Superficially, this charmer seems like it could be a Laotian variation on Whale Rider, the decade-old surprise hit about a Maori girl who triumphs despite her grandfather’s efforts to discourage her. It’s also a story about people from a traditional culture colliding with modern ways, and also features a not-so-loving grandparent. In this case, Ahlo (Sitthiphon Disamoe) is a small boy, and his grandmother is the discouraging one, believing that Ahlo, as the only survivor of twins, brings bad luck.
A forced relocation (to make way for a dam project) brings tragedy to Ahlo and his family, but this movie is not a lamentation about the loss of traditional culture, and not a melodrama, but basically, in the end, a feel-good film about Ahlo’s spirited attempt to break his supposed curse via a contest. Along the way he befriends a little girl being taken care of, or maybe taking care of, what must be Laos’s number one James Brown disciple (he even looks like the Godfather of Soul). The ending to the story feels a bit too easy, but a lot of charm and originality should overcome most such objections. If the subtitles are not a bar, this may even appeal to kids, who should appreciate the independence of its young hero.
IMDb link
viewed 10/22/13 7:10 pm at Ritz East [Philadelphia Film Festival screening] and posted 10/22/13
Showing posts with label boy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boy. Show all posts
Friday, February 28, 2014
Friday, November 2, 2012
Sister (***3/4)
Making a movie about from a child’s perspective that’s not aimed at kids must be a labor of love, since it’s not exactly the path to riches. Possibly that’s why so many of the ones I’ve seen have been so good. The recent Japanese film I Wish comes to mind. It may be worth mentioning that hardly any of them of are American. This Swiss drama, set in the mountains of the French-speaking west (and partly in English), is told from the perspective of Simon, who’s not yet a teen but already the primary breadwinner, sort of, in a household of two. Louise (Léa Seydoux), several years his senior, is inconsistently employed, and so Simon spends his spare time at the local ski lodge, nicking skis and related gear for resale to classmates, tourists, and anyone else with the amazingly colorful Swiss Francs.
Even without the surprise twist in the middle of the film, the relationship at the heart of the story is genuine and original. Louise should be a mother figure to Simon, yet he is, despite being a thief, arguably the more responsible one, and certainly the more resourceful. Yet when he sees a boy about his own age with his mother (Gillian Anderson), you can see that he longs for a more ordinary childhood. Yet there is a deep bond between Louise and Simon that would be unusual in ordinary siblings living with two parents. The writer-director, Ursula Meier, carefully avoids injecting melodrama into the story, and the ending may therefore come off as meandering or anticlimactic. Simon is still not a teen when the movie ends, so we don’t know his future, but this beautifully shot and well-acted film made me wonder about it.
IMDb link
viewed 11/8/12 7:30 at Ritz Bourse and reviewed 11/8/12
Even without the surprise twist in the middle of the film, the relationship at the heart of the story is genuine and original. Louise should be a mother figure to Simon, yet he is, despite being a thief, arguably the more responsible one, and certainly the more resourceful. Yet when he sees a boy about his own age with his mother (Gillian Anderson), you can see that he longs for a more ordinary childhood. Yet there is a deep bond between Louise and Simon that would be unusual in ordinary siblings living with two parents. The writer-director, Ursula Meier, carefully avoids injecting melodrama into the story, and the ending may therefore come off as meandering or anticlimactic. Simon is still not a teen when the movie ends, so we don’t know his future, but this beautifully shot and well-acted film made me wonder about it.
IMDb link
viewed 11/8/12 7:30 at Ritz Bourse and reviewed 11/8/12
Friday, April 13, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Pentecost [short] (**3/4)
This short film, set in 1977, tell the tale of a sin-prone Irish altar boy whose short-term salvation—being able to watch Liverpool play in the European Cup match—depends on his performance in an important mass. Pithy like a short story, but without the interior monologue that the written form could have incorporated, it’s a bit thin. The bit in which the priest instructs the boys in the manner of a football coach before a big game is inspired, though.
viewed 2/17/12 9:35 at Ritz Bourse [Oscar-nominated live-action shorts program] and reviewed 2/18/12
viewed 2/17/12 9:35 at Ritz Bourse [Oscar-nominated live-action shorts program] and reviewed 2/18/12
Friday, January 20, 2012
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (**3/4)
I’ve not read either of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novels—only excepts from each—but he obviously doesn’t go in for subtlety. The first, Everything Is Illuminated, is
written in an ersatz syntax parodying that of an an
Eastern European immigrant. The second, adapted here by screenwriter Eric Roth (Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and director Steven Daldry (The Hours), is told in the voice of an extremely bright 12-year-old.* They’re mysteries wrapped in tragedies, and not just any tragedies, but the Holocaust in the first case and 9/11 here. (Oskar is played by Thomas Horn, a newcomer who definitely knows how to convey smarts, having been a Jeopardy Kids Week champion.)
