President Barack Obama had a Halloween to remember back in 2009, the same time the fledgling Tea Party movement was alerting the nation to Beltway waste and fraud.

The new book “The Obamas” by New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor spills fresh dirt on a Oct. 2009 costume ball which included “Alice in Wonderland” star Johnny Depp and the film’s director, Tim Burton.

The event was kept from the public by the transparency-loving First Family for political reasons, Kantor says.

The book reveals how any official announcement of the glittering affair — coming at a time when Tea Party activists and voters furious over the lagging economy, 10-percent unemployment rate, bank bailouts and Obama’s health-care plan were staging protests — quickly vanished down the rabbit hole.

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After a few weeks in theatres and a couple of reviews that have already posted here on Big Hollywood, you don’t need to read yet another write up of Tim Burton’s “Alice In Wonderland.” If there’s anything worth adding, it would be only that from my point of view Tim Burton’s Tim Burtonny-ness has officially worn itself out: The pale protagonist, the dark, askew production design, the Danny Elfman score, the way the camera speeds forward into or away from close ups. The director is aping himself. He’s not the first, won’t be the last, and that’s not the real problem with “Alice.”

The problem is that the story is wafer thin and not at all engaging. The other problems are that none of the relationships work, Alice has no character development (she enters and exits Wonderland an annoying feminist), and other than Helena Bonham Carter’s Red Queen, not a single character is in the least interesting. About halfway the movie that old “Transformers 2″ feeling crept over me. The one that says, “This is like watching someone else play a video game.”

I never make box-office predictions. Sometimes, not even in my head. Over the years I’ve just been so wrong so often that it’s become a waste of brainpower. For instance, after suffering through the overwhelming punishment that was “Transformers 2,” I was sure it would tank in its second week. Who could recommend such an ordeal? Well, just about everyone. It went on to gross over $800 million worldwide.

Has something changed? (more…)

The “Wimpy Kid” is wimpy no more. Two weekends ago, in its opening weekend,the new film based on the book “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” beat Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler’s new movie “The Bounty Hunter” and Jude Law’s new film “Repo Man” for a second place finish at the box office. “Wimpy Kid” did lose first place to “Alice in Wonderland” but it still was a strong opening weekend for the new family film. Although “Wimpy Kid” does have some obvious flaws, it is still a fun and imaginative film that has a positive but not a preachy message for young people.

The film “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” tells the story of Greg Hefley, a young adult entering into middle school as one of the smallest kids in his class. His older brother has told him about the hardships of middle school and Greg walks into school knowing that he needs to have a plan for success in order to survive. He works hard to make himself popular in school (trying to climb up the popularity ladder). In his quest for popularity, Greg joins the wrestling team, participates in a school play and wears business attire to school to make himself look “cool.”

He spends nearly the entire film trying out new schemes to become more popular, schemes that often backfire and cause him to become less cool than his otherwise “uncool” friends. Near the beginning of the film, Greg had realized that his friends were not well-regarded at school. Therefore, he tried unsuccessfuly to distance himself from them and then he tried to make them cooler. Both ideas failed when one of his friends, in particular, became much cooler than him, according to the popularity scale.  (more…)

“Alice in Wonderland” director is Tim Burton a recognized genius of signature atmospheric animation and cinematic story and style. The story’s screenwriter, Linda Woolverton, who has penned Disney classics like “The Lion King,” is also a masterful story-teller. But their styles hardly mix, and the surreal atmosphere of “Alice in Wonderland” can’t hide this fact.

“Alice in Wonderland” borrows elements of both of author Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, telling the story of a grown Alice who is set to marry the oafish son of her deceased father’s business partner. But as her trophy wife future pans out before her, she gets cold feet and flees her engagement party, inadvertently chasing a rabbit in a waistcoat and falling down a hole into a strange world. Once there, she learns that it is her destiny to rescue “Wonderland” from a swollen-headed Red Queen, obsessed with beheading others. As a rebellion brews in preparation for the foretold day of victory, Alice must reconcile that to save Wonderland she must battle the terrifying dragon-like Jabberwocky. Despite the dreamy atmosphere of Wonderland, Alice slowly realizes that if she accepts the task of slaying the Jabberwocky, it might kill her. (more…)

A human being enters a lushly rendered alternative world, meeting an assortment of strange beings before having to save them from a vicious attack. No,this isn’t a review of “Avatar.” Rather, it’s a review of “Alice in Wonderland,” the new 3D take on Lewis Carroll’s classic book, which director Tim Burton and his favorite leading man Johnny Depp have brought to life in visually stunning – yet narratively befuddling – fashion.

I’m admittedly not acquainted with Carroll’s book, and only vaguely remember the 1951 fully-animated version that the Disney studios also created. But the key in reviewing a movie is in determining how it stands on its own as entertainment, and on this front, “Alice” mostly succeeds. It’s fun to look at and most of the performances are inspired, with relative newcomer Mia Wasikowska able to hold her own in an endless series of absurd and sometimes frightening situations.

On the downside, I found some of the gibberish talk by the Mad Hatter and the sometimes endless stream of odd-character introductions to be annoying at times. And while this is fine entertainment for teens and adults, parents of young children should realize that this movie is nearly a full two hours long, has some seriously violent moments in Alice’s fight with the dragonesque Jabberwock and even features a quick shot of a bad creature’s eye getting graphically gouged out. Also consider the fact that Alice drinks from any bottle and takes any pill in sight without questioning it – a fact that has inspired generations of drug-favoring hipsters to consider “Alice” a favorite story, but which might be concerning in the modern age, which is far more sinister than Carroll’s Victorian era. (more…)

The year has barely begun and there are plenty of movies in the can awaiting their big screen release. Looking at the list, I can only admit to being stoked about two: Iron Man 2 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Yee haw!

Most of the films on the list fall into my ambiguity zone – I couldn’t care less one way or another. Yet some fall into the “there’s absolutely no way I’d waste $10.50 plus the cost of snacks on this one” category.

Here they are, in order of their release. You may or may not agree with my assessments,  so have at it in the comments section:

Valentine’s Day (in theaters now): Another vanity project that crams in as many big names that would say “Yes.” Directed by Garry Marshall, the “all star cast” includes (in alphabetical order) Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biehl, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jessica Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, George Lopez , Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift and Carter Jenkins. The movie follows the “intertwining storylines of a group of Los Angelinos as they find their way through romance over the course of one Valentine’s Day.” In other words, yet another cross-generational movie about how the beautiful people deal with love. Yawn. (more…)

Today I got to meet the grown son of the man who gave me my first entertainment job in 1991. He said he was a big fan of Earthworm Jim and I told him there would be a very good chance my most famous character wouldn’t have existed without his dad.

Twenty years ago a retired lady bumped into me while I was in line to see “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” when she said, “Oh, you like to draw? You should come to the San Diego Comic Con. Here’s two free passes.” She came to my booth today and I gave her a big hug.

I had over ten young industry professionals who work in comics, animation and video games and tell me that they decided to learn to draw because they liked my work. An incredible 25-year-old Russian kid said that he was raised on a pirate version of my game, “The Neverhood,” I did with Dreamworks in the mid ’90s. I looked at his comic pages and he could draw better than I could. I drew a character for him and he gave up a tear. (more…)