Did I Hate It?

Getting sent to bed without dinner doesn’t sound too harsh a punishment to me these days. I could actually use the drop in my daily cyclone of calories. But the 9-year-old me would have been bummed out!

In Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, 9-year-old Max earns himself the no din-din due to some misbehavin’. I don’t recall the severity of his trespass in the book, but in the film adaptation, it’s pretty severe.

That’s a suitable word for Spike Jonze’s film version. It’s more severe than the book. And it’s incredible. Spike has made a wonderful film here. He takes the beloved, if short, source material and really creates something unique and something more. It’s like the book is the shallow end of the pool and the film is the deeper (scarier) end of the same pool. And Jonze jumps us off the high dive of emotion inside a boy living with his post-divorce family. What a great choice for the film!

Thankfully, I saw this movie with my friend, Scott Shiffman. We both earned our Broken Home Badge in scouts. I could identify with Max and his frustration and powerlessness. With a sister drifting away and a mom who was, at once, not there for me and all I had in the whole wide world. It’s enough to make a kid want to sail away to an island and live with wild things.

The Wild Things are just spectacular! I can’t say enough good stuff about them. The voice actors, the costumes, the measured use of CGI, it all added up to a seamless performance. I knew when I saw Peter Jackson’s Gollum and King Kong that movie tech had turned a corner and we would get some believable acting from CGI faces.

Max was played so well by actor Max Records. He was believable in both the painful and touching moments.

I gotta say that Catherine Keener is one of my favorites! She plays the mom and I just watched her in another Wild film, Sean Penn’s Into The Wild. She has got something very familiar about her. Maybe she reminds me of my mom. Not sure.

My 6-year-old daughter, Malia’s Kindergarten class read the book this year and she REALLY wanted to see the movie. I’ve decided that it’s too intense and a bit scary at times for her to view in a theater. Maybe next year on our TV where I can monitor and fast forward some. Malia made this painting. I do NOT hate it and I DID NOT HATE WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE!

What’s the old saying? Never yell “Mein Fuhrer!” in a crowded theater? But what if the theater is full of Nazis? The bad kind. That’s one question faced by Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

Scott Shiffman and I went to see Quentin’s answer to this query. I was going to write that we couple of bastards went to see Inglourious Basterds, but I can only confirm that I barely know my dad. I’m not sure about Scott. Although, he may have been called that a time or two.

Being an astute filmmaker type guy, Scott noticed right away that Tarantino was crossing the lines in the opening scenes. To which I replied, “Totally. I was gonna totally say that, but just then, not because you did say that what I was gonna say the same thing.” I think Tarantino was employing that boo boo to make the movie feel like it was made in a bygone era, possibly by a filmmaker from another country, etc. He did that fairly successfully when coupled with some odd font choices in the  credits. He’s really good at that.

Brad Pitt is sehr gut as Lt. Aldo “The Apache” Raine, leader of an elite death brigade of angry Jews called the Inglourious Basterds. They call Aldo “The Apache” because his group engages the Nazis in what he describes as an Apache tactic of brutal killing that strikes fear into all who hear tales of it. I wouldn’t know about that because my dad named me Hopi after the peaceful Native American tribe. Hopi being the shortened version of Hopituh Shi-nu-mu, “The Peaceful People”. The Hopi didn’t do a lot of scalping, but these Nazi killing Jews sure did! A LOT. And I don’t mean selling sweet seats to Motorhead at a healthy markup over face value. I mean filleting a fair amount of a Nazi heads over their faces. Like with knives and whatnot. Yuck! Ich bin ein kranker, dude!

This is classic Tarantino in that the dialogue is great and full of tension and the violence flows like the wine of a place that is known for it’s wine flowing. Another great trait of Mr. Tarantino is casting. He has a terrific cast in place here and they are all strong. The incessant blood letting got to me after awhile, but it weren’t no surprise. That’s exactly what’s advertised: a hyper-violent revisionist revenge tale with a pile of dead Nazis on top.

I did NOT hate it, but I’m not sure I can sit through it again. War is Hell.

I saw The Hangover a couple weeks ago, but only now can bring myself to type “Zach Galifianakis in a jock strap”.

The Hangover is FUNNY! It has the same ratio of raunch to funny as 40yr Old Virgin. It’s got to be the funniest situation-type comedy of the year.  Not Huxtable SitCom, mind you. The end credits sequence is insane, but I’m not sure Bill Cosby would approve:)

The 3 groomsmen who lose the groom in Las Vegas are played by Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms & the aforementioned Zach Galifianakis. All three of these guys turned in their most memorable movie roles yet in this one. You would likely recognize Ed Helms from The Office and Bradley Cooper from Alias and other films. I am most pleased to see Zach Glifianakis finally hit it big. He’s been doing funny comedy shows and stand up for along time.

My bachelor party experience consists mostly of prayer, sports, farting and food. Not necessarily in that order. So, while I can’t claim to have any direct experience with accidental stripper-marrying, I can relate to intense regret and panic. I think we all can. Anyone remember Milli Vanilli?

Actually, there’s a stripper in the movie with my wife’s name. I know what you’re thinking, but I can’t install a pole in my room. We rent.

OK, now I’m realizing that I might have offended my wife by suggesting that the only thing keeping me from installing such a thing is the fact that we rent. I was NOT assuming that she would be in any way supportive of the idea even if we owned our home. I’m not sure I would even like it that much, especially after the third or fourth time I ran into it in the middle of the night. Also, houses are expensive where we live. So please forgive me, Jade? Come on, I’ll do a naughty little dance for you!

I did not hate The Hangover!