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The 'Things' aren't wild or fun enough

The author of "Where the Wild Things Are" picked Spike Jonze ("Being John Malkovich") to direct the long-planned film of the much-loved children's book. But whatever Maurice Sendak thought the quixotic Jonze would bring to the movie -- a penetrating understanding of the thin, allegorical picture book, perhaps -- what Jonze delivers, with a script by Dave Eggers, is not a children's movie at all. This dull, downbeat, yet faithful adaptation has become a Sesame Street of the Spotless Mind.

Max Records plays Max, a kid who should be beyond donning his old whiskered wolf suit and terrorizing his mom (Catherine Keener). In a wintry opening built around an ends-in-tears snowball fight with his sister's teenage friends, Max comes off as an impulsive, hyper and self-centered brat. But he's sensitive enough to escape to his plush-toy filled room and to oblige with a fanciful tale when his hard-pressed single mom sighs, "I could use a story."

But a tantrum in the middle of mom's date (Mark Ruffalo, in a cameo) reveals

Facing our monsters

The movie version of "Where the Wild Things Are" hits theaters Friday. But first, there was the book. Published in 1963, it was Maurice Sendak's first picture book, and it is brilliant.

Just 338 words, it's the story of Max, a boy sent to his room without supper when he misbehaves. Before his eyes, the room changes to a forest, and Max sails to a fantasy land of monsters. He tames these wild things and they accept him as their king.

I discovered this book when I read it to my young son. It has been one of my favorite children's books ever since. It's one of Gregory Maguire's favorites, too. I recently talked to Maguire -- the best-selling author of "Wicked" and "A Lion Among Men" -- about the book and why we love it. His newest book is "Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation" (William Morrow; $27.50).

No good vibrations from Marky Mark in 'Max Payne'

Mark Wahlberg may not be particularly fond of the impression Andy Samberg did of him on "Saturday Night Live" (in a still side-splitting sketch titled "Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals"). But even ol' Marky Mark can't say that the "Lazy Sunday" dude didn't have him down pat. The exasperation. The stubbornness. The urge to be confrontational, even when he's conversing with a chicken. ("A lot of people wanna eat you, but I just wanna talk to you, OK?") Samberg's dead-on impersonation reminded people what we've come to expect from Wahlberg as an actor: bully-boy Method acting. (That's why his performance as a meek, passive science teacher in M. Night Shyamalan's stupendously awful "The Happening" was so deranged -- even Wahlberg didn't buy himself in that role.)

Wahlberg gives us the real thing in "Max Payne," the latest blockbuster based on a bullet-riddled video game. Walking around all chip-on-his-shoulder pensive in a leather jacket, looking like an Irish-American Shaft, he's a detective working cold cases

Adults go for 'Wild Things'

"Where the Wild Things Are" proved a bigger hit with adult audiences than family crowds as the adaptation of Maurice Sendak 's beloved children's book debuted at No. 1 with $32.5 million.

Moviegoers 18 and older accounted for 43 percent of the audience, while parents with children made up 27 percent, according to distributor Warner Bros.

The results matched the intent of director Spike Jonze , who viewed his take as a story about a child but not necessarily a children's movie.

Vaughn takes show on road, and it's funny

In the mouthful that is "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days and 30 Nights -- Hollywood to the Heartland," the actor, fresh off his career-redefining performance in "Wedding Crashers," rents a splacked-out bus so he and four of his stand-up buddies can go on a monthlong, breakneck tour through Middle America.

At first, you assume this is Vaughn shamelessly indulging in his brand-new, A-list, upper-deck fame, especially when the movie begins with Vaughn, "Dodgeball" co-star Justin Long and good friend/"Swingers" co-star Jon Favreau entertaining a sold-out, Los Angeles theater crowd by re-creating a live version of Favreau's cable vérité talk show "Dinner for Five" (which then, obviously, slides into revisiting a scene from "Swingers").

But, as the movie progresses and Vaughn surprisingly drifts out of the spotlight, "West" becomes less about him and more about the quartet of struggling comics who join him on this crazy journey. Much like when Favreau showed solidarity to his actor pals by writing