Escape to the Movies: Where the Wild Things Are

[rayen020]

you know alot of times it gets really easy to think of moviebob as the zero punctuation of movies (ie tranformers/terminator). However this reveiw shows why he isn't. When a movie is as genuinely good as where the wild things are(BTW i have seen it and you should too) moviebob does tend to have a heart when talking about it. whereas yahtzee would have spent 1 minute explaining why the plot shouldn't have change, another making fun of the CG, another saying it shouldn't have been made into a movie, about thirty seconds glossing over the good stuff and then wrapping up with a witty joke/pun. Both forms are fine and offer laughs from time to time but it's good to remember that each are here for valid reasons not because one copied the other for movies. thats a lesson to anyone entering the film festival.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

The trailer for the wild things seemed to speak to my inner child. I was read the books when I was maybe 5 or 6 so this should send me right back.

 

[Sovvolf]

Just a question to you personally Bob (With-out being too creepy as to private message you) what would restore your hope in humanity?. I'm not trying to be sarcastic or even funny, this is a legitimate question and what you would think a film would need to do in order to restore your hope in humanity.

As a young media student hoping to get into directing this is the kind of information is important to me.

I don't think any film (or type of art, really) is capable of doing that for anyone, unless it's a real-life photo or video clip depicting... I dunno, an ice-cream man jumping between a wheelchair-bound toddler and a bullet, something like that. Or, rather, if it IS then the person in question isn't all that hopeless to begin with.

If you're going to make movies, make them because doing so fulfills you creatively first and let "restoring" or "inspiring" come with the material (unless it's a documentary, which is a whole other story.)

Thank you Bob, I am going into making movies because I like to create, doing it since a young age only with comic books, a really old video camera and making great use of the whole record, stop, move out of scene, play special effect. However at that age my ideas were more inspired by really bad high budget action flicks rather then films like the low budget but well acted and deeply atmospheric Taxi Driver, which are the films that I deeply enjoy and I learned a great lesson about film making from.

That lesson was that atmosphere makes the movie not special effects or CGI, take No Country For Old Men for example; barley any special effects besides the almost standard blood and rifle zoom special effects, there's not even that much dialogue (even though when it's delivered it's pure gold thanks to the deeply chilling voice of Javier Bardem (seriously if he really talks with that voice in real life then get him exorcised or some thing)) but the atmosphere just draws you in and it doesn't let go, you can't pause it, you can't go to the bathroom you can't just start a conversation up with your friend because it's that gripping and tense that you just want to know what is going to happen to Josh Brolin's character.

Anyway seemed to have rambled on there, the reason why it was so important that I heard from you is that your a movie critic that seems to be on par with me as far as taste for movies go.
It would be nice to see what your ultimate movie would be mainly because I think I would get a better idea on what would make a good movie from some one like you (who makes a career out of criticising bad movies) then I would from asking my brother who thought The Condemned and The Marine where cinematic gold while criticising films like No Country for Old Men or The Proposition for being too boring and pointless.

 

[Woodsey]

Wow, can't believe the book was written in 1963. I thought it was fairly new when I read it as a kid, and I was born in 94.

 

[atomicmrpelly]

Didn't he end his review with '...almost restores my faith in humanity, almost.' a couple of weeks ago?

 

[DrunkWithPower]

I'm glad the Spike Jonze didn't crush that now, shriveled up little memory I call "childhood".

 

[coldfrog]

Unlike Yahtzee, where I love to see him tear a game apart, this I think is where MB has shone to me. When he likes a movie he is great at explaining exactly why and you can TELL he's passionate about its quality. This is definitely one of those films, and the eloquence shown here for the film is much more worthwhile than when a movie gets ripped apart. Best review yet, in my opinion. Plus, of course, childhood memories and all.

 

[lwm3398]

Woah woah woah. We have talk of hope for humanity?

BLASPHEMY.

 

[IrishBerserker]

I remember reading the book when I was little.