Young Oskar’s father has died on what he refers to as the “worst day”; he happened to be in one of the Twin Towers. That fact figures in the story, significantly but peripherally, as when Oskar insists, to his mother’s (Sandra Bullock) consternation, that without a body there can only be a “pretend funeral.” The deceased, played by Tom Hanks in flashbacks, is the sort of dad who insisted that New York City had a now-lost “sixth borough” and from time to time produces “evidence.” The flashbacks are meant not to convey that he was a kook, but that he invested his son with a sense of wonder. One wonders if he also invested him with the sense of superiority the character conveys.
The mystery has to do with a key left behind. Armed only with a name — Black — and New York City phone books, Oskar (who’s a little Asperger-y) begins a systematic search for the lock that fits the key. (As with many New Yorkers, he seems not to consider the possibility that some people live in places outside the five boroughs.) I suppose there are brainy kids who might be like this, but must Oskar be so irritating? (Probably this is not Horn’s fault.) He irritates his mother; he irritates the staff in his building; he irritates the mute old man (Max von Sydow) who boards with his grandmother in an adjacent building. He’s indeed extremely loud. Now, I don’t mind flawed heroes. The heroine of the recent The Hedgehog, for example, who is the same age as Oskar and possibly even brainier, is flawed, but she’s not as irritating. Also, that movie less transparently— pun intended—tugs at the heartstrings.
Some people will surely find this extremely, incredibly manipulative, and I don’t entirely disagree. But I’m going to say just barely that I liked it, because I liked the mystery of it and how it’s resolved, because von Sydow is as winsome as the boy is irksome and because Bullock seems like a real mother and not Sandra Bullock being Sandra Bullock. I don’t think the movie comes close to being worthy of its Best Picture Oscar nomination, but it’s diverting if the above caveats don’t distract you.
*However, he is quite incorrect in claiming that there are more people alive today than have ever lived before. Not even close, as it turns out.
viewed 1/12/12:30 pm at Ritz East [PFS screening] and reviewed 1/20/12 and 1/30/12
Young Oskar’s father has died on what he refers to as the “worst day”; he happened to be in one of the Twin Towers. That fact figures in the story, significantly but peripherally, as when Oskar insists, to his mother’s (Sandra Bullock) consternation, that without a body there can only be a “pretend funeral.” The deceased, played by Tom Hanks in flashbacks, is the sort of dad who insisted that New York City had a now-lost “sixth borough” and from time to time produces “evidence.” The flashbacks are meant not to convey that he was a kook, but that he invested his son with a sense of wonder. One wonders if he also invested him with the sense of superiority the character conveys.
The mystery has to do with a key left behind. Armed only with a name — Black — and New York City phone books, Oskar (who’s a little Asperger-y) begins a systematic search for the lock that fits the key. (As with many New Yorkers, he seems not to consider the possibility that some people live in places outside the five boroughs.) I suppose there are brainy kids who might be like this, but must Oskar be so irritating? (Probably this is not Horn’s fault.) He irritates his mother; he irritates the staff in his building; he irritates the mute old man (Max von Sydow) who boards with his grandmother in an adjacent building. He’s indeed extremely loud. Now, I don’t mind flawed heroes. The heroine of the recent The Hedgehog, for example, who is the same age as Oskar and possibly even brainier, is flawed, but she’s not as irritating. Also, that movie less transparently— pun intended—tugs at the heartstrings.
Some people will surely find this extremely, incredibly manipulative, and I don’t entirely disagree. But I’m going to say just barely that I liked it, because I liked the mystery of it and how it’s resolved, because von Sydow is as winsome as the boy is irksome and because Bullock seems like a real mother and not Sandra Bullock being Sandra Bullock. I don’t think the movie comes close to being worthy of its Best Picture Oscar nomination, but it’s diverting if the above caveats don’t distract you.
