Where the Wild Things Are

This is a good 2 weeks late, but Where the Wild Things Are is one of the best movies I’ve seen in awhile.

Based on Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s story, director Spike Jonez has taken the core of the short story and expanded it into a fantastic, mature film. The book may be for children, but the movie certainly isn’t. I can’t see anyone under the age of 8 being able to understand, let alone appreciate the story and complex thoughts going on here.

I’m trying not to make this sound like a shitty ultra snooty art house film. It really isn’t, it’s just easy to go in expecting cartoon animals falling over each other and come out of it pissed when it’s actually a mature take on growing up and coming to grips with it.

It’s pretty simple, Max is a rambunxious 9 year old with an active imagination. His father is out of the picture (death? divorce?), his teenage sister has seemingly turned her back on him (she’s too cool for childish things) and his mother is trying to move on with her life with 2 kids in tow. After an argument with his mother, Max freaks out and runs away into the night. The journey with the Wild Things begins.

The Wild Things are Max. Each one is a complex emotion that Max struggles to understand and control. They all want to be loved, but don’t know how. Doing things you think are right, could push them away. Sacrificing your happiness is a rough road to take. Lashing out is easy to do. Fear makes you irrational and hard to understand. Max’s time with The Wild Things is pretty much a therapy session.

I really the whole message and the way it’s handled because it doesn’t pander to children. It doesn’t fall back on thinking that children as stupid, simple and need everything painted out in bright colors to get a simple point across. Instead of looking down to children, we get the daring take that children are just…young adults. We all go through these emotions and generally shittyness of life. The age of a person doesn’t change the emotions. It’s this daunting task that everyone goes through and has to handle in life. It’s a learning experience that changes from person to person. It’s confusing, fun, scary, uncertain, confusing.

The presentation is just fantastic. The movie is goergous. Fantastic directing, razor sharp editing, fantastic soundtrack, beautiful cinematography and top notch special effects. The Wild Things were made by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, so Max (that’s the actors real name too) had real beings to work with. Augmented with CG to animate their faces and a fantastic group of actors for voice work, there was never a time when I thought the Wild Things were not real. Max is really an amazing actor, he’s in 98% of the movie so he carries it all. This movie is impressive from end to end.

The best movies stay with you and I thought about this one for days after I saw it. It makes you think about your life and how you saw things as a kid and now see as an adult. I can see a lot of people hating this movie, not getting what it’s about. But those people are stupid, so ignore them and see it to take a trip you never knew you had to take.

My Bloody Valentine (2009)

Since Halloween is right here, I figured I should get in a horror movie. MBV looked good, so I decided to give her a whirl.

A remake that was sold heaveley on it’s 3D effects, MBV doesn’t do anything new.

It’s a pretty straight forward horror/slasher flick. A mining accident happened and the only survivor went nuts afterwards. He kills 20 something people, the cops cap him in the mine and the town moves on from the terrible Valentines Day event. 10 years later, Tom, a survivor from the miners final rampage comes back to town and the miner shows up too! Cue scary music!

It’s not a bad movie, it’s just nothing special. Competent filmmaking in all regards. Hot girls, decent acting, clear direction and editing. There are some inventive kills, but some of them are ruined by the 3D effect that isn’t 3D on the DVD. It just looks like terrible CG. There’s much better horror flicks out there now so if you skip this, you aren’t missing much.

Nerdcore Rising (2008)

First, “Nerdcore”. Refers to a genre of hip hop born from the minds of nerds! Pretty self explainitory, instead of raps about bitches, hoes, tricks, rims and general thuggery, you get more common topics you’d hear from a nerd. Star Wars, math, candy, bullies, anything sci-fi/fantasy related and yes, girls! Some topics don’t deviate too far from their source regardless of musical genre.

Nerdcore is a newer phenomenon, in this great documentary we hit the road with MC Frontalot on his first tour. Considered the godfather of Nerdcore, MC F (Damien Hess) is your average white boy nerd. Growing up he listened to rap and then found that he had a knack for it. Rapping about what he knew, he put his music online and slowly built a following. It got to the point where he though, could I do this full time? Would people show up and pay to see me? He finds that it’s time to pull the trigger and see if his career life is more than an IT job.

