!POP! KORN

MOVIE

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"

I was beginning to wonder if I was meant to see this movie as my first attempt coincided with a rainy Father's Day and untold numbers of families deciding that the ultimate bonding experience would be a movie, and specifically the one I wanted to see, and my second, on the following weekend, synching beautifully with a massive street fair in Cronulla which meant that I couldn't find a parking spot to save myself. Success at last, and by this stage I was loudly proclaiming to my film buddy, Ellen, that the film had better be as good as everyone was saying, at Westfield Miranda which not only had it on at a good time, but had parking spaces (mercy me!) and tickets available. All snug in our seats and surrounded by more teens & pre-teens that a single person in their late 30s should ever be exposed to in a concentrated period, we beamed the sweet smile of victory as the pre-show ads and trailers (for a super exciting mix of G rated fare that I won't be seeing, thank you, lovely though the trailers are) started flickering onto the screen.....alas, with NO sound! Yes there was much gnashing of teeth, and a frantic rummaging of my mind as I'd tried to remember if I had ever offended Tim Burton (the director) at any point, and if so ( a little hard since I had never met him but ya never know), was he isn't some occultic religion that cursed me to never see any of his movies? (A very ego centric occultic religion if I may say so.) But then the sweet decibels of overhyped trailers and pointless ads kicked in and stayed on for the entire movie! Success at last!

So was it as good as the critics, all of whom praised it as a witty, colourful and faithful re-imagining of the dark tale by Roald Dahl, said it was? Thankfully, yes. Visually it was stunning, full of more rich colours inside the factory than I could process, and appropriate winter-like bleakness outside it, which made the scenes inside Willy Wonka's chocolate-driven flight from reality all the more richer. Freddy Highmore, who played Charlie, had the right mix of goodness & sweetness (without miraculously becoming nausea inducing), and Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka was a delightful mix of loopy, dark, engaging and sad, and an absolute standout in the movie. Tim Burton was in fine form, staying faithful to the book, which no doubt suited him just fine since he and Roald Dahl share the same delightfully twisted view of the world. Even the brief musical numbers, performed by the mysterious Oompa Loompas to send off the four children who's various human foibles and glaring flaws doom their chance to win the factory as an inheritance, were fun, kitsch, and oh, did I mention, brief. Having disliked people spontaneously breaking into song in any movie since I was a child, this was an EGT (Exceedingly Good Thing)! There is very little to dislike in a movie that manages to wrap surreal characters, unusual circumstances and a happy non-corny ending - the less corn the better I say - into one wonderfully coloured, vibrant fun movie.

Strangely enough, I was left with a strong desire to eat not chocolate, which is what you'd expect after a movie set in a chocolate factory but for a chicken roast dinner, which Charlie's family ate in the last scene of the movie......so of course I went home, and ate a cajun flavoured kangaroo steak.....very, very close to a chicken roast dinner....OK no it isn't.....

Back from the dead (and boy was that coffin cramped)

Well I have recovered from a near fatal attack (OK not really but it sounds suitably dramatic) of the flu which turned the last 2 weeks or so into a (very pleasant at times) haze of Codral cold and flu tablets, enough zinc tablets that I should be able to start mining myself at some stage in the future should I need more money and commodity prices hold firm, and enough Advil to warrant a seat on the board of that company as a major investor. While the dreaded lurgy did earn me a week of work - a good thing at any time - my 'time off' consisted of staring at the TV with my best impersonation of a lobotimised mental patient watching - it pains me to admit this - day time TV! Yes, Yes I know, how could I ? How could I breach that sacred covenant that we all make with ourselves to only watch day time dross....NEVER? It started with the 10.30 a.m. news, which is quite justifiable since knowledge is a good thing, and I should exercise my brain while the rest of my body turns on itself like a few Balkan nations with way too much weaponry and time on their hands, and soon graduated to "Hope and Faith" ( an admittedly B-grade sitcom but I grew to love it - sad I know but it was the Codral I swear!), "Still Standing" (also 2nd tier but really quite anti-establishment and not your typical family sitcom....I like it deliciously subversive style), "Murder She Wrote" (c'mon Angela Lansbury looks like a lovely cuddly grandmother and when you're sick, who doesn't want to soak in such lovely warm maternal-ish images) and bfore I knew it, and impromptu naps permitting, I was watching.....oh God forgive me!!....OPRAH! Who knew so many woman were in need of relationship counselling/makeovers/decent books to read (while sick maybe?)....I , for one, had no idea and I am profoundly changed after watching more episodes than is good for anyone...well, 'profoundly' may be stretching it, but I can now talk about all sorts of Important Issues with suitable Oprah-esque gravitas, and hence, am all the more in demand at dinner parties hosted by those with actual lives and no time to watch day time TV......my dirty little secret is that I am still taping "Still Standing" but not "Oprah".....I do still have some pride, you know.....

Now that I actually feel like myself again - assuming I even know the real me which is debatebale given that Oprah has opened my eyes to how little I know about Important Issues which would have to include me right? - I have decided to start sticking all the photos still in tubs into photo albums as an Urgent Priority, which would be fine if there was only a few rolls but we're talking 3 boxes full, people! 3 BOXES! Yes, I wanted to run of the door screaming but the deadlock was on at the time so that didn't work too well. Must add sanding back the door to my lists of Things To Do.....the wonderful part of the whole exercise, aside from this whacked out idea of mine that organising the photos will be fun, and bring a sense of completeness and joy that hitherto I could only imagine, is that I have photos from the last 3 decades all mixed together! Not the smartest thing to have done but with all the moving I have managed to cram into my 15 years in Sydney, its not surprising....and even though I hardly ever take it, I blame Codral for the mess my photos are in! Yes Codral! Not only does it relieve cold and flu symptoms but it can also be used as a handy scapegoat! I expect to have all my photos in albums shortly before my death in 50 years time, or before the coming of Jesus, which happens to arrive first, assuming of course I never take any more photos, like that'll happen...yep, I'm screwed....

By the way, and with this I conclude I swear, does anyone actually like Tuesdays? It's a nothing day - not quite the start of the week but not even Hump Day.....its suck awkwardly in the middle, kind of like the 2nd year of a uni degree......