theoneandonlyjimmypage Every reality hangs in the balance.Issues with intelligence Agencies...Celebrities... Meet People:good & evil...WONDERLAND IS THE BOMB! Adventure,experience that it is intrigue and that it are bound by action and it seems the more questions you have the more answers that you have understood...good and evil trapped in a historical fiction wrapped around the absurd stuffed in a "film"..

LeonLouisRicci There are so many lurid, crazy, and interesting subjects injected into this movie that it carries you along, despite itself. It is muddled and energy driven and it fails to become totally absorbing. The real-life murders were bizarre and bloody, there's the "attraction" of an involved semi-celebrity, and it is all awash in sex and drugs. This is the type of tabloid tale that it is a guilty pleasure. It has a "Gong Show", and "American Idol" attraction, with a helping of "Unsolved Mysteries".But here we have all this sizzle, and the steak is a tough swallow. There seems to be a confusion of concept going on here. It is too much "MTV" and not enough "Law and Order". The cast yells and screams and are hyper-kinetic and zip around like a crazed experiment in an actor's workshop. The color and tone of this misfire is again, attractive so to speak, but is used to the saturation point and does nothing more than give the proceedings a "post-groovy" appeal.The movie, with no lack of style, is lacking in all that it inspires to interpret. The heinous murders, the drug taking/dealing lifestyle, the decadence, the celebrity cum bum, the "horror" of it all. In the end it is a cheap high, and the crash afterward is not at all pleasant.

Smokey_8 I'm an avid believer that Val Kilmer is one of the best actors of his generation, and this role is him at his finest. This film could have easily been entitled, "Doors 2: it's all about Mr. Mojo Risin'". Kate Bosworth and Lisa Kudrow play their roles beautifully as well, and the Wonderland crew was perfectly cast. If you You will fall for these characters in one way or another. like drug rooted crime dramas you'll love this flick. If you love Val Kilmer you'll love this flick. If you don't like either of those then stay clear. This film will undoubtedly transport you to an exciting place and time, but how you react to the trip is up to you.

phishtails This is a love-it-or-hate-it film. Take the timeless aspects of "Roshomon" and set it perfectly in a historical 1980's real-life unsolved Hollywood murder case. John Holmes (yes, THAT John Holmes) is masterfully depicted by Kilmer as the pseudo-pathetic has-been he became during his involvement in this investigation.Yup, classic Japanese dramatic literature meets an aging porn star. What could be worse?Except the whole thing totally works! It is distasteful in many aspects, just as Roshomon was distasteful in Japanese culture when it was written. John Holmes as depicted was symbolic of the dilapidated Roshomon gate itself -- a once-proud icon of the nation's culture, now inevitably worn by the ravages of time and cultural priority shifts. Even the name "Wonderland" conjures false images of magical dreams until it is revealed to be merely the name of a road in a seedy part of Los Angeles. The setting couldn't have been more perfect if it had been made up. I was kind of expecting a sequel to "Boogie Nights" (a great movie in itself), but this movie wisely steered away from porn industry as the focus. Rather than taking that all-too-easy road (or the even easier road of having Val Kilmer reveal his own character's fatal flaws), the director and writer used the low-life drug dealers and thugs around him -- the only ones who would accept his company -- to paint the picture around Holmes he uses and betrays the two decent people in his life, his estranged wife and his girlfriend.But wait a second ... there's a murder mystery to solve as well! Woot woot! The Roshomon storytelling is cleverly disguised throughout, seeing the story told from several points-of-view. Each narrative just as "true" as the last, the audience is sucked into the belief of conflicting accounts -- all of the stories seasoned with pride and self- preservation.Faults? Yeah. The crime-scene was a little over-the-top, and there were more than a few glaring anachronisms (there was no Ferris wheel on the pier that year, several cars can be seen that are up to five years too early for the day, the list goes on). And Princess Leia has a distracting five-minute cameo role at the beginning that is lackluster at best. Nothing against Carrie Fischer, but seeing her at the beginning of the movie made me wonder for about 10 minutes if I was going to see her again. In retrospect, the star power worked against the movie.Other than these piddling flaws, I really enjoyed this movie. It's a gritty, suspenseful flick that also reveals the fragility of ego, and Val Kilmer is on par with "The Doors" in this one. Like I said, this is not a movie to which many people will give an "okay" rating. It's either awesome or crap. Either way, I totally recommend it.