Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

I was really excited about watching this film. My mom read this to me as a little boy, and the 40-year-old classic book had a lot of potential for being a great movie.

However, Spike Jonze did not impress me here. The story is about Max, a wild imaginative boy who acts up and is sent to his room where he uses his imagination to go to an island and becomes king. The movie in some aspects makes Max the victim, either his sister and her friends being mean to him or his mom on a strange date while the kids are still up. Max acts out and runs away... he never goes to his room, which was a pretty big change for me.

So lets skip ahead to the island with the monsters. They are scary! Don't take little kids to see this movie! Of all the things to nail why did Jonze only get this part right? They are however, very very fake. When running around they very well could have been Barney and friends. The suits look like their are people in them, [fine you didn't use CGI] but don't make them walk like monsters and play like people in costume... it just didn't work for me.

I was very sad about all of this, but the worst part was that it was just boring. My wife fell asleep for part of it dvand I got distracted reading a d player manual at one point because it was just not going anywhere.

I guess that is what happens when you take a great children's short story and try and make it an hour and a half movie.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386117/

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