Reviews

I LOVE this movie. I love it more now, than when I was a kid.

The best thing about this movie is that it not only pioneered but nailed - and I mean, absolutely NAILED - the concept of appealing to kids on one level, adults on a completely different level. This is one of the hardest things to do in movies, but if done well is an absolute delight. Kids can watch this movie and be enthralled by the Oompa-Loompas and the spectacle and the effects. Adults can be tickled by the smart, snappy dialogue and by Gene Wilder being a sarcastic wiseacre throughout, in what must be considered the role of his career.

All the parts were nailed. You can't imagine anyone else in the roles as they were cast. You hated Veruca because she was just so spoiled. You winced at Mike TeeVee's, Augustus's and Violet's fatal flaws.

Especially juxtaposed against this motley crew, you appreciated Charlie Bucket and his Grandpa Joe for their earnestness and unpretentiousness all the more. Truly they were the moral center of the piece.

Other movies and shows have done a good job of appealing to both kids and adults on different levels, but this is the gold standard to which all must ultimately answer to.

See it. And if you've seen it already, see it again.

10/10.

I think the biggest issue I have with this holiday perennial, is that it was obvious that the writers were trying to put together a script that appealed to kids on one level, and adults on another, not unlike Willy Wonka. While this is certainly admirable to shoot for, it's very difficult to pull off and when it misses it can be quite painful to watch. This was no exception; it not only missed, but missed badly; consequently, much of this is completely unwatchable.

Additionally, the animation is poor. One of the producers is Bill Melendez, famous for his work on the Peanuts cartoons. Not coincidentally, the animation and the characters at times look like something out of a Peanuts cartoons. Unfortunately, it captured none of the charm of even the least inspiring of the Peanuts cartoons.

Not least of all, the music was tuneless and uninspiring. It wasn't hummable, it wasn't memorable, it was just embarrassing.

Why this continues to be shown every year opposite the original Frosty - in my mind one of the three best Christmas specials of all time - escapes me. If it were my call, I'd just run the original Frosty, twice. In the meantime, on this I'll pass.

0 out of 10.

This is bad. I mean, it's just BAD. There is no reason at all to watch this.

The animation is poor and the characters look like cheap, Charlie Brown knockoffs. Specifically, the nerdy science kid looks like Marcie's illegitimate little brother with a bad wig. The writers, desperately trying to channel the spirit of Willy Wonka, tried to make a script that appealed to kids on one level, and adults on another, and failed, miserably, at both.

The music (by Mark Mothersbaugh, late of DEVO) was tuneless and boring and completely unmemorable - which, considering it came from someone who had given us inspired music like "That's Pep", "Peek-a-Boo" and the cover of "Satisfaction", you expected far better.

Shall I go on? In an attempt to relate to kids from broken homes, they have Holly's mother, Lil, with a father who is unaccounted for. My best guess is that he was at Moe's Place with Homer Simpson because he was too embarrassed to be associated with this.

As I watched this with my daughter (who, wisely, was more concerned with playing with junk mail and my dog's chew toy) I cringed at the songs, winced at the "jokes", shook my head at the awful animation. Then came four words that explained everything: "Executive Producer - Lorne Michaels".

And suddenly, it all made sense.

The shame of this is that I like John Goodman, I like Jan Hooks and I even like Jonathan Winters. I sense they were trying their best to make chicken salad out of this. But their talents, were completely wasted here.

It is incredible to me that CBS insists on showing this garbage, every year, back-to-back with the original Frosty - a sublime classic. I get that CBS owns it, and consequently can make more cheddar by cramming this down our throats annually; but, then again, I own a pair of orange plaid bell bottoms and a 45 of Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing" and I'm not going to break them out for public consumption any time soon.

I spent 30 minutes watching this, and I'm never going to get those 30 minutes back. Watching replays of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, would have been more rewarding.

Avoid, avoid, AVOID!!!

-748/10

Overall a good movie that will hold your interest. This movie was at its best painting a picture of the hold that High School Football has on smaller Texas towns. Presumably, what happens at Odessa is not dissimilar to what goes on in other Texas towns.

The overriding theme of the movie was desperation. Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton in a very good performance) expressed this best when he said that he felt no difference between winning and losing personally - the main difference was how people treated you afterward (which, really, could have defined the entire movie.)

The students' perspective were best represented predominantly by three players: Winchell (Lucas Black), Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund) and most of all Boobie Miles (Derek Luke). Each of these three players came from a single-parent (or in Boobie's case, uncle/father figure) household where they were the only child; in each case, the parent was basically trapped in Odessa and silently (or not-so-silently) banking on their son's success as a last, best hope to help pull them out of their hell.

None of these kids were having fun. Between the expectations of their parents, and the town, it is thus not surprising that neither player was having fun, Boobie's boasting notwithstanding. Here, the relevant quote that sums everything up was Winchell and Billingsley's response to one of their "candy-striper" teammates, Brian Chavez (Jay Hernandez) who tells them to "lighten up, you're only 17" - to which they both reply, "I don't feel 17."

After the first scene, the movie all but ignored Winchell's relationship with his mother after the first scene. The other two parent-child relationships, however, were depicted vividly. Billingsley's relationship with his father (Tim McGraw in a solid performance), an alcholic former gridiron champion for Odessa was captured well - specifically the vacillating of drunks between abusiveness, remorse and compassion toward their loved ones. Most memorable was Boobie's relationship with LV. We see both men's total devotion to each other (at times, even to the other's detriment). Most of all we see this towards the end when Boobie realizes it's over, he is crying because he wanted to take care of his uncle, and because of his injury he won't be able to. For all of Boobie's bravado and braggadocio, we find he was just as vulnerable and desperate as everyone else, and maybe more so. (For that matter, there's also a telling scene where reading letters from college recruiters, he has trouble reading the letters, and specifically the world "distinguished".)

The football action, I think, was designed primarily to appeal to action-movie fans and not necessarily football fans. As someone who is a big football fan, who watches a lot of football, I can say that some of these plays, simply, don't happen. The ebb-and-flow of some of the games (especially the final game) was a bit odd - you're watching, and it goes from being a four-touchdown blowout to a tight, two-TD game and it is not really clear how it got that way. Not to mention that considerable liberties were taken with Odessa's season, as well as with some of the players (their progress in the state tournament, the circumstances behind Boobie's injury, etc.) Not that it wasn't entertaining, or that people won't enjoy it, but to me it just seemed embellished and unnecessary.

Perhaps the most memorable scene for me, was when the players were walking in the tunnel onto the field in the Astrodome for the championship game. They're walking in the plain, beige-painted cinder-block tunnel, and then, all of a sudden, they walk onto the field of the packed Astrodome - 55,000 strong - and you just say: "Wow. So THIS is what it's like to play in a big stadium, for it all." That to me is easily the single moment I'll remember most.

This movie also got a lot of the period details right - most of the music that was played was all relevant and popular in the period the movie was shot (fall 1988); they also got the fashion right, for the most part (i.e., Coach Gaines wore a Members Only jacket to the championship game, Boobie's Public Enemy jacket, etc.) The little touches are there in the Astrodome as well; there appears to be the word "OILERS" (or "HOUSTON") written in each end zone in the Oilers' old Columbia blue and font; there's even a quick shot of the Astros' 1980 NL West pennant. Finally, there is also the obligatory "where are they now" sequence at the end; much of what happened to these individuals I found quite surprising.

On the whole this is a good movie that I enjoyed. Go see it.

7*/10.