MC F piles into a van with his 3 friends and bandmates for a tour around mostly the East Coast (12 dates or so) that ended at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. Whether it was a crowd of 12 in a bar or a flocking mass of fans at PAX (2-4 thousand) he brought it everytime. It’s what rap started out as, taking the unbeaten path and rapping about what you felt, a lone voice coming up to inspire others. A community as grown around this music.

It’s a fascinating story of an average guy really making something of himself musically. Some guy who, through the power of the Internet, found people who thought like him and were willing to listen. He started a movement that has slowly and steadily gained momentum, helping this sub-genre of rap become something. Interviews with others in the business (MC Chris, MC Lars) and on the fringe (Weird Al Yanchovic) help to paint the full picture of Nerdcore. Nerdcore Rising is a testament to what is possible in the digital age.

It’s serious, it’s funny, it’s stupid, it’s a quality documentary worth checking out.

Fast & Furious (2009)

a.k.a The Fast and the Furious 4!

Getting right to it, this is just a safe sequel. It’s right in the middle, nothing new or all that exciting, but it’s not a bad picture. Favorite characters from the series are back, it’s got a lot of hot cars and women and a barely there plot. A by the numbers revenge story for Dominic (Vin Diesel) and Brian (Paul Walker) to team together to take down a no good drug smuggling king pin.

The driving choreography and stunt work is often great, but the amount of CG pulls you right out of it. It doesn’t feel exciting or dangerous when you’re zooming down a tunnel that’s just wide enough for a car to fit when it looks like a videogame. It looks like people leaning side to side in the shell of a car. The practical elements are fantastic though.

There really isn’t much to say, if you have an hour and a half to kill and you are looking for an easy movie to watch, Fast & Furious could fit your needs. If you hate the lead actors you’ll want to avoid it, but if that’s the case you didn’t need someone to tell you that.

Saw it tonight and I really liked it. The only real complaints I have are the standard horror cliche kind; why are you going over there? Why the fuck would anyone do that? type stuff. Annoying, but nothing too obnoxious.

I really, really liked how this movie looked. The whole movie was just really well made. I’ve become a big fan of Marcus Nispels’ directing style (this and TCM). There are some really beautiful shots and set ups, sneak up Jason was in full effect. I’d like to see him do the new Nightmare movie. It felt true to the series while altering bits and pieces here and there, I like this take on Jason a lot more than the zombie Jason. Felt more believable, while keeping that menacing quality as a huge force that could stalk or pounce at a moments notice. The tunnels were cool to explain how he could pop around
really fast and running Jason was just cool to see.

I thought the kills were…tasteful. After a lot of ultra gore the past few years I thought it was a good idea to reel it back a bit with some pretty brutal shit here and there to punch it up. Sure, it falls short on the real creative elements but it all looked really believable and the body count is pretty high.

I don’t see why it’s getting brutalized by critics, the whole audience I was with seemed to all have fun and it was actually genuinely funny at parts. The dude that screams in the cop car was fucking hilarious and the 3rd set of bare titties are just fantastic.

Go see it.

Don’t know why I haven’t posted about this yet, but I saw it in IMAX on Friday night. Then again last night on a standard “smaller than a skyscraper” screen.

It’s that good, it deserves every cent it makes. Easily my favorite movie of the year, and in my top 10 of all time. So happy it turned out so well, it’s a fantastic example of American film making. A deserving movie knocked that mess Spiderman 3 out of many #1 box office records.

I fully expect Heath to get a Oscar nomination. The worst part of the movie is that Heath won’t be able to be the Joker again.

Ratatouille- Completely awesome. Might be the best animated movie I have ever seen. Leagues better than Pixars last movie, Cars. Everything about it was great. Fantastic story, great characters, fantastic animation with a soundtrack to match.

Transformers- It ruled. It’s a Michael Bay summer movie so you can pretty much guess what it was like. A somewhat sensible story, some goofy characters, dialog that ranges from good to corn ball, a stupid soundtrack and explosions that only American filmmakers can do. It sure had it’s problems, but the awesome far outweighed the bad. The cast was actually pretty damn good, Shia was terrific and Megan Fox is drop dead gorgeous. It’s all about the Transformers though. The CG work is second to none, ILM did some insane work. The animation from robot to car and back was just unbelievable, it really looked like 40 foot robots were really walking around and shit. It was long but whatever, I really liked it.

Next up: Potter up on the IMAX screen.

