“Where The Wild Things Are” is a great fantasy adventure, director Spike Jonze delivers an incredible world of fantasy focused on Max, a boy with a lot of energy and no friends… who falls into place in the world of the wild things.

While its based on Maurice Sendak’s children’s book, the movie may not be good for young children, as the monsters are very big, real, and scary… a credit to the filmmakers that the wild things were so believable, because if they weren’t this movie would have been hard to watch.

  (My spoiler-free review)

12 year old Max Records delivers a great performance as Max, a wild child with no friends and not even his mom will put up with him because he’s out of control.

Max is great as the crazy little monster who makes his way to an imaginative world, where being a rambunctious tall tale teller is acceptable.   The movie is dependent on the success of Max’s performance and its the best child performance of the year.

Jonze creates a very real fantastical world with convincing characters of Carol, Ida, Judith, K.W., and others… its easy to follow and fun to be immersed in.   The message is pretty clear, that Max needs to grow up and being such a problem child, but its encased in a fun story in a world of make believe.

If nothing else, the costumes in “Where The Wild Things Are” should put the movie up for an Oscar nomination this year.

THE BOTTOM LINE:  (more…)

(RE-POSTING FROM 7/20/08)

See it in 3D: “Journey to the Center of the Earth”
 

“Journey to the Center of the Earth” is a fun, family adventure that takes the audience on a fun updated version of Jules Verne’s trip to an amazing world below the earth’s surface.     But MAKE SURE YOU SEE IT in 3D, the way it was intended to be seen… as this is the first full-length, live action feature shot in digital 3D !!!

 “Journey to the Center of the Earth”

(Rated:PG for intense adventure action and some scary moments) (1 hr, 32 min)

Genre: Action/Adventure/Family/Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, Anita Briem, Seth Meyers

The Plot: On a quest to find out what happened to his missing brother, a scientist, his nephew and their mountain guide discover a fantastic and dangerous lost world in the center of the earth.

(RE-POSTING FROM 5/23/08)

Indiana Jones 4: a shocking disappointment
 

Yes, I hate to say it, but “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was a sucker punch to the stomach of *this* eager fan of the franchise.     I am a huge fan of “Indiana Jones”… its 2nd only to “Star Wars” as a favorite franchise… these are the movies that got me excited about going to the theater when I was a kid… but this leaves a sour taste in my movie-going stomach.

Don’t get me wrong… all the elements were there: the typical edge of your seat action, good versus evil, gags, fighting, heroes in peril, one liners, a little romance… it was a fun adventure… the whole franchise is…

((… and I was disappointed by the way they explain what the crystal skull was.. and they way they explained it… why? why? why? did they have to do it that way? it unravels all the little flaws I had accepted earlier in the movie… at one point in the end sequence I wasn’t sure if I was watching Indiana Jones or “A.I.” ))