic, and making Crispin Glover somehow even more tall and lanky than he actually is. I understand that nowadays with schedules for films getting more and more demanding that you have to use CG to speed up some processes, and obviously for large-scale things it just makes sense, but it just gets frustrating with Burton because I know he's such a talented artist and to see his amazing trees and things like that not actually existing makes me sad. Also, the Tweedles just look wrong. I don't know how you could make characters that shape and make them look "right," but that is not it. But again, my own personal nitpicks aside, it really does look beautiful.

I think the standout problem to me with the film is that it just seems that it's lacking things. Much the same way as Charlie and the Chocolate factory, Burton based his version of this classic story on the original Lewis Carroll book, but still paid a few homages to the well-known and well-loved Disney cartoon. Now, I admittedly haven't read the book so I can't critique it as a direct adaptation of the book, but even having not read it, I just feel like there was a lot left out. I didn't really get that scale and the scope of Wonderland as a whole. Not that it would be all that exciting to see people traveling from place to place, but it just seemed like they wanted to make sure they hit the highlights, and let the in between things fall through the cracks. For instance I want to know the reach of the Red Queen's power. How did she come to power? If the White Queen doesn't rule anymore, how come she still has a bitchin' castle? You get a hint of the Red Queen using her Jabberwocky to burn one village. How much more did she destroy with that guy? What the hell is a Jabberwocky? Sure they're not necessary plot points, but I think it would add to the depth of scale of the world.

In the same lacking vein, I feel like one of the classic scenes from the animated film (and, from what I've heard, from the book as well), the tea party scene didn't seem to have the intended effect. There were no logical paradoxes, with the exception of "why is a raven like a writing desk?" and it seems out of place without the rest of the paradoxes being there. Those logic problems were a keystone of the whole scene, even the whole story, so it was a shame to see it watered down so much. The scene didn't have the crazy, frantic feel I thought it should have either. I feel like that scene should be the most confusing, sensory overload scene, but instead they just went for confusing. The hare was hilarious, but it just wasn't quite enough. I did very much enjoy the use of the nonsensical Wonderland "language" but for the most part everybody seems to be saying these made-up words under their breath so you find yourself wondering if you're supposed to know what they're saying or not.

It seems like I'm coming down pretty hard on it, but really those are just things that disappointed me, and although I really did still enjoy the movie, if those problems were addressed it could have been a great movie and that's what bugs me. One thing I will say this film actually did better than the animated version was keeping that sense of parallel situations going on in Wonderland vs. what's going on in the real world. Not in a Wizard of Oz kind of way with characters playing the same people in the alternate reality, just situational. It was very interesting and very well done. As I said, visually it was fantastic, and the performances were fantastic as well. Mia Wasikowska was a real standout as Alice, along with Burton's two significant others: Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp. Although I did think it was a bit strange when Depp's mad hatter would randomly become Scottish from time to time.

Again, I did really enjoy it, and I recommend checking it out. It's just a bummer when just some minor tweaks and maybe making the film slightly longer could have turned it from 'pretty good' to 'great.' Hot Topic should still probably make out ok though.

Why are you all wet, baby?

I was pretty excited about Shutter Island, but I got worried when it got delayed by so long for "budgetary" reasons. It just makes you wonder why the studio couldn't come up with the money to promote the movie. Did they feel like it wasn't worth supporting? So because of that, I went in pretty wary and prepared for it to disappoint. It didn't.

By this point everyone can at least agree that Martin Scorsese is a brilliant director, so I won't even bother going into how beautifully shot the movie is. He did make some strange selections in the way of music, however. It's interesting because everything visually on the screen is being used to create this moody, sullen atmosphere, but then at times you're just beaten over the head with this overly dramatic Psycho-esque music. It almost makes you want to find the orchestra playing off screen and tell them to chill out.

The film follows our main character, Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshall, who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio. I was very afraid that his attempt at a bah-ston accent would kill it for me but it really didn't bother me too much. I got too wrapped up in the rest of the plot. Anyway, Teddy is coming to the mysterious Shutter Island which houses Ashecliff, a mental institution for the criminally insane, to investigate an inmate (patient) who has apparently escaped under very...unorthodox...circumstances. He is on this mission with his partner, Chuck, played by Mark Ruffalo. Throughout the movie I couldn't figure out why Ruffalo had become such a stiff actor, but once you get to the end you realize his character is probably just bored with the situation (it makes sense, I promise). When the Marshalls get to the island, they are greeted by Sir Ben Kingsly, who plays the chief psychiatrist Dr. Cawley. He then explains the situation to the Marshalls. It really is great to see Kingsly in sort of a return to form. He's been kind of picking some strange projects as of late, but he really shines in this role.

