From We Are Movie Geeks: Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are is a classic amongst children’s books, not so much due to mere entertainment value, though it has that, but because of how much it means to children whose parents have read it to them. Children empathize with Max, a boy whose mother sends him to his room after he acts out his more aggressive side, a boy who finds solace in a mystical world he creates where monsters roam and wild rumpuses abound. To say Sendak’s story is magical to children is putting it lightly, and saying Spike Jonze’s feature film adaptation is commendable in regards to Sendak’s story is as much of an understatement as you can muster.
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE is a master work. It tells its intricate and nuanced story with grace and care that only a parent can give a child, and its characters come to life in startlingly exquisite detail. More than just a coming of age story, the narrative Jonze has expanded from the original book takes the themes Sendak created and flashes them in an immense presence. He does all this without ever allowing the film to feel forced or less than genuine. Such a feature film adaptation of a children’s book could have easily been just that. Jonze, to his credit, is anything but a bogus filmmaker. His visions come across on screen every time he steps behind the camera, and, with WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, he truly captures the feeling within all children that sometimes it is easier to be the wild thing than the conformed.
From Lunch.com: Takashi Miike is a very inexhaustible and prolific director; the man has directed many different films in different genres that I believe that he is one of the most versatile filmmakers around. He is also arguably one of the most darkly audacious director in contemporary Japanese cinema. “GOZU” (a.k.a. “Cow-head”, Gokudo Kyofu Dai-gekijo: Gozu, 2003) is arguably one of his most mystifying, wanton, provocative and demented displays of Miike’s imagination. Miike re-teams with Sachiko Sato, who adapted “Ichi The Killer” for him. Miike seems to be drawn to the Yakuza gangster themes but believe me when I say that “Gozu” is anything but your standard Yakuza film. I’ve always said that the best way to approach Miike’s films is to have no expectations and the less that you know, the better. The reward into Miike’s films is the journey itself.
Minami (Hideki Sone) is a member of the Azamawari Yakuza crew. He highly respects his Aniki (brother) Ozaki (Sho Aikawa) to whom he is greatly indebted to for his life. However, when Ozaki becomes paranoid and eccentrically imbalanced, Minami is asked by their elder (Renji Ishibashi), to escort him to the yakuza dumping site in Nogoya, Minami becomes torn between his loyalty to Ozaki and following the orders of their boss; but instead Ozaki appears to peg out in the car as soon as they approach their destination and to make matters worst, the corpse goes missing. Now in his quest to authenticate Ozaki‘s death, Minami must find the body; this quest brings him to a nightmarish journey that brings him face to face with several creepy characters from a transvestite restaurant owner (cameo by its writer Sato himself), to Nose, a man with a skin condition (played by Shohei Hino), to a hyper-lactating woman (Keiko Tomita) and her brother (Harumi Sone), a demonic half-human half cow, and mysterious beautiful woman called Sakiko (sexy Yoshino Kamiya).
We all remember the movies that scarred us for life. From killer clowns to ghost tales to Willy Wonka’s trippy tunnel of terror, these sinister villains and monstrous creatures sprang from television sets and theater screens to wreak havoc in our nightmares. Some of them still do. Face your dormant childhood fears by revisiting ten of our favorite scary kidcentric flicks, and tell us if they still keep you up at night.
It (1990)
As if clowns weren’t scary enough on their own, Stephen King had to go and make them even worse. Enter Pennywise the Dancing Clown, a shape-shifting, ubiquitous and all-powerful being that dwells in the sewers and devours children by feeding on their greatest fears. This two-part miniseries scared the bejeezus out of the children (and adults) of the ‘90s. Let us remind you why:
I’m quickly running out of superlatives to describe our adventures on the set of G.H.O.S.T.. What can I say? We have an amazing found location with the opera house, we have a talented cast, and a dedicated crew. Everything is going nice and smooth. We had a few crew members forced to withdraw from this weekend’s shoot due to illness – but you were all there in spirit. We hope you recover fast because we need you right back on set next week! Those that were in attendance had a blast as we filmed several key sequences in the film including the creepy caretaker Maximilian’s warning speech as he tries to scare the G.H.O.S.T. team away from the haunted opera house. It wouldn’t be a haunted house movie without a crazy guy trying to scare everyone. Things are proceeding according to plan. There’s still a ton of pre-production, prop work, and designs to be completed before this coming weekend’s shoot – so catch your nap and get ready, G.H.O.S.T. is running ahead at full speed. Thank you all for your hard work. We’ll see you on Saturday!
Welcome to Mutantville Productions MVP Blog. Join Streebo, Brento, Geo & the rest of the Mutantville Players as they set sail on the high seas of guerrilla filmmaking in their ongoing quest to bring you the finest in genre entertainment.
I’m quickly running out of superlatives to describe our adventures on the set of G.H.O.S.T.. What can I say? We have an amazing found location with the opera house, we have a talented cast, and a dedicated crew. Everything is going nice and smooth. We had a few crew members forced to withdraw from this weekend’s shoot due to illness – but you were all there in spirit. We hope you recover fast because we need you right back on set next week! Those that were in attendance had a blast as we filmed several key sequences in the film including the creepy caretaker Maximilian’s warning speech as he tries to scare the G.H.O.S.T. team away from the haunted opera house. It wouldn’t be a haunted house movie without a crazy guy trying to scare everyone. Things are proceeding according to plan. There’s still a ton of pre-production, prop work, and designs to be completed before this coming weekend’s shoot – so catch your nap and get ready, G.H.O.S.T. is running ahead at full speed. Thank you all for your hard work. We’ll see you on Saturday!