*However, he is quite incorrect in claiming that there are more people alive today than have ever lived before. Not even close, as it turns out.
viewed 1/12/12:30 pm at Ritz East [PFS screening] and reviewed 1/20/12 and 1/30/12
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Hugo (***1/2)
Though best known for violent tales such as Goodfellas, Raging Bull, The Departed, Martin Scorsese has made several movies in other genres, but this is the first one you can take the kids to, and should.
With his Aviator screenwriting collaborator John Logan, he’s adapted Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret into a film whose storytelling mostly equals its considerable visual impact. Unlike some other 3-D releases, the 3-D really does add an extra dimension to the production. Hugo (Asa Butterfield), a 12-year-old boy in 1931, is an orphaned boy who winds the clocks in a cavernous train station in Paris. (But everyone speaks English with an English accent.) Exterior shots of the city and interior shots of gears and wheels, give one a sense of traveling on a monorail. It’s obvious that much of this is created on a computer, but the slightly other worldly quality that provides works fine here.
The mystery relates to an automaton, a mechanical man Hugo’s late father acquired and repaired, but Hugo lacks the literal key that will unlock the mystery. Helping him solve it is the young grand-niece of an older man (Ben Kingsley) who sells toys in the station. Another mystery attaches to the old man and somehow links the girl to the boy. Hugo encapsulates most of what makes a good all-ages story: a resourceful hero (and heroine) with just the right amount of mischieviousness, a mystery, and a touch of the fantastic. Scorsese’s own love of cinema history plays into it as well. Hugo and his friend (Chloë Grace Moretz) sneak into a theater and watch a Harold Lloyd movie. The automaton recalls the robot in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. And an even older part of movie history lies at the center of the mystery, which is based on a true story, though the boy’s is fictional.
If I had any quibble with the movie it’s in the very self-conscious way it peddles nostalgia and braininess. Or maybe it’s trying too hard to be a “magical,” like The Polar Express. For example, it’s not enough that Hugo’s friend is a book lover, or uses fancy vocabulary, but you can almost see the ten-cent words underlined; when Hugo manages one himself, she actually says, “good one” to him. Yes, a quibble. Aside from making little kids fidget a bit—it’s better for those old enough to follow a scene in which the kids do some library research—the mildly highfalutin’ aspects of the film are overwhelmed by plain wonderful ones.
With his Aviator screenwriting collaborator John Logan, he’s adapted Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret into a film whose storytelling mostly equals its considerable visual impact. Unlike some other 3-D releases, the 3-D really does add an extra dimension to the production. Hugo (Asa Butterfield), a 12-year-old boy in 1931, is an orphaned boy who winds the clocks in a cavernous train station in Paris. (But everyone speaks English with an English accent.) Exterior shots of the city and interior shots of gears and wheels, give one a sense of traveling on a monorail. It’s obvious that much of this is created on a computer, but the slightly other worldly quality that provides works fine here.
The mystery relates to an automaton, a mechanical man Hugo’s late father acquired and repaired, but Hugo lacks the literal key that will unlock the mystery. Helping him solve it is the young grand-niece of an older man (Ben Kingsley) who sells toys in the station. Another mystery attaches to the old man and somehow links the girl to the boy. Hugo encapsulates most of what makes a good all-ages story: a resourceful hero (and heroine) with just the right amount of mischieviousness, a mystery, and a touch of the fantastic. Scorsese’s own love of cinema history plays into it as well. Hugo and his friend (Chloë Grace Moretz) sneak into a theater and watch a Harold Lloyd movie. The automaton recalls the robot in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. And an even older part of movie history lies at the center of the mystery, which is based on a true story, though the boy’s is fictional.
If I had any quibble with the movie it’s in the very self-conscious way it peddles nostalgia and braininess. Or maybe it’s trying too hard to be a “magical,” like The Polar Express. For example, it’s not enough that Hugo’s friend is a book lover, or uses fancy vocabulary, but you can almost see the ten-cent words underlined; when Hugo manages one himself, she actually says, “good one” to him. Yes, a quibble. Aside from making little kids fidget a bit—it’s better for those old enough to follow a scene in which the kids do some library research—the mildly highfalutin’ aspects of the film are overwhelmed by plain wonderful ones.