After a short time, the disappearance of the patient takes a bit of a back seat to the real intentions that Mr. Daniels had in coming to the island. I won't go into those reasons for fear of spoilers, but it has to do with Teddy's now deceased wife. Once we get to that point, the pace really takes off and becomes a real thriller mystery movie. It's interesting to me because I felt like the whole cast and the film itself had to kind of settle into itself for maybe the first third of the movie during the exposition. Everybody (not just Ruffalo) seemed a little stiff, or maybe just a little off to me for a little while but then once they settled in the film had my undivided attention. Especially when Teddy makes his way to the mysterious 'Ward C' where the most violent patients are kept. There's some really intense stuff going on in Ward C (including a kickass cameo by Rorschach himself, Jackie Earle Haley...that dude is everywhere right now!) but it never strays into that horror cliche of "gotcha" moments. There are a couple jumpy things but they certainly fit in and don't seem out of place with the rest of the mood.

Throughout Teddy's searching for whatever it is he's searching for, he is constantly having to butt heads with Dr. Cawley and his associate, Dr. Naehring (played by Max von Sydow, who's awesome), and they always seem like they're hiding...something. There's a great side story of the internal battle in the field of psychiatry that Dr. Cawley is involved in between pharmacotherapy (using drugs to treat mental illness) and simply talking to the patients as a way of therapy. It seems like a tacked on bit of information at first but again, by the time you get to the end you realize it is very, very important.

Speaking of that ending...is it the greatest twist ever? Not really, but the execution is expertly done. It's one of those things that you see coming pretty early but they drop so many other little tidbits that make you second guess yourself and wonder about what's really going on right up to the reveal. That's vague I know, but I don't want to be the guy on here saying Bruce Willis was dead the whole time. So, with an odd musical selection and a story that will keep you guessing until the very end, Shutter Island is a beautifully executed film that I really can't wait to check out again to see what kind of little things I missed the first time. I kind of wish I would have read the book it was adapted from, but with stories with twists in them, what's the fun of knowing what's coming, right?

Tuesday Two-Fer, Part 2

Well this was certainly not what I expected. The trailers initially piqued my interest a few months ago because it looked like they were going to take a serious, moody look at the classic Wolfman story. It seems almost like they tried to do that but then somewhere along the line they decided it was way more fun to watch a Wolfman kill some folks. And oh does he kill some folks.

With such a great cast you wouldn't think director Joe Johnston could go wrong, with Benicio Del Toro as Lawrence Talbot, apparently the only non-British member of the Talbot clan. He does a good job brooding and scowling (the two things Del Toro is best at) while he Tries to figure out what caused the mysterious disappearance and eventual death of his brother. Some random old drunks in town apparently have deduced that it was probably some sort of beast that transforms from a man during a full moon, because that's the only logical explanation. Talbot's dead brother's widow, Gwen Conliffe (played by a gorgeous Emily Blunt), seems to take a liking to this stranger who apparently has been away for years and "missed [his brother's] entire life." Talbot's father, played by an always awesome Anthony Hopkins, is just kind of a weird guy who apparently never really cared for...well anybody really, not even his awesome Siek servant. To round out the cast, Hugo Weaving (also always awesome) plays detective Abberline (who you may also remember from From Hell), who, while a great character played by a great character actor, doesn't do a whole lot in the way of plot development other than being frustrated by not catching the "lunatic."

Whilst visiting a Gypsy camp trying to figure out what the deal is with this transforming beast thing, Lawrence has an inevitable run-in with the thing and is bitten, thus setting the rest of the film up for Wolfman mayhem. Everybody knows pretty much how werewolves work considering how hot they are right now, and the movie is called The Wolfman, so it's not like it comes as a surprise when we find out what lycanthropy is. It does set up some very well done transformation sequences though. Also, when we get into the thick of the Wolfman killing sprees, it's almost like the film turns into Final Desination, only this time Death is a werewolf. The violence get's so ridiculous that honestly I have to applaud them for it. They're not afraid to tread that line between gore and just right out cheese, and sometimes cross it. But it works as a great homage to classic horror movies.

I was a little torn on the actual reveal of the Wolfman, though. On the one hand, they do a very good job making paying homage to the original design of the Universal Wolfman without going all out, crazy-CG, Underworld werewolf. On the other hand, the design is dated. The make up is excellently applied, but it's hard not to keep thinking it's just a really good halloween costume. Contrast that with how excellent the bit of CG they did use to make him go from running upright to running on all fours which was just fantastic. Speaking of CG, I think the Wolfman is the only "animal" in the film that isn't fully CG. Seriously, can someone explain why they couldn't get a bear on a leash for one shot and a deer on a leash for another shot?

