Tag: Christopher Lee

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 30 September 2025
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Directors – Tim Burton, Mike Johnson – 2005 – US – Cert. PG – 77m

*****

When his arranged marriage preparations go badly wrong, a young man inadvertently marries a dead woman from the underworld – stop-frame animated marvel is out on 4K Ultra HD and Digital, and in UK cinemas on Friday, October 10th

It is a grey world, and everything must go… according to plan. For there is to be a rehearsal today for a marriage that will take place tomorrow. The son of nouveau riche couple the Van Dorts (voices: Tracey Ullman, Paul Whitehouse) is to wed the daughter of penniless aristocrats Lord and Lady Everglot (voices: Joanna Lumley, Albert Finney). The bridegroom Victor (voice: Johnny Depp) has yet to meet his bride Victoria (voice: Emily Watson) and, left in the vast Everglot vestibule, the young man plays the piano. The tune floats up the stairs and is heard by Victoria who is drawn to it and its performer. She descends the stairs to listen and, against the odds, the pair fall in love.

Three hours into the marriage rehearsal, presided over by Pastor Galswells (voice: Christopher Lee) and poor Victor can’t seem to get his lines right.… Read the rest

Tags Albert Finney, Alison Abbate, animated skeletons, animation history, arranged marriage, bridegroom, Christopher Lee, Corpse Bride, dancing, Danny Elfman, death, Disney Silly Symphony, drinking in bars., elope, Emily Watson, everything must go, fall in love, families, grey world, Helena Bonham Carter, high position, husbands and wives, Joanna Lumley, John August, Johnny Depp, liberated from the past, living it up, Mackinnon and Saunders, marriage rehearsal, Michael Gough, Mike Johnson, newlyweds, nouveau riche, parents and children, pastor, Paul Whitehouse, penniless aristocrats, piano, playing music, Ray Harryhausen, rehearsal, rehearsing lines, Richard E. Grant, social convention, Tim Burton, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, Tracey Ullman, trapped, true love, underworld, vestibule, woods

Features Live Action Movies

The Wicker Man:
The Final Cut

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 27 September 2013
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The Final Cut
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Director – Robin Hardy – 1973 – UK – Cert. 15 – 94m

*****

A Christian police sergeant investigating a missing child on a remote Scottish island meets a terrible fate – out as a Collector’s Edition UHD / Blu-ray /DVD from Monday, September 25th following its release in UK cinemas in a 4K restoration from Wednesday, June 21st, 2023

(Originally reviewed for cinema release in a 2K restoration on Friday, September 27th, 2013)

Originally released forty years ago in the UK in a cut down version its director disliked, The Wicker Man now reaches our cinema screens in a longer, restored version which he says fulfils his original vision. Its plot is deceptively simple. A Christian police sergeant flies to a remote Scottish island in response to a letter about a missing child. But when he arrives on Summerisle, no-one seems to have heard of that child. It gradually emerges that the policeman has stumbled into an intricate web of lies and deceit wherein a terrible fate awaits him….

Using material from a recently discovered, longer US release print – rechristened The Final Cut by Hardy who assembled this cut in 1979 – it’s a provocative work on a number of levels.… Read the rest

Tags angel, Britt Ekland, cavort, celebration, charismatic leader, child, child sex abuse, Christ, Christian, Christian faith, Christianity, Christopher Lee, community, country matters, daughter, deceit, dogma, drinking song, Edward Woodward, engaged, estate, evening meal, faith, filth, folk song, grounds, indigenous, island, islanders, isolated, landlord, law, lies, life, Lord, mainland, May Day, maypole, missing, missing child, missionaries, naked, outsider, Pagan, phallic symbol, police, police sergeant, profession, pub, religious cult, remote, resurrection, ritual, Robin Hardy, scandal, scapegoat, schoolchildren, Scottish, seasons, sergeant, sex before marriage, sexual mores, socio-cultural model, Sodom, song, Teeside, traditional, UK, Victorian, visitor

Features Live Action Movies

Charlie
and the
Chocolate Factory

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 29 July 2005
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and the
Chocolate Factory

Director – Tim Burton – 2005 – US – PG – 115 mins

*****

UK release date 29/07/2005. Currently screening on Netflix

An adaptation of Roald Dahl’s eponymous 1964 children’s book previously filmed under the title Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 1971), this also marks the second collaboration of Burton with screenwriter / adapter John August. The duo previously made Big Fish (2003), which film had all the desired Burton trademarks (larger than life, nonconformist outsiders, sense of wonderment, distinctive and zany visuals) while sidestepping the flaws (narrative incoherence, weak characterisation) which beset many of the director’s previous films. They’ve repeated the trick with Charlie, elaborating upon and extending Dahl’s original text without ever compromising it. Lead actor Depp is something of a Burton regular, having previously appeared in Edward Scissorhands (1990), Ed Wood (1994) and Sleepy Hollow (1999).

Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore, current critics’ favourite child actor following his terrific turn in Finding Neverland, Marc Forster, 2004) lives with a family (Helena Bonham Carter, Noah Taylor and grandparents including David Kelly and Liz Smith) so poor they live on cabbage soup in the shadow of the Wonka Chocolate Factory. Mysterious, reclusive owner Willy Wonka (Depp) closed it years ago following his celebrated recipes’ theft by rival confectioners and hasn’t been seen in public since.… Read the rest