Depp on the Internet

TRANSCENDENCE-2014-Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp), a doctor working with artificial intelligence is shot with a radioactive bullet by an anti-A.I. terrorist group. While he's dying, his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) borrows a computer program from a dead colleague and with the help of Caster's friend Max (Paul Bettany), they upload his mind into a computer. After they connect him to the internet, Max has second thoughts about what they've done. Later the terrorist group kidnaps Max and their leader Bree (Kate Mara) convinces Max to join them. Once Caster is on line he can control everything even helping a government agent (Cillian Murphy) arrest the terrorists. Meanwhile another scientist (Morgan Freeman) figures it all out while computer Will and Evelyn set up headquarters in a dying mid-west town. It's obvious things will get out of hand when Will saves a dying contractor and takes over his body, much to Evelyn's displeasure. The government decides to shut down the internet and blame it all on the poor terrorists (who's stupid actions actually caused the whole thing in the first place). Evelyn also comes to regret her actions and when their compound is under siege Caster says “We're not gonna fight them. We are going to transcend them”. A violent finale leads to a poignant ending where the world is changed drastically. 

This movie isn't as bad as I thought it would be and has good acting and SFX but it's too long! As of this writing it's the only directorial effort by Wally Pfister.

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Nice Article

Johnny Depp honors Christopher Lee in surprise appearance at BFI London Film Festival

Johnny Depp surprised his friend Christopher Lee with an award from the British Film Institute.

Posted By Kate Stanton  

(UPI) --Johnny Depp showed up to the last weekend of the British Film Institute's 10-day London Film Festival to present his friend and occasional costar, British actor Sir Christopher Lee, with the organization's Fellowship award.
Depp, 50, called the 91-year-old actor "a true gentleman" and "a national treasure" in his speech on Saturday. The two have worked together on films like "Sleepy Hollow" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

“It is my great honor to bestow this award to a very great man. He’s inspired me like he has so many, he’s fascinated me like he has so many," Depp told the audience. "He’s been a wonderful individual and over the years I’ve had the pleasure of working with him and it has been a childhood dream come true."
"Johnny, I don't know what to say," Lee said, choked up and with tears in his eyes. "I didn't know you were going to be here. I must try and pull myself together."

Depp snuck into the event -- having told Lee that he wouldn't be able to attend the ceremony.
“Somebody told me Johnny wouldn’t be able to come tonight as he was somewhere else in Europe,” Lee explained."He means an enormous amount to me. He is one of very few young actors on screen today who's truly a star," he continued. "Everything he does has a meaning. He's a joy to work with, an actor's dream and certainly a director's dream. I could go on a long time but I'd probably embarrass him."
Lee also discussed his feelings about his long-lasting career in show business, having starred in hundreds of films.

“When I take a look back, and its a long one, 67 years, at the characters I’ve played I get a truly strange feeling they were all played by somebody else, and not by me," he said.

"And there are a few occasions when it has been the case I wish it had," he quipped.

Not In 3-D

ALICE IN WONDERLAND-2010-Another imaginative film by director Tim Burton, this time based on Lewis Carroll's famous stories.

19 year old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is about to be to pushed into an engagement with a snooty upper class twit when she spies The March Hare and falls down a rabbit hole where she returns to Wonderland (now called "Underland") the world she had previously visited in her childhood dreams.

She grows several sizes, tames the "furious" Bandersnatch and tries to rescue The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp in another weird, unique performance) out of the clutches of The Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and The Knave of Hearts (Crispin Glover, in an unusually subdued performance; well for him anyway) and their army of spear carrying playing cards. Although Alice at first believes the whole thing is a dream she comes to realize that it is her destiny to destroy the dread Jabberwock (voice of Christopher Lee) and restore The White Queen (a doofy Anne Hathaway) to her rightful reign. Tweedledum and Tweedldee are a funny highlight. Alan Rickman is the hookah smoking caterpillar and Michael Gough is the voice of the Dodo bird.

Screenwriter Linda Woolverton wrote THE LION KING. At the time of this writing Burton and Depp are planning a version of DARK SHADOWS.

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Sleepy Hollow

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW-1999-Another imaginative, off center effort by Tim Burton. Unlike his two previous films (ED WOOD and MARS ATTACKS, which are both great) this one was a hit. It’s a bizarre reworking of the famous Washington Irving tale set in upstate NY.

