Review: Fans get varied thrills from 'Alice,' 'Green Zone'

“Alice in Wonderland”

Directed by: Tim Burton  

Starring: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton

Rated: PG


All of Tim Burton's films, from “Pee Wee's Big Adventure” to “Beetlejuice” to “Edward Scissorhands,” have featured a “Burton” visual flair that leans somewhat to the macabre – not always in a scary way.

With his latest effort, “Alice in Wonderland,” Burton outdoes himself visually by combining live action and decidedly hallucinatory animation. Remember the book, with its mushrooms and potions and a hookah-smoking caterpillar.

Lewis Carroll purists may take Burton to task for the broad poetic license he's taken with the original story, but Hollywood has always been rife with that approach to source material.

Burton's screenwriter, Linda Woolverton, based this version on elements found in both “Alice in Wonderland” and the sequel, “Through the Looking Glass.” Here, Alice has a back story. We see some of her as a child, but the character is 19 when she goes back down the rabbit hole she had ventured into in her younger years. The reason she follows a white rabbit this time is to get away from her husband-to-be. The marriage was arranged, and Alice wants no part of it.

This takes her to a place – in the film it's known as Underland – where she's been before, but she has no recollection of the cast of bizarre characters, most of whom wonder if she is the Alice.

Alice may not remember these characters, but most viewers will. Helena Bonham Carter is sufficiently wicked as the Red Queen, and the look devised for her is a marvel. Anne Hathaway is ethereal as the White Queen. Alan Rickman voices the caterpillar, and yes, has a hookah. The Cheshire Cat – smile intact – is voiced by Stephen Fry, and the Jabberwocky benefits from the distinguished voice of Christopher Lee.

But it's Johnny Depp – in makeup, not animated – who is Alice's closest confidant in Underland. Depp has worked with Burton many times before and the two are well-suited.

As noted, this version of “Alice” doesn't do Carroll verbatim, but to go into the story would be an exercise in redundancy. Nearly everyone knows it from reading the books or seeing Disney's 1951 animated version.

The latest “Alice” is a wonder to look at, and one can choose the 3-D or the regular version. After being distracted and getting a headache during “Avatar” in 3-D, I opted for 2-D.

Burton fans will enjoy the movie – it's already grossed $400 million worldwide, his biggest film ever –  but I am surprised it is rated PG and not PG-13. Some scenes may be too intense for younger viewers.


“Green Zone”

Directed by: Paul Greengrass

Starring: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan, Khalid Abdalla, Jason Isaacs, Igal Naor

Rated: R


Just as Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have teamed before, actor Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass have made a couple of successful films together.

Greengrass directed Damon in the last two installments of the thrill-packed “Bourne” franchise.

Their new collaboration is a combination thriller/war movie that doesn't claim to be based on a true story, but it's as topical as the evening news. On the heels of the Oscar success of “The Hurt Locker” comes “Green Zone,” another story about the war in Iraq.

Damon plays Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller. As the film opens, Miller and his squad are on raid. There's been (another) tip-off about a place that is housing weapons of mass destruction.

But this location, like all the others American soldiers have raided, leaves them empty-handed.

Miller begins to think something is rotten in Iraq and decides to go outside the system and do some digging around.

He tries to enlist the aid of a Wall Street Journal reporter who explains she can't give up the name of the Iraqi official who claimed there were definitely WMD in the country in the first place.

Digging deeper, Miller confronts the smarmy bureaucrat Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear). As the story progresses, it's clear Poundstone is in the whole affair pretty deep. 
Miller is blocked at every turn but manages to find an ally in CIA operative Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson).

Whatever your politics, the thriller aspects and Greengrass' frenetic camera style make “Green Zone” fit in with his “Bourne” films.