Back to the point of not developing quite enough in the way of story, we are given little trinkets here and there pointing to the fact that the father Talbot is kind of an asshole. It's obvious from the get-go that he himself is a werewolf, but we never really get any explanation as to why he doesn't care for his son, thus making the moments between them a lot less tense than they should be. Well, there's one exception: the giant father/son all out werewolf battle royale at the climax of the film. And as awesome as that whole fight is, it just doesn't fit at all with the mood of the rest of the movie. I had heard that there were some studio-imposed reshoots having to do with the end of the movie, and this has to be it. I imagine they had sort of a slow-burn ending with some sort of mild square-off between father and son, but the studio said "no way! We need a werewolf brawl! With fire!!" and it was so.

All in all the whole experience is just confusing. It's definitely a far cry from director Johnston's Jumanji days, and it's very predictable and completely ridiculous at a lot of times, but it's still somehow a whole lot of fun, and the good, somewhat serious parts are still very well done. It makes you wonder how it would have turned out had the studio not gotten too much involved, or hell, maybe Johnston really likes those Final Destination movies.

Tuesday Two-fer, Part 1

So it's been a couple weeks since I've done anything here, and I'm kind of ashamed. It's also been a couple weeks since I've seen anything to write about so there's also that. However I realized the other day that I left something off of my previous post. We actually made an unauthorized double-feature out of Dr. Parnassus and Up In the Air, and I never actually wrote anything down about Up In the Air. Travesty!! So anyway, today here's a couple reviews of two movies that couldn't be more different if they tried. Or could they....(Part 2 to follow)

Up In the Air was one of those movies I had to see, if nothing else, just because of the buzz around it. It was already sweeping awards shows and picked up a few Oscar nods, and since it wasn't a Victorian period piece or some other obviously-fishing-for-an-Oscar-looking movie I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Not to mention my fanboyism for George Clooney that I've addressed here before.

Let me go ahead and say that, as sort of a whole theme for the film, it just feels real. Nothing is ever sugar-coated, and bad things happen...just like in real life. I mean when your main character (Clooney) is a corporate axe-man you know you're not exactly in for a trip down gumdrop alley. As expected, Clooney plays the part of Ryan Bingham to near perfection and really draws you in to sympathize with his character. This is no small feat considering Bingham basically makes his living being a professional asshole. But almost immediately after we see what he does for a living we see that he could be facing the same fate as the people he so elegantly fires every day.

This is the part that is immediately sympathetic. Bingham and all his axe-man buddies have been in the industry for years and have a very established way of doing things, when in comes this young fresh-out-of-college girl with big ideas to revolutionize the whole firing industry! It's very interesting because this type of thing has been happening all over the country in real life for years now. Young people with big ideas going in and revolutionizing their fields (for less money than the established older guys are asking for), usually ending up with a lot of good people losing their jobs. Anyway, I digress.

Our plucky new girl, Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) has this idea to for the firm to start doing their firings over the computer, thus eliminating the need for so much travel. A good idea in premise, but just seeing the firings on the screen you already get a feel for just how personal an event that really is, and doing it over the internet just makes it incredibly impersonal. Bingham obviously raises a big stink over this, also because he's become very accustomed to his no-strings-attached life on the road (he even does a speaking tour basically about not weighing yourself down with too much "baggage"). The big bossman (a rather interesting role for Jason Bateman) somewhat agrees, but he charges Bingham with taking Keener out on the road in order to give her some perspective, to which Bingham begrudgingly agrees. Oh the adventures they'll have!

Unfortunately, Keener is the weak link in the film for me by no fault of her own. Her character is great, but we just don't get enough development for me. She has this almost robotic delivery which goes well with someone just coming out of school learning how to fire people, and there's so much potential to watch her character grow in different ways after witnessing first hand how bad firings can go. Her personal relationship situation is ripe with ways that she and Bingham can learn from each other as well. Unfortunately though, when push comes to shove at the end it's like she didn't learn anything and continues on with her flowchart way of dealing with people. We get some flashes of humanity in her, but I just wanted more.

The other woman in Bingham's life is Alex Goran (played by the lovely Vera Farmiga). She is a fascinating character in that she is basically the female version of Bingham; always on the road, not interested in a "real" relationship, all that good stuff. It's just fantastic watching her and Bingham, over the course of the film, seemingly get closer and closer. There is a moment where it looks like Bingham is having his big Hollywood-style revelation that he just has to be with her, and instead of them living happily ever after he is swiftly snapped right back down into reality. Honestly, I don't know if this makes me a sadistic person, but that is my favorite point in the film. Not because I enjoy people's dreams being crushed, but because life doesn't happen like that. People never (ok fine, RARELY) get to change their outlook on life that drastically and get away with it.

