Edward Scissorhands

The Excuse: I somehow got it in my mind that this was a horror movie. While by no means a kids movie it wasn't scary except for a few scenes a little more intense than the Lion King.

The Review: While I was expecting this to be one of the more "fun" movies on my list when I finally found out what it actually was, I found myself liking it for reasons other than it's entertainment value, and I fully blame Mr. Housely (my 12th grade films teacher) for this. DAMN YOU HOUSELY! Now that I'm finished with this outburst, the use of color, cinematography, editing, etc. is what made me glad to watch this movie. Also, it's not "fun" in the sense of sitting back with a bowl of popcorn and escaping life. It's a serious movie hidden behind pastel houses, humor, and Edward's naivety. All of this really comes forward in the 3rd act, which I can't discuss for fear of spoilers.

Johnny Depp gives a great performance, but I found Winona Ryder's role as Kim to be just as convincing. While I realize that Depp seems to have had the harder role, playing a teenage girl is just as hard because you walk a fine line between playing a teenage girl and making the audience hate you. Honestly, I tend to snub my nose at any movie with teens in main roles because they tend to overly them, turning them into whiny bitches, Mary Sues, or something else unpleasant. The fact that they have a teenager playing a teenager helps. I also saw how her boyfriend was a douchebag from the very beginning, so I wasn't surprised when they broke up. I still didn't see why she would go out with such a guy but then again I didn't date until college because I couldn't stand teenage boys when I was a teenager. The only way I could chalk it up to anything but "she's dating him for reasons unimportant to the plot" would be to give him more screentime and that would be irrelevant. Because he's an asshole.

Conclusion: I should never listen to my mom, who thought my 6 year brother would be able to see it with me. He was distracted by video games, so he didn't see the questionable scenes. I do wonder why they made it PG-13, and the only reason I can come up with would be to make sure people between the ages of 13-21 went and saw it, which is the biggest market group of people seeing movies, so it makes sense.