 

[Jersalyn]

I didn't have much interest in seeing this until I heard how much they went through just to find a kid to play the lead and the trouble on created a back story for something that in reality was a poem set as short story. Right now we're hearing alot from parents who are saying that movie is too dark for kids.

1. the book wasn't very chearful.
2. 5$ these are the same parents that brought there 8yr olds to see Half Blood Prince.

 

[Asciotes]

1. I needed a dictionary for that review (well not really, but Bob is getting into the big words on this one).
2. Melan-Collie was pretty witty, yes, but he should have put a picture from the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

 

[awsome117]

Wow, so MovieBob liked this film? and hated the Cat in the hat?.

Well I'm glad, I've not seen the cat in the hat, because my favourite book of all time is "Green Eggs and Ham", and I will never watch Dr Seuss being butchered.

SO what will restore Bob's faith in humanity?.

What would restore his faith in humanity? How about this ----> The Halo movie comes out and nobody goes to see it.

Oh, I would go see it. My your faith be shattered. At the review, I already planned on seeing, but the review kept my interests peeked.

 

[MB202]

I remember reading the original children's book. I'm glad to hear this movie is a faithful recreation of the book.

 

[ssgt splatter]

I'm sorry, I'm just too creeped out by this.

 

[LewsTherin]

The fact that this book was not collectively shat on by the film industry heartens me greatly.

 

[Nomanslander]

You know what, I fucking hate today's generation of weak innocence fixated parents...and I am so glad I was raised by an older Silent Generation parents watching violent cartoons and movies instead of being raised by the gay ass Babyboomers who like to reward children even when they come in 17th place in softball like today.....>>

Last thing we need is another great children book being Disneyfied in order not to scare the children...0o

 

[tidomann]

You do know the Halo movie was going to be made by Neil Blomkamp? Of District 9 fame? Go back and watch Bob's review of that. Pay close attention to the extreme, enthusiastic (and entirely justified) praise. If this guy makes the Halo movie, it might actually be good.

Yes.. A good director could potentially make a good movie. Yes the halo universe, COULD inspire an interesting movie. What it ultimately falls into is that the potential for it to be focused solely to appeale to Halo gamer causes it to stear away from the overall appeal of the movie, potentially causing it to spiral into a waste of a director?s talent.

Off topic praise:
Moviebob, I have to say I stumbled upon your blog just before you were offered a place at the escapist. And ever since then I've been enjoying everything you've been doing- be it with moviebob, or the game overthinker. At first, I thought you just "got" me- but it really just turns out that you're able to truly review movies. While you have so many cynical reviewers (as others have pointed out) you're able to shine the light on movies that truly deserve some form of praise. While other reviewers fall into the pit trap of time as new movies develop, comparing them to the creations of old, you've already shown that although new movies may not be the same as cinematographic masterpieces in our time, a movie can still be GOOD. People get caught up in thinking "X movie is the best of genre Y" but with younger generations they never experienced era "z" containing all these masterpieces, and can probably just live their lives praising transformers 2. But that doesn?t stop a new movie, that shares similar elements to be unable to have the ability to be an ?entertaining movie.? Let me just leave it at that before this rapidly degrades.

On topic:
I saw this movie, and at first I was taken by the initial hype. As time progressed, I began creating reservations based on the stereotypical trend that children?s movies are either A) For children B) Changed for adult adaptation. I find it incredibly shocking that I've forgotten the diversity between my mind at two different time periods. Of course, this isn't the first movie to play on this effect- where children and adults perceive information differently, but I can say definitively that this review is what reminded me of this effect. Imagine what it could be like, to watch this movie with your childhood mind, and then immediately watch it afterwards with who you are right now, as you read this. Or perhaps it would be more shocking, to do it in reverse...

 

[WaderiAAA]

Sounds like a heck of a movie

 

[GrinningManiac]

Excellent review, though I'm unnerved by how every film you come across, you love, and the same films are bitterly spat on by everyone else.

I know other critics seek out the petty complaints, but sometimes I think "Going to see this film because of Bob dosen't ensure it's a good film...he likes everything"