Friday, June 11, 2010
The Karate Kid (***1/4)
I suppose the title will irritate some, given that Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han teaches the kid (Jaden Smith) kung fu, not karate. The kid’s mom (Taraji P. Henson) confuses the two, and even after watching this movie I’m not sure of the differences myself, but Chan is Chinese and the movie takes place in China, where kung fu is the reigning martial art. Even so, there’s an unmistakable fidelity to the 1984 film of which this is a remake.
Both characters feature handymen who employ repetitive tasks as ways to build strength and discipline. And both save the boy from a bully trained by a cruel master, only to train him for an inevitable showdown. In the 1984 version, Pat Morita’s Miyagi says: “Karate for defense only.” Han says that kung fu is for “making peace with your enemy.” As Han, Chan displays far less of the physicality than in his straight action (or action-comedy) roles, but is extremely likable. In the title role, Jaden Smith has very much the cocky-yet-charming persona of his dad, Will Smith. The only other prominent role, a quasi-love interest for the boy, is charmingly played by Chinese newcomer Wenwen Han.
There’s no getting around that the storyline is still completely formulaic, though that won’t bother the target audience. The message of nonviolence is nice, even if the kids will probably forget about it as the movie builds up to the inevitable revenge ass-kicking. But the novel element that most justifies the remake is the transplanted setting. While the Americans attend an English-language school, and most of the dialogue is in English, you can, more than in most Hollywood films set abroad, surmise that there are interesting places different from the United States, people who don’t speak English, and faraway places worth visiting. (The locations include both Beijing’s Forbidden City and the Great Wall.) Perhaps Chan’s participation—or the Chinese government’s—ensured that the Chinese come off as neither quaintly charming nor wisely exotic, excepting that Han seems to have magic healing powers.
Silly title or not, the new Kid’s all right.
(My rating is kind of from the point of view of a younger person, but the movie was still fairly enjoyable as an adult.)
IMDB link
viewed at UA Riverview [PFS screening] and reviewed 6/2/2010
Both characters feature handymen who employ repetitive tasks as ways to build strength and discipline. And both save the boy from a bully trained by a cruel master, only to train him for an inevitable showdown. In the 1984 version, Pat Morita’s Miyagi says: “Karate for defense only.” Han says that kung fu is for “making peace with your enemy.” As Han, Chan displays far less of the physicality than in his straight action (or action-comedy) roles, but is extremely likable. In the title role, Jaden Smith has very much the cocky-yet-charming persona of his dad, Will Smith. The only other prominent role, a quasi-love interest for the boy, is charmingly played by Chinese newcomer Wenwen Han.
There’s no getting around that the storyline is still completely formulaic, though that won’t bother the target audience. The message of nonviolence is nice, even if the kids will probably forget about it as the movie builds up to the inevitable revenge ass-kicking. But the novel element that most justifies the remake is the transplanted setting. While the Americans attend an English-language school, and most of the dialogue is in English, you can, more than in most Hollywood films set abroad, surmise that there are interesting places different from the United States, people who don’t speak English, and faraway places worth visiting. (The locations include both Beijing’s Forbidden City and the Great Wall.) Perhaps Chan’s participation—or the Chinese government’s—ensured that the Chinese come off as neither quaintly charming nor wisely exotic, excepting that Han seems to have magic healing powers.
Silly title or not, the new Kid’s all right.
(My rating is kind of from the point of view of a younger person, but the movie was still fairly enjoyable as an adult.)
IMDB link
viewed at UA Riverview [PFS screening] and reviewed 6/2/2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
How to Train Your Dragon (***)
Staples of kid-film plots—the underdog/non-conformist who must prove himself (rarely herself), the kid who’s smarter than the adults, and the boy who must prove himself to his dad—come together with the novel element of dragons. The particulars are that the kid (called Hiccup and voiced by Jay Baruchel) is a brainy, scrawny Viking in a society where brainpower is not prized and the dad is a burly behemoth (Gerard Butler) who would prefer a son like himself. Loosely adapted from the first in a series of kid novels by Cressida Cowell, the plot has Hiccup forced to learn the old Viking ways, but quickly discovering that those ways are wrong. (Cowell’s a Brit, but the Hiccup and the other kids sound American, while the adults have Norse accents.)
