so yeah, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory was really neat, and i think it may just be my favorite film of the summer (we'll wait for The Devil's Rejects next week before i make a final call on the issue). a return to form for tim burton, with his best movie since Mars Attacks, in my opinion. the flick is funny and weird and a genuine freak-out. eternal class act gene wilder still wins over johnny depp on willy wonka, but tim burton's is a better-made film all around. this leads into the obvious talk of remakes, and the general attitude of film fans that we don't need them. i enjoyed the remakes of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead and now Charlie...but that will never change how i feel about the originals. i still feel TCM and Dawn are among the best movies ever made, in any genre. gene wilder made a comment (which he later sort-of retracted) a few weeks ago where he dismissed the new Chocolate Factory as an excuse to make more money. i mean...why did you think they made the first movie? i highly doubt it was only because the studio had a burning desire to tell the story. it's safe to say all hollywood movies are made (or at least greenlit) because the bosses think they will make a profit on it. of course that doesn't mean lots of neat ideas and movies don't get though...well, along with every damn sandra bullock movie. but in a summer of a steven spielberg alien invasion movie, a good Batman, a tim burton willy wonka movie, a george romero zombie flick and a hardcore 70s genre homage (Devil's Rejects) getting wide release, it's hard to complain.

i did something i never thought i'd ever do on friday - wait in one of those midnight-new-harry potter book lines. my friend invited me to come wait with her, and not being one to refuse waiting outside in a line, i gleefully excepted. it really wasn't so bad. i mean, i'm not really into the whole harry potter thing, but it all seems really cute and fun, if not potentially dangerous for excitable children (you should have heard them SCREECH when they wheeled out the boxes of books. it was what i assumed the beatles on ed sullivan must have been like). in the end we only waited maybe two hours and my friend got her fresh new copy of Harry Potter & the Whatever of Okay, Sure. one day i'll hunker down and read all those books, but i think it may take less time to just hunker down and watch all the movies instead. please refer to the jim gaffigan routine on movie versions of books for the rest of this thought.

p.s. to this story- while on line, a girl, who i imagine must have been 16 or 17, came up and told me she really liked my they might be giants shirt. i don't like these sorts of things, because i then feel the pressure to say something really witty and charming in return. pressed for time, i ended up with "well hey, i like your shirt too!"

...*crickets*...

she smiled nicely, said "whatever" and walked away. hey people, they can't ALL be gold, alright? gimmie a break. geez.

rich.