Originally Posted by Suprmallet (Post 9778969)

I adored this movie. I can't believe people are calling it boring. It was so emotionally cathartic and managed to tap into the logic of an 8 or 9 year old with an active imagination without being cloying or cliche. Max's journey was really touching and evocative. Kudos to Jonze for making a movie that exceeded my expectations.

Originally Posted by sherm42 (Post 9781589)

I thought that the performance of Max Records was perfection. Our society always celebrates child actors who basically deliver performances of children acting like adults (Dakota Fanning, Haley Joel Osment, Macaulay Culkin). We always marvel at a child that can deliver lines of dialogue where they act above their age.

The performance of Max in this movie is one of the truest depictions of a real child that I can recall. It was a very honest and true performance. I don't think I have seen a more honest heart breaking crying scene than the one where Max's igloo is crushed.

Originally Posted by sherm42 (Post 9781589)

I don't think I have seen a more honest heart breaking crying scene than the one where Max's igloo is crushed.

Originally Posted by hapgilmore (Post 9781698)

I just got back from seeing this and I must say I am very disappointed.

No plot, no momentum, I was completely unengaged the entire time (actually before Max got to the island I was more interested in the movie than after he got there!). The monsters seemed creepy to me, after a while I just didn't want to look at them anymore. Scenes dragged on and on, and with no story this created a problem. I could care less what happened to anybody, monster or human. I hate to say it, but this movie bored me. I'll give it points for being ambitious and different, but that still does not prevent it from being a failure.

Also, am I the only person who thought Gandolfini was a poor choice for this? Every time he talked I could only think of Tony Soprano. This actually caused some unintentional laughter in certain scenes.

Originally Posted by Bobby Shalom (Post 9781960)

While I understand your criticism, I felt completely the opposite way. I was so sucked in by this movie, and it spoke to me in such a personal way. Maybe it's because I was a really lonely little boy, who wanted to make things, and play for hours on end, when I was 10, and I adored the book.

I don't know - I thought it was the most honest and engaging children's movie I've seen in a long long time.

I thought perhaps the wild things portion could've been shortened by about 15minutes, but other than that the whole movie was so fucking awesome!

Originally Posted by CloverClover (Post 9782055)

This was awful, way too heavy handed, and poorly written.. plus it just wasn't fun.

Originally Posted by Dr. DVD (Post 9782087)

I found it to be a lot of fun. What do you define as fun? I hope not stuff like G-Force.

Originally Posted by Dr. DVD (Post 9782042)

With a username like hapgilmore you can tell what kind of movies they prefer. I think, unfortunately, he speaks for most people out in the world.

Originally Posted by jarofclay73 (Post 9782238)

My guess is if you thought "Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen" was a masterpiece, then you probably won't like "Where The Wild Things Are." :D

Originally Posted by hapgilmore (Post 9782314)

I appreciate good cinema. The two best movies I have seen this year are Watchmen and Inglourious Basterds. I just didn't care for Wild Things.

Oh and Happy Gilmore is awesome.

Originally Posted by Dr. DVD (Post 9782087)

I found it to be a lot of fun. What do you define as fun? I hope not stuff like G-Force.

Originally Posted by RichC2 (Post 9782709)

Since I haven't seen this movie, I'll address these unrelated issues:

• Across the Universe was another "director passion project" that the studio did not interfere with. A comment with both AtU and WtWTA is that they both may have turned out better had the studio stepped in at some point. That is the only reason it is brought up.
• Happy Gilmore is a kickass movie. I like the Wedding Singer too.
• So is Inglourious Basterds (favorite of '09). Thought Watchmen was alright initially (good content, poor direction) but liked it less and less as I thought about it and now find it unwatchable.
• The fact this movie has minimal plot should be of little surprise to anyone familiar with the souce material.

That is all :)

Originally Posted by GenPion (Post 9783357)

I agree with this post, except for the fact I USED to think Happy Gilmore was awesome - when I was a little kid in fact - and this year I tried watching it again and I couldn't even tolerate it. It's AWFUL... in my opinion of course.

Originally Posted by hapgilmore (Post 9783518)

Even if you don't like the movie in general, how can you not like Shooter Mcgavin or Ben Stiller's role? Two of the best comedic performances of the 90's.

Originally Posted by Matthew Chmiel (Post 9777559)

Rich nailed it, the film has no plot. It's similar to the book in that Max causes temper tantrum, gets grounded, lets his imagination get the best of him, and comes back to reality in time for dinner.

When I go see a narrative feature, I like to see some sort of structure, maybe some character development, conflict, a protagonist, an antagonist; but this film has absolutely no rhyme or reason to it at all. Don't get me wrong, I get the similarities that Max and Carol are similar to how they react and take out their actions upon others; but that's not enough to fill 100 minutes. I get the book is only a few sentences long, but time the film more appropriately. If the film clocked in 70-80 minutes and had a much faster pace and maybe an actual goddamn storyline, I would've liked the film and I could've came back here and told you all how great it was. Instead, the film is just an unlikeable kid and a bunch of unlikeable monsters running around for too long.

I'm sorry to state this as a film major, but this is the second time I feel a studio should've taken all control away from the director as originally intended (the first being Across the Universe). I love Spike Jonze's last two films, but this was a mess.