The Factory Willy Wonka Made

Again, I'm a day behind. *shrugs* What can I say? I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last night and so now I have a scrumpdidlyumptious review for you all. In my younger years I was an enormous fan of Roald Dahl and own several of his books. I have read both Wonka books, but I don't remember enough about them to say how true to the books this movie is so I'm just judging the movie as I saw it. I've read some unimpressed reviews for the movie and I just don't get why people didn't like it. I thought it was a wholly enjoyable and unforgettable experience. Here is a movie to remind people just who Tim Burton is again. I can't stress enough how great the casting was on this one. I thought using Deep Roy to be all the oompa loompas was a bit strange, but it added a bit of dry humor to it that I kind of enjoyed. Speaking of the oompa loompas, I actually liked these songs better than in the original movie because they were more humorous and less childish. Johnny Depp was amazing as usual and did quite a good job at showing the absent-minded nature of Willy Wonka as well as his awkward disposition towards children. Freddie Highmore was the other big star of this one and I can't imagine anyone doing better than him in the role of Charlie. I was a bit disappointed that they chose to skip the scene where Charlie screws up, but it's no big deal and may have made the movie too long at that point. The sets were great, the dialogue was witty, and the cinematography had a vintage charm to it. I give this movie a high recommendation with an A+.

IE7 beta kits are already out there and now we have some reviews. This review gives you a good idea of how it looks and it sounds like they really are trying to take a big step here. I'm relieved at the effort they're making and you can get a second opinion here. They're going to need all the improvements they can take with FireFox hitting 75 million downloads. Back to Microsoft, BBC is running a very provocative article on the possibility of M$ dabbling in open source with its own distribution of Linux. I don't know that they'll ever take that step, but with the kind of talent they have I think we'd all like to see what they could do. Lastly, Joel Splosky put up a new post on usability testing with Morae, which is a cheap way to set up a usability lab with some webcams. I just think that's really neat and something to read for my coding readers.

The movie news today is very sparse, which is good because I haven't had lunch yet and I'm a little hungry. Bryan Singer put up a new video journal entry regarding the pre-visualization process on Superman Returns and it's just invigorating to see a director working with such vision. There's also a new entry in the video blog for King Kong featuring the pick-ups (they're in post-production now) and it features most of the main actors. The official theatrical trailer for the U.S. for Serenity is now online and seeing all this footage from the movie makes me want to watch Firefly. There used to be a trailer up for Ghost Rider, but it was taken down because it wasn't meant to be released and was only for Comic-Con. I didn't hear good things about it so hopefully it was just too early for a trailer. Lastly, I think it's weird that Nicole Kidman is slated to be in a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers since it just doesn't sound like her cup of tea. Then again, she has been in quite a few remakes as of late.

In the spirit of Friday, here is Friday's Feast:

Appetizer
Name 3 people whom you admire for their intelligence.
David Johnson (old debate coach), my brother, and Glenn Downing. The last one will probably change, but it was just cool to learn CS from a guy who knows his stuff so well.

Soup
What's the last food you tried that you really didn't care for.
I had some Popeye's chicken on Thursday that I could've done without. Maybe it's just knowing how fattening it is that makes it bad. The biscuits were totally badass though as always.

Salad
If you could rename the street that you live on, what would you want it to be called?
I don't really know. Wysteria Lane? Pinto Street? I've never really thought about it.

Main Course
When was the last time you were genuinely surprised?
When my dad let me drive their new Hyundai Santa Fe. So much easier to drive than my '90 Maxima.

Dessert
Share a household tip.
Apparently, hydrogen peroxide is a great agent for getting blood out of clothes. My aunt shared that tip with me.