Is a really fun movie. Nothing has been made like it in decades. Sure we’ve always had horror movies, but none that are throw backs like this to the 70’s double features with trailers. It’s a refreshing time really, 3 hours long with 4 fake trailers and 2 full length (80 min) movies. Rob Rodriqez’s Planet Terror (zombie flick) is my favorite, it’s gory, over the top, really funny and entertaining from start to finish. Quentin Tarintino’s Death Proof was way longer than it should have been. The concept is brilliant, a serial killer that uses his car as his weapon. There’s a big set up to get to know the 4 girls that leads to a phenominal pay off, but then the movie basically starts over again with 4 new girls, a whole new set up/intro that takes forever and then a great ending (for the most part). Kurt Russell is the man, don’t get me wrong, but QT just writes some of the most rambling shit known to man. Face it, it’s bitches babbling about shit that no man would ever want to sit around to begin with. Of course it’s just girls being girls and I’m sure the whole structure is an homage to some past shit, but it was still a dull stretch to sit through.

Good times though, everyone needs to see it so we can get a sequel. The possibilities are endless.

I’ve seen a bunch of movies lately, here’s a quick rundown:

Idiocracy: Mike Judges latest film that was delayed for ages and then pretty much ignored due to a limited release. It’s about a guy (Luke Wilson) who is frozen for an army experiment when some bad things go down and he wakes up 499 years later than he should have. He’s now in a world where this average man is now the smartest man on the planet. It’s definatly no Office Space. There are some funny sections, but the movie is really just average. The story could have done more but what was there (looks good, very good cast) works well, it’s really just not very memoriable. Can’t say I recommend it.

Dead Man’s Shoes: A film from over the pond. With some heavy English/Scottish accents this movie can be hard to understand at times, but it was a quality film. The main character has a retarded (more slow really, not hardcore) brother who he watches over. But when he goes into the service, his brother falls in with the wrong crowd by a case of being in the wrong place in the wrong time. He’s taken advantage of and tortured by these people and when big brother gets back in town and finds out…revenge and personal justice is a painful ordeal. It’s a quality film from start to finish, this is the directors 4th feature film. There’s a few twists and turns and while it takes a bit to get going, it’s a powerful movie. Great acting with solid directing this is a great down to earth revenge film to check out. I even liked the ending.

The Illusionist: What a cool movie. Edward Norton, one of my favorite actors stars with Paul Giamatti and the gorgeous Jessica Biel. A story in the early 1900’s, Ed Norton is the son of a furniture maker, Jessica is a well off Dutchess. They meet in their early teens and fall in love, but as a Dutchess, Jessica is sworn from ever seeing Ed again. Ed has been fascinated with magic and when the two are torn apart, he disappears and travels the world. 15 years later, he comes back and he’s a master Illusionist, learned from the top minds in the world. The two meet again at one of his performances where we meet her boyfriend, the Prince. Two seperated souls meet again later in life, but they’re still not allowed to be together. Much more of a love story than I thought it was going to be, the Illusionist mixes fate, destiny love and magic into a beautiful tale. Awesome acting and a great story combine to make a movie I highly recommend.

The Science of Sleep: Michel Gondry, who last directed Dave Chappelle’s Block Party and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind brings us this bore of a movie. Stephen’s father has died of cancer and he comes back home to his mother who lives in France to work with a calender company that his mom sets him up with. Stephen has a wild mind as we see that Stephen has a hard time keeping his dreams and real life seperate. Brought home on false pretenses by his mother, Stephen hates his new job but falls in love with the girl who lives next door. The movie constantly switches between and merges between Stephens dream world and the real world. I give a lot of credit to Gondry for the visual aspects of the film but it’s the main character that ruined it for me. Stephen is a giant pussy. He’s a 12 year old in the body of a 20 something year old. His social skills are just like an adolescent, he’s awkward, says weird shit and crys like a bitch with a skinned knee. The whole time I was waiting for him to grow a pair and not be such a bitch but that never happens, he likes to analyze shit in his dreams and it gets so bad that stuff he does in his dreams (like write a confession note to Stephanie, the girl he likes) he really does without realizing it. For awhile there I thought he had narcolepsy because he pops in out out of his dream mind so fast it’s ridiculous. He’s really a nut I guess. I really didn’t like it because I couldn’t get on the side of Stephen, he’s too damn irritating to like. Skip this and watch the far superior Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.