BY MIKEY MIGO
In 2009 a movie called “Malice in Wonderland” was released. I don’t want to say “Hey! Didn’t that Tim Burton rendition come out around then?!”, but it’s a fair question and statement. Is this a “well timed” release or a “piggy-backer”? That’s not for me to decide. I really don’t care one way or another. I didn’t like Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” at all. I did, however, enjoy this Simon Fellow’s directed euro-crime drama told in the world of “Wonderland”. It’s a way more modern take on the subject. It follows the standard mythos of Lewis Carroll’s original work, but it puts it in some sort of Guy Ritchie-like “crime thriller”. I thought it was going to be cheap and lame, but the story turned out to be pretty interesting. Maggie Grace placed Alice, an American law student from a well off family. She’s run down by a cab and then finds herself going on the normal “Alice” journey. The characters are what made this for me. Danny Dyer played “Whitey”, the cab driver. He’s pretty much the rabbit. Dyer is awesome. He’s not the lead, but he sort of carries the movie. Something about him was familiar and I could have sworn he’s been in stuff I’ve seen before, but apparently not. One dude I DID know was Matt King playing “Gonzo”. He’s the sleazy bad guy in the situation. He plays “Super Hanz” on my favorite Brit-com of all time “Peep Show”. That was a pleasant surprise. I’m surprised the guy hasn’t caught on to bigger roles yet. The twists and turns were fun. The Caterpillar was a white-Jamaican stoner who spoke in rhymes. The guy looked like kind of/sort of/a little big like Andy Samberg, but it wasn’t him. The Cheshire cat was a smooth talking DJ named “Chester Felix”. It was all borderline cheesy and as I’m typing this I know I’m not doing it justice. It sounds like a lot of crap, but it works well. It’s a well crafted movie with some decent performances. If you’re into the “Alice in Wonderland” story then you’ll want to see it for sure. If not, you can watch something else and not miss too much here. It IS better than the Tim Burton movie though. If you cross paths with this movie I can only recommend you give it a fair chance. It will most likely surprise you. It did me. B
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