DVD Review: MALICE IN WONDERLAND

MALICE IN WONDERLAND

DVD Review by David Blackwell

DETAILS: 87 minutes, making-of featurette, behind the scenes photo gallery

VIDEO: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)

AUDIO: English 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: Spanish, English close captioning

STUDIO: Magnet Releasing/ Magnolia Home Entertainment/ Mark Williams Films/ 28 Pictures/ Sherazade Film Development Company/ Screen East/ Content Investment Fund/ Future Films Production Services/ East Of England

RELEASE DATE: 5-11-2010

Alice (Maggie Grace) loses her memory after being knocked down by a taxi driven by Whitey (The White Rabbit), a shifty taxi driver. Whitey (Danny Dyer) gives her pills for her head. She falls asleep and starts remembering each time she takes a pill. She is in a hyper surreal version of England aka Wonderland where the Red Queen is a madam of prostitute (her tarts) and the Cheshire Cat is a club DJ. Whitey wants to get a big present for a queer gangster while Alice wanders about being watched by the surveillance cameras of the Duchess (who is a recluse who doesn’t go out). Alice tries to remember who she is and get back home.

MALICE IN WONDERLAND presents a dark modern twist on ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Alice searches for answers and even gets tarted up while asleep from one of those pills (Alice shouldn’t be taking strange pills). MALICE IN WONDERLAND does follow the original story in its own way and providing a new and different adaptation of the classic tale. It is fun to see the characters of the story twisted to fit modern takes of them in the British world aka a twisted version of it. I don’t know if I like it, but MALICE IN WONDERLAND did keep me watching to see how the tale would be retold.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

MAKING OF WONDERLAND is basic promotional fluff while the photo gallery shows several behind-the-scenes stills from the production.

FINAL ANALYSIS: If you want a darker and modern twist on Alice, watch MALICE IN WODNERLAND. Too bad they didn’t have an audio commentary for the film.

This DVD review is (c)5-10-2010 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com