In this update, Johnny Depp stars as Icabod Crane, a police medical examiner send to Sleepy Hollow by Judge Christopher Lee (in a great cameo) to investigate a series of gory beheadings. Christina Ricci provides the romantic interest. Suspicious townsfolk include Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson, Jeffery Jones and Michael Gough. Christopher Walken (who kind of looks like an evil jack ‘o lantern anyway) plays the evil Hessian horseman responsible for some of the best beheadings ever seen on film. Also with Casper Van Dien (from STARSHIP TROOPERS) and Martin Landau (in a pre-credit cameo) as the first victim. 

The SFX and story are good but I had a little problem with Depp’s character who couldn’t seem to decide whether to be a hero (with nerves of steel who boldly performs autopsies) or a coward (who faints at the sight of blood!).

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Burton & Romero

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY-2005-Director Tim Burton used much more of the darker aspects of Roald Dahl's novel which of course was first filmed as WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. The sets and music are awesome and Johnny Depp's very strange performance as Willy is a highlight. Christopher Lee (in his 3rd Burton film) is Willy's father. 4 foot 4 Deep Roy (also in his 3rd Burton film) plays all the Oopa Loopas! I was never a fan of the original so I guess I liked this more than some folks. Both Lee and Roy did voices for Burton's next project THE CORPSE BRIDE.



LAND OF THE DEAD-2005-This was the first movie I saw in a theater in 2005! I think it might be the last movie I saw in a theater! Guess I’m not much of a “moviegoer”. Happy to say it's great! Maybe I’m prejudice being a big fan of Romero’s (especially his “Dead” series). I only had one problem with the whole thing. That was with the zombie (Big Daddy) who was sort of leading the rest of the un-dead to revolt. What was up with this dude? I mean he wasn’t really a zombie. He screamed several times and displayed a lot of emotion. Added to that he never ate anybody! Was he a vegetarian? Some kind of mutant? Anyway the story, direction and SFX were all on the money and Dennis Hooper as Kaufman, the major bad guy was a plus. Tom Savini appears briefly as the now un-dead Blade from DAWN OF THE DEAD. Lead actor Simon Baker was in LA CONFIDENTIAL and the TV series THE GUARDIAN. Also with Asia (daughter of Dario, one the executive producers of the original DAWN OF THE DEAD) Argento and Robert Joy (later in the remake of THE HILLS HAVE EYES).

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The Ninth Gate

THE NINTH GATE-1999- Johnny Depp stars as Jack Curso an unscrupulous book dealer who agrees to authenticate a book, The Ninth Gate, which is said to have been co-written by the Devil, for a famous book collector (Frank Langella). Legend says the book can open up a gate to hell. He has sex with Lena Olin and then visits two other book collectors who also have a copy of the book. It was cool to see Jack Taylor, an American expatriate who played in many Euro-productions like HORROR OF THE ZOMBIES and NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS, as one of the collectors. The other is played by Shakespearean stage actress Barbara Jefford (who’s also in LUST FOR A VAMPIRE). They die and their collections are burned and Curso realizes he’s bitten off more than he can chew. Emmanuelle Seigner (also in FRANTIC with Harrison Ford) is “ The Girl” and James Russo is a book dealer who meets a grisly death. Allen Garfield has a cameo role.

Director Roman Polanski (married to Seigner in real life) made this a year before his much more critically acclaimed THE PIANIST. Seigner also starred in her husband’s BITTER MOON in 1992.

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I'm Back!

SECRET WINDOW-2004-Yet another Stephen King adaptation saved mostly by Johnny Depp's performance in the lead. He plays writer Mort Rainey who six months after catching his wife (Maria Bello)with her lover (Timothy Hutton) in a hotel bedroom, lives alone in a small New England town. An Amish like farmer (John Turturro) accuses him of plagiarism. After that Rainey's life begins to unravel and some deaths occur. It's very reminiscent of another King story THE DARK HALF (which George Romero made into a movie in 1993 that starred Hutton) and the whole thing is very predictable. The director David Koepp also made STIR OF ECHOES and wrote several major screen plays including JURASSIC PARK, CARLITO'S WAY, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, SPIDER-MAN and WAR OF THE WORLDS.

SLASHER-(2004)-Despite it’s title this is not a horror movie. In fact it’s actually a documentary directed by John Landis about a super car salesman named Michael Bennett who’s brought in by local car dealers to get rid of their over stocked cars. The guy knows his craft and talks the talk really working hard to sell the unwanted cars. He drinks a lot of beer when not working but does seem to be doing it all to support his family. The customers however don’t need much convincing. They all think they are getting something for nothing!

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