Although I don't agree with both the females in the film being nominated for Academy Awards (Vera Farmiga I just feel like simply didn't get enough screen time to warrant it, and Anna Kendrick just didn't do it for me), George Clooney is phenomenal as always. And while this was a very ambitious project for director Jason Reitman, and a huge departure from Juno, he hits it out of the park. It's very interesting how he adapted his style to fit the mood of the film. Looking at this film and Juno side by side, you'd never know they were directed by the same person, and that's awesome. And the genius move of getting real people that had been fired to air their grievances for the camera really just drives home the reality of it all. It's always nice to see a film with such lofty acclaims and expectations, and have it live up to every inch of them.

You can't stop a story being told...

In the current landscape of remakes, sequels, prequels, and comic-book movies, it's always refreshing to see people still putting out original ideas at the movies. Not to say I have anything inherently against any of the aforementioned genres, but things like Terry Gilliam's newest outing, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus are always a breath of fresh air. As long as they're good, of course.

Terry Gilliam is one of the very few surrealists that can be a surrealist but also carry on a coherent plot. This is evidenced as far back as his Monty Python days, and with the exception of his unfortunate Brothers Grimm experiment he's really maintained his sensibilities throughout his career, by somehow melding great stories with completely outlandish, surreal, or simply batshit crazy elements, and having them work as a whole. As a side note, I really wish that Tim Burton would take a not from Gilliam because both of them, when working on their original ideas, are absolutely fantastic, and while Burton's current phase of redoing fairy tales and classic films/books is fun, he's at his best when doing his original ideas.

Taking a step back from Dr. Parnassus, we're left with a fairly simple Good vs. Evil/Light vs. Dark story, with Dr. Parnassus representing the light and the Devil (or Mr. Nick as he's called in the film) as the devil. It should be noted that Tom Waits plays the devil and as much talk has been made about Heath Ledger's performance in this film (more on that later), Tom Waits really almost stole the show for me. He was absolutely fantastic. Dr. Parnassus has this special ability to transport people inside their own imagination, basically taking the person to their own “happy place.” Mr. Nick always works himself in somehow, offering the people a choice to stay in their happy place or move toward their darker, more carnal desires. Mr. Nick (I keep wanting to call him Dr. Nick...Hi everybody!) makes these appearances as sort of a plan to convert them, because he and Parnassus long ago made a bet on who could convert the most souls to their respective side.

Now, the only real reasons I was interested in this film in the first place were because Terry Gilliam was at the helm, and because it was Heath Ledger's last film and I (assumingly along with a lot of other people) was curious as to where he could go after his unbeatable performance in the Dark Knight. Neither of these things let me down. Gilliam, as I've already said, stays true to what you would expect from him, and Ledger continues to surprise me. It's interesting that I enjoyed him so much in this film because I honestly can't put a finger on why. As a friend of mine pointed out, anybody could have played his part, the part of a con-man named Anthony who helps out Parnassus and his band of gypsys and we're never quite sure if he's genuine or not. His part didn't have that same “anybody else would have fallen flat on their face attempting this” quality as the Joker did, but I think that's just because this part isn't as complex. All the same, before his untimely passing and evidenced in this film, Ledger developed some sort of intangible quality that just makes me fascinated by him when he's on screen. He can be charismatic, he can be mean, whatever...very interesting, and very sad that we won't get to see any more.

I was also very curious to see how they handled filling in for Ledger in the film since he passed away while they were still filming. They were able to get Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrel to sort of fill in for Heath Ledger, I had heard that much, but how was that going to work? I mean they don't necessarily all look the same. The tweaks they made flowed very well, though, and kept with the tone of the film. Since you're dealing with the imagination, anything is possible, so when suddenly Anthony looks like Johnny Depp, you can pass it off as it just being how the person is imagining him look. Very clever. Depp and Law both do fantastic jobs still acting as if Ledger was still giving the peformance. Johny Depp did an especially exceptional job, even down to the mannerisms. Colin Farrel, on the other hand, sort of fell a bit flat though. I'm not a huge fan of his anyway, but it felt more like he was trying to play it his own way instead of working as an already established character like the other two did.

All in all, Dr. Parnassus is a very fun ride, with great characters, beautiful imagery, beautiful people (Lily Cole...wawaweewa), and one weird looking old man. Oh! And a Dwarf! Who knew Vern Troyer could actually act? Not me. Anyway, as I said before, I'm so glad there are people still wiling to put out art that they want to put out, and as sad as it is that we lost a great actor and a seemingly great guy in Heath Ledger, I'm glad his career was punctuated with a good note.