Malice in Wonderland Review

Like I may have mentioned before I love anything alice in wonderland I have an affinity for it and search for great media related to the story because I just think it's so awesome it can't be missed. Malice in Wonderland is no exception. This is an excellent film. It's a little strange but that's what I love about it. It stays true to the oddness that is Lewis Carol's Alice in Wonderland (the books mind you) while making it fresh and modern; abstract and artistic.

Malice in Wonderland is a 2009 British fantasy adventure film directed by Simon Fellows, written by Jayson Rothwell and  starring Maggie Grace, Danny Dyer, Matt King and Nathaniel Parker.  The story is based on alice in wonderland but set in an urban London ghetto with the queen of hearts being a mob boss and the white rabbit being a taxi driver and alice gets lost in this underground world of drugs and prostitution trying to find her memory after getting hit by the white rabbits cab after running away searching for her real mother. It's a bit more complicated than that but that's the gist of things and boy is it wild. The things they come up with for this film while still keeping it wonderland is phenomenal. Any fan of wonderland with an appreciation for the surreal and creative rendition will love this as much as I do.

The Alice character is beautiful and charming which she should be because she's the main character. Whitey is a funny cockney cab driver that helps alice through wonderland making it really surreal but totally true to the white rabbit character and the more the story develops the more you feel for him and want him to succeed. You can't have a book based alice film without the duchess and her peppered soup and this film doesn't let you down the duchess character is great I loved it.  The caterpillar is a drug dealer and helps alice get to the duchess in this movie which isn't really what I was expecting but I did enjoy that short scene with him in it really puts you in that world of urban wonderland, not the best way they could've  done it but it ended up working and I wasn't disappointed moreso wished there was more. I won't go through every character the last I'll say is everyone's favorite the mad hatter is played by a female freightline dispatcher with a small diner set as the headquarters for an underground prostitution ring definitely not what I saw coming but it's surely creative use of the character and trust be it does work to the films benefit. It's the most thrilling and suspenseful part of the movie and they still made it work to the classic wonderland tales well while at the same time but being a copy of the original.

All around this is just a great movie any alice fan will be proud to own and even if you just like artistic, dramatic, fantasy or adventure films this fits the bill in those categories as well. It really is an obscure gem and is worth the search for it.

Neco Z Alenky Review

This is an odd one. Neco Z Alenky (Something from Alice) is a 1988 Czech Rendition of Alice in Wonderland written and directed by Jan Švankmajer with little Alice being played by Kristýna Kohoutová. Now I don't know if I would show a child this movie because they might get scared when they see that alice turns into a creepy porcelain doll or that when she gets stuck in the white rabbits house he tries to saw off her arm and then sends skeletons of animals to eat her... That's whats in this movie. It definitely is bizarre and a it morbid. There isn't really any music in it just loud sound effects that seem a little too over-the-top and overdone. 

Alices voice is used for all the other characters that have voices as if shes narrating her own story and when she personally talks its usually a close up of her lips which is kind of weird. The effects to create the animals movement is stop motion with animal skeletons and taxidermied animals. Maybe a child wouldn't notice any of this stuff and just dismiss it and watch the movie but only a really small child I would think. Most others would probably think it was creepy and scary and most people probably wont enjoy this stop motion film made with a bunch of dead animals and a little russian girl but teens and adults with an inkling towards the macabre will probably think this is badass. Its a really bizarre movie that probably only goths and weirdos will love. I wouldn't watch it with family members or lovers unless they like that sort of thing because they might think you're crazy for even knowing about this movie. Just tell them some guy on the internet showed it to you and they might be a bit more sympathetic lol.

Maybe in the late 80s stuff like this in eastern europe might have been more accepted and commonplace but today its taboo and will give negative connotations to it but its a unique film and it stays more true to the book than most other alice in wonderland remakes but also fills in those parts from the book with weird happenings and it will probably scare if not creep out a good ammount of people in todays times young and old. I would recommend watching this while going to bed. It's a more slow moving peaceful chaos type of movie.

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