Review Dump

Been watching a few random things lately so here two mini reviews.

Adam and Steve

A quirky indie film about a gay couple in NY who had a disastrous* first date in 1987 and then met again in 2004. Way more entertaining than I thought it was going to be and for the first time ever Chris Kattan made me not want to put my fist through his face. The film unfortunately plays into a few too many gay stereotypes but manages to make them fairly funny. It does manage to take a step into surreal territory with a Gay Cowboy Dance Off near the end of the film that still has me wondering what the hell I just saw.

JUST A MOVIE GEEK Recommendation: Check it out

*I wont spoil how disastrous this date was. Its shocking nature worked in the film and should be experienced with eyes open.


Where the Wild Things Are

Let me get this out of the way right now. If you loved the book when you were a kid, do not fear this film will touch, alter, or change your love of the original book. The book and the film are not even in the same ball game. So in the book we have Max. A difficult child who gets sent to his room and then imagines a world where superb monsters live and he becomes their king and great monstrous things happen. Right there is where the similarities between the two end.

Visually the film does not disappoint. The monsters are exactly as the should be as if Sendak himself drew them on screen. The combination of practical and CGI for the beasts is amazing. The monsters island while quite desolate works perfectly and allows Max and his monsters to frolic as should be. The only thing that bothered me was that none of the monsters sounded like they were beasts. They all sounded like humans inside. At first this bothered me but when I realized what Jonze (director) and Eggers (screen writer) were doing with this story it all fell into place.

The film expands upon the 9 sentence long children's book by taking numerous points of Max's Id and transferring them to each monster. Dealing with many issues that children must face the monsters represent all that Max can't handle. This is not a film for children. At least not young ones that the book is normally targeted to. Whereas Terry Gilliam gave us the Imagination Trilogy with Time Bandits, Brazil and Munchasen I would say that Where the Wild Things are goes hand in hand with Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind as Jonze's own foray into the way mans mind works.

JUST A MOVIE GEEK Recommendation: Check it out but put aside all feelings you may have towards the original book