In “Alice in Wonderland,” director Tim Burton takes Lewis Carroll’s time-honored tale and converts it into a fantastical, eye-popping 3-D joy ride for the attention-deficit “Avatar” loving generation.

The most notable thing about “Alice” is that visual stimulation never stops. First, we meet a wayward, unhappy Alice (Mia Wasikowska) mourning her father’s death on the day that she receives a very public proposal from a ginger lord with digestion problems. Burton doesn’t miss a detail of the prim English countryside or its snobby, corset-wearing inhabitants.

When Alice uncomfortably edges away from the waiting crowd, a rabbit leads her to a large hole, which, of course, she falls into. This scene is 3-D at its best, with Alice swishing past books and chandeliers and bouncing on top of beds.

Fans of the cartoon movie will be confused with what follows. There is an unexpected implementation of plot, and while favorite scenes such as Alice shrinking and growing are left in, the scene where she cries herself a river is left out. Instead of following Alice on a disjointed acid trip of a journey, we soon find out, through the vehicles of the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen), the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), Dormouse (Barbara Windsor), and Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum (Matt Lucas) that they are looking for an Alice who has visited before to come and release them from the dominion of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter). There is a bit of dissension about whether this Alice is the same Alice, and this is one of the plot points that gets tedious. Alice, of course, doesn’t remember being here before, and the only person who is convinced she was is the Mad Hatter.

Alice makes her way through Wonderland in an array of fabulous dresses (kudos to the costume designer), making friends with the Bandersnatch, fooling the Red Queen and eventually fulfilling her destiny by slaying the Jabberwocky.

Burton takes liberties with the original story and comes up with a plot that is painfully similar to The Chronicles of Narnia — a young girl stumbles into a world of kings, queens and talking animals. She then finds that she’s “chosen” and must rescue her little friends from a domineering queen and return the power to the benevolent ruler. The mystery of the story that is supposed to keep the audience guessing, whether or not this Alice is the one who will fulfill the prophecy, is at first, confusing (why wouldn‘t she be the right Alice?) and then annoying with repetition.

Wasikowska gives a seamless performance in this, her first major leading role. She is appropriately bold while conveying Alice’s youthful nature. She doesn’t lose herself in the potentially sappy storyline of “Am I just Alice or am I Alice?”

Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter is one of the more anticipated characters — right up there with Stephen Fry’s Cheshire Cat — and he doesn’t diappoint. His clownish clothes and spastic hair fit well with his fluorescent eyeliner and his overwhelming personality. Depp’s only misstep is his accent — is he British? Or Scottish? He had a lisp, but now he doesn’t. What could be attributed to his apparent “madness” just comes off as confusing and inconsistent.

Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter play arch enemies — and sisters. Carter provides a great deal of comedic relief as an evil, yet pitiable, Red Queen who plays crochet with a hedgehog (as the ball), uses pigs as footrests and is wildly jealous of her well-liked predecessor and younger sister, the White Queen. Hathaway brings a quirk to her perfect, gracious character, but overacts in some scenes. For instance, one wonders if she got tennis elbow from holding her arms up like she’s waltzing 24/7.

But the movie works as a whole. It’s visual (the motion capture technology is impeccable — from Stayne’s spindly daddy long legs to the queen’s bulbous head), it’s funny (Alice has a dry sense of humor that is funnier because it’s unexpected…well now I guess I’ve ruined it for you), and it’s heartwarming. Each character is relatable and sympathetic, from the ridiculously brave dormouse to the heart-melting loyalty of Bayard, the hound. And lastly, for those who aren’t fans of 3-D, worry not. This movie isn’t filled with action scenes where things are thrown at the audience ad-nauseum. The 3-D is mostly unnoticeable and only enhances the scenes when it does anything.

Don’t miss this movie — it’s a substantial upgrade from the cartoon, and it’ll leave you wanting more.

Brian Clough was an arrogant and outspoken soccer manager so famous for his willingness to give the press an uncensored comment on any subject that Muhammad Ali once asked, “Who does this Clough guy thinks he is?”

“The Damned United” the new film about Clough’s disastrous 44-day tenure as manager of Leeds United, does a great job at depicting Clough’s arrogance, but falters when trying to show what made him brilliant.

Clough’s tenure with Leeds is a fiasco from the start. His first day on the job he gives an interview where he calls out Don Revie, the legendary coach he is replacing, and the Leeds players for dirty tactics- never mind the fact the team has been the best in England for almost a decade. Clough confidently tells his interviewer “If the players were having fun they wouldn’t have played that way.”

Michael Sheen does tremendous work here. Sheen plays Clough as bundle of ego, passion and self-destructiveness. The film wants you to believe that Clough was driven to the peak of his profession after feeling insulted by Don Revie for not shaking his hand after a match. In the hands another actor, that scene might not have played, but if any man would be insulted and obsessed with a personal slight so tiny, it would be Sheen’s Brian Clough.

