Let’s first give you the timeline. Last Thursday I received the Blu-ray of FANTASTIC MR. FOX in the mail from Netflix. Friday night, the wife and I huddled up on the couch and watched it. By Saturday afternoon I’d won an Ebay auction for the Blu-ray. Wednesday of this week, I had it in my grubby little hands.

I haven’t bought a DVD or Blu-ray in months, maybe even a year. I can’t even tell you the last time a movie warranted me spending any of my hard earned cash to own it. I have around 100 DVDs. I only own one Blu-ray and that was a gift. (It’s Family Guy: Something Something Something Dark Side in case you were wondering). I’m an avid Netflixer and I try to watch at least a couple movies a week, whether it Time Warner On Demand or Amazon On Demand. The point being is it takes something special for me to spend any real money on owning a film.

Long and the short of it is, FANTASTIC MR. FOX is everything I hoped WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE would be but wasn’t. It’s a seminal picture from one of the real auteurs of my generation. It’s a departure from his former work while still remaining a part of his oeuvre. While I don’t fault Spike Jonze completely, I still think he’s a genius and hope he keeps amazing me with his movies. His short, I’M HERE – A LOVE STORY is pretty fantastic, so I’m not too worried, but WTWTA was kind of a mess. It’s probably Dave Eggers fault. Let’s just say it was and move on. Read more