After waiting for what felt like forever for this film to be finished and shown somewhere that I could see it, it finally happened. The premier was last night at the Sidewalk Motion Picture festival in Birmingham, Alabama.
I, being a GIGANTIC Alice in Wonderland fanatic, was as close to first in line as one can be when showing up 3 hours before a film starts. I used this time to view the amazing film before A.M.I.W., Dandelion.
Now perhaps the AMTW wasn't was bad as I think it was, but the fact that it followed such a great movie and a pretty funny short (Dysenchanted), I left the movie feeling very let down and a little confused as to why I didn't like it. Then the answer came... the people who were there that were laughing a lot were the cast and creators of the film. I feel fairly comfortable saying that 60%+ of the cast and crew were at the screening.
The Movie itself was like a long and painful inside joke for the cast and crew. The humor in the film was dated, about two years too old and was incessantly beat to death. And I do mean BEAT TO DEATH. The Duchess rap was comical for the first 30 seconds, but after that it was just tiresome and generally uncomfortable to watch. The Cheshire Cat/Gay Best Friend was a genius idea that again was beat to death for about 7-9 minutes. The (drag)Queen was funny and original also, but way too played out were her/his voice, mannerisms and time on screen. These are but a few of the things that bothered me and left me going, "wow, I sure am glad that I got to see Dandelion before this, so that tonight isn't a total bust".
I'm sorry to all of my friends who are in this movie and sorry for all the people I told to go watch this movie under the impression that it was going to be the next best thing. I'm also sorry that I didn't like it, for I wanted to so badly.
I want to support independent movies and especially independent films in Alabama, but I think I would rather watch re-runs of my least favorite television shows than see this atrocity of a film again. I don't want my money back, I want my time back. Better luck next time.