Reviews

It seemed like a safe bet that Tim Burton's adaptation of Lewis Carroll's beloved Alice in Wonderland stories would be delightfully strange and gorgeous, with a cast that was sure to make it a beloved film. Unfortunately with a schizophrenic plot and murky imagery, it's likely to be the least favorite Burton film among those who call themselves fans.

A brief prelude of Alice as a nightmare-troubled child quickly turns into a garden party intended to announce Alice's engagement, only adult Alice is the last to know. Not surprisingly, she falls down a rabbit hole and proceeds to have adventures big and small with such unlikely allies as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, the Dormouse, and the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) while avoiding the decapitation-happy Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter). 

One would rightly expect such a fantastic tale to have vibrant colors and outlandish costumes, but the color palette is murky to the point of people questioning the quality of the projection. It seems to be intended, however, as Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is pallid and in pale blue, and even the Cheshire Cat is dark grey and blue, and hard to see. The 3D effects, what little there are, are wasted, and not worth the extra cost of a 3D screening.   

I've long been a fan of mockumentaries, especially those that skewer deserving subjects while also skewering the sometimes overly earnest art of documentary filmmaking. The Flying Scissors, a mockumentary about the world of competitive rock, paper, scissors, occasionally succeeds at both. But despite an amusing premise and some likeably quirky characters, most of the film's humor falls flat.

The Flying Scissors -- released this week on Austin's Time-Warner Video on Demand, Amazon VOD, and other online VOD sites -- follows a dozen or so competitors in a rock, paper, scissors championship tournament, developing each character via the standard documentary mix of interviews and scenes of them going about their daily lives. Per documentary (and thus mockumentary) convention, the characters are a diverse group of socially inept oddballs, lifelong underachievers, and hyper-competitive types who have little in common except their obsession with a "sport" that no one outside the group seems to appreciate. More importantly, they also share a desire to succeed at something in their lives.

For example, hapless real-estate agent Frank Johnson (Todd Susman) lives in a tiny, trashy apartment but proudly shows off the equally tiny trophy he won at a previous tournament. Emasculated househusband Phil Stevens (Mason Pettit) hopes that winning the tournament will give his pushy wife Amy (Kerry O'Malley) a reason to respect him. Ardent feminist Leslie Hanrahan (Susan O'Connor) wants a victory for womyn everywhere, and vapid Christian beauty queen Anna Carlson (Sarah Wheeler) hopes a victory will somehow jumpstart her nonexistent acting career and/or bring her closer to Jesus.

If you hadn't told me that Shutter Island was a Martin Scorsese-directed film, I wouldn't have guessed. I would have thought it was some lesser-known director who wanted to be Christopher Nolan, and who was also a huge Hitchcock fan. Maybe if you'd shown me Scorsese's Cape Fear first, I might have believed they were from the same filmmaker, someone who wants to revisit and rework classic thrillers, but who loves spending time with his characters so much that he doesn't tighten up the thrillers enough for maximum suspense.

The plot seems straightforward enough at first: In 1954, two U.S. marshals who are brand-new partners, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), travel from Boston to nearby Shutter Island to investigate a woman who has gone missing from a hospital for the criminally insane. However, nothing on Shutter Island or in the movie is that simple. Teddy starts having flashbacks to his WWII days, when he was was one of the soldiers who stormed Dachau, and dreams vividly about his late wife (Michelle Williams), who wants him to find and kill someone named Laeddis.

On the From Mexico with Love DVD box cover, E Latino Weekly describes the film as "a modern-day Rocky." The comparison is probably inevitable, as both films are about scrappy underdog boxers. Sadly, From Mexico with Love has as much in common with Sylvester Stallone's poignant masterpiece as Dear John has with From Here to Eternity; both films involve beach-related wartime romance, but that's where the similarity ends.

To be fair, the creators of From Mexico with Love probably had good intentions. The film -- released today on DVD -- attempts to meld a crowd-pleasing sports story with serious commentary about the plight of migrant farm workers living on the U.S.-Mexico border. (Think Rocky meets Lone Star.) Unfortunately, the film delivers its political messages with jackhammer subtlety, and any sincere attempt at social relevance is no match for a thoroughly clichéd plot and dialogue apparently lifted from the lesser works of Dolph Lundgren.

The film's protagonist, Hector (Kuno Becker), is an impoverished Laredo farm worker who supplements his meager income by boxing in unsanctioned and unruly low-rent prizefights. Hector's world includes the expected characters: cynical immigrant smuggler Tito (Steven Bauer), grizzled boxing trainer Billy (Bruce McGill), and the conveniently beautiful love interest, Maria (Danay Garcia). Hector is a devoted son to his ailing mother, who labors alongside him in the fields despite her persistent coughing and wheezing. When the callous farm boss (apparently, there are no noncallous farm bosses, at least in movies about migrant workers) cuts mom's pay because she can't pick the required daily amount of vegetables, Hector brawls with the boss and soon finds himself unceremoniously dumped on the Mexican side of the border.