It is when trying to show us Clough’s talents where the film stumbles. The film suggests that Clough relied on his loyal assistant Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall), to find him talented players and much of his failure in Leeds can be tied to Taylor’s absence. There is never any talk about tactics or training methods that would separate Clough from any other coach. While the film suggests Taylor was key to Clough’s success, there is not enough time given to the relationship to show us that.

Peter Morgan, the film’s screenwriter, has proven adept at putting a historical event into context by focusing on a relationship between two people with films like “The Queen” and “Frost/Nixon.” But here he seems to focus on the wrong relationship.

The confrontation between Clough and Revie on a local sports show after Clough is fired by Leeds is electric. Sheen in particular does stellar work in the scene. His depiction of Clough’s crushing realization that he can only blame himself for his failure is powerfully portrayed. Sheen is able to undo all the bluster and bravado of his character with a few reaction shots.

The movie builds to that confrontation between Clough and Revie. It is when the focus turns to Clough’s relationship with Peter Taylor that it seems to loose focus. Up until that point the story had been about one disastrous period in Brian Clough’s life. The final scenes of the movie try to turn the story into one that encompasses his entire career, and in doing so loses much of the power found in his failure.

“The Damned United” is in theaters now.

These days, with amazing websites like IMDB.com, consumers are permitted to know every detail about a film almost as soon as the producers decide them. ‚ Gone are the days when you had to wait to see a commercial teaser or, God-forbid, a theatrical trailer before you could even know for sure if a movie was coming out.

That’s why we’ve all known and are thrilled about the fact that Director Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, James and the Giant Peach) is throwing together what is sure to be a masterpiece recreating the well-loved children’s book, Alice In Wonderland. The star-studded cast includes actors Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Alan Rickman, Michael Sheen, Helena Bonham Carter and newcomer Mia Wasikowska, who is playing Alice herself.

We’ve known all this for some time, and it doesn’t even come out till March.

But thanks to the wonderfulness of the internets, we have something to keep us entertained until that day comes. ‚ New promotional images of the characters have been released, depicting Alice (Wasikowska), The Mad Hatter (Depp), The Red Queen (Carter) and The White Queen (Hathaway), reports Ryanseacrest.com.

The costumes look great, all the actors seem to fit their roles, but does anyone else feel like the photos were taken by someone who usually takes yearbook pictures? ‚ Could we not find something besides the granite blue backdrop? ‚ Perhaps a natural field setting or perhaps even black and white, but if this is the backdrop, it seems more fitting that the actors should be leaning forward on their elbows and perhaps be smiling awkwardly through braces. ‚ But that’s just me. ‚ Let’s hope Burton finds something different for the film itself.

PROVIDENCE — Add one part “Unleashed,” two parts “Passion of the Christ,” a little bit of cliff sexin’ and what do you get? That’s right folks, we’re talking about “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans,” the newest — and hopefully final — installment in the “Underworld” series.

January is always a slow month for movies, and “Rise of the Lycans” perfectly fits the bill for a poorly-made action movie that couldn’t make it come summertime.

The movie isn’t completely terrible, but don’t go into the theater expecting something amazing. All three “Underworld” movies need to be appreciated for what they are: cheesy vampire movies that give the studios a few extra bucks during the slow season.

The acting in this movie is surprisingly good. Despite the material, Michael Sheen was interesting as the character of Lucian and I’m glad they had him reprise his role for the third movie. Sheen is a great actor for a movie like this and I thank my lucky stars that he played the character of Lucian like an action hero instead of a lovesick puppy (pun intended), because frankly Rhona Mitra’s character, and her acting, just aren’t worth it.

I know that the casting directors were looking for someone who looked like Kate Beckinsale but they really sacrificed quality for looks here. Mitra is a bland actress, and something tells me she just couldn’t get a feel for those vampire teeth since her lips were puffed out the whole time. More than usual that is.

The brightest spot in this movie however — in the whole series, if I’m being honest — is Bill Nighy. Carrying himself through the film like a modern day Nosferatu, Nighy was seriously the perfect pick to play Viktor, and you have to love that he still does this kind of movie for the sheer joy of being creepy on film.

Patrick Tatopoulos took over the direction for this third installment for the franchise and yet he didn’t bring anything new to the look and feel of the movie. It’s still dark with plenty of chain mail and coven sluts. This saddens me just a tad though, I was kind of hoping that with all his experience in creature design he’d make the Lycans look a bit more badass for the prequel. Yes, they still look like they were torn from a bad 80′s horror movie. Too bad, maybe if there weren’t two other movies already he could have done more. Oh well.

All in all “Rise of the Lycans” is not a bad movie. In fact it’s perfect for what it is: a cheesy vampire flick. Go in there expecting chain mail, bad visuals and some cheesy lines and you’ll be all set. If you go in there hoping for the next amazing fantasy movie, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

And “Twilight” fans, just stay away from this one altogether. Nighy is too much vampire for you to handle.