It’s probably because the movie was shown in 3-D that it made me think of Avatar, but it also shares the theme of humans treating the unknown with fear and violence. The dragons are not an alien race, but nor are they the threat the adult Vikings assume. Given that the plot that had seemed to be about condemning mindless slaughter, the destructive conclusion to the story (not present in the book) seemed wrong to me; it also makes no sense if you believe in the theory of evolution, but never mind. The most entertaining scenes are watching Hiccup learn the ways of the dragon and, on a visual level, watching the dragons soar against a backdrop of mountains and sea. The 3-D effects, as good as I’ve seen, seemed more prominent than in Avatar.
IMDB link
viewed 3/4/10 at Bridge [PFS screening] and reviewed 3/28/10
It’s probably because the movie was shown in 3-D that it made me think of Avatar, but it also shares the theme of humans treating the unknown with fear and violence. The dragons are not an alien race, but nor are they the threat the adult Vikings assume. Given that the plot that had seemed to be about condemning mindless slaughter, the destructive conclusion to the story (not present in the book) seemed wrong to me; it also makes no sense if you believe in the theory of evolution, but never mind. The most entertaining scenes are watching Hiccup learn the ways of the dragon and, on a visual level, watching the dragons soar against a backdrop of mountains and sea. The 3-D effects, as good as I’ve seen, seemed more prominent than in Avatar.
IMDB link
viewed 3/4/10 at Bridge [PFS screening] and reviewed 3/28/10
Friday, May 1, 2009
Tôkyô Sonata (***1/2)
Just like the main character in Laurent Cantet’s Time Out, middle-aged Mr. Sasaki (Teruyuki Kagawa) loses his job but doesn’t tell his family, continuing to put on a suit in the morning as he heads to a job center and a free-food line. But where the French film mostly sticks with its main character, this is much more of a family story. At home, Sasaki barely communicates with his wife and seems mostly a disciplinarian to his two sons, a stern figure even as he is meek with others. The other members of the family have different dreams and desires—the younger boy wants to play the piano—but the father seems lost.
Mr. Sasaki has the mentality of a salaryman in an age where downsizing has come even to Japan, and in subtle ways director Kiyoshi Kurosawa draws a parallel between the character and the country. Just as Mr. Sasaki must painfully re-evaluate his life, Japan has had to re-evaluate its place among nations, including participation in military missions. This is more of a subtext than a theme, but worth noting. In fact, the movie as a whole is quiet and contemplative—until the last third or so. Then there is a surprising and strange turn of events that comes out of left field, but makes the movie more compelling, and even serenely beautiful, than it seemed like it would be. A performance of Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” makes a lovely coda.
IMDB link
viewed 5/7/09 at Ritz Bourse
Mr. Sasaki has the mentality of a salaryman in an age where downsizing has come even to Japan, and in subtle ways director Kiyoshi Kurosawa draws a parallel between the character and the country. Just as Mr. Sasaki must painfully re-evaluate his life, Japan has had to re-evaluate its place among nations, including participation in military missions. This is more of a subtext than a theme, but worth noting. In fact, the movie as a whole is quiet and contemplative—until the last third or so. Then there is a surprising and strange turn of events that comes out of left field, but makes the movie more compelling, and even serenely beautiful, than it seemed like it would be. A performance of Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” makes a lovely coda.
IMDB link
viewed 5/7/09 at Ritz Bourse
Friday, February 6, 2009
Toyland (**3/4) [2009 Oscar-nominated shorts program]
A mother’s protective lie to explain the neighbors’ disappearance has the boy dreaming of running away to “Toyland.” It’s Nazi Germany, and the neighbors are Jewish. The poignant twist ending (a kind of variation on The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) would have more impact if it didn’t depend on a mass of improbabilities, beginning with the idea that a couple getting taken away to a concentration camp might let the neighbor kid come with, or that he might get on the crammed train.
IMDB link
viewed at Ritz Bourse and reviewed 2/11/09
IMDB link
viewed at Ritz Bourse and reviewed 2/11/09
Friday, November 7, 2008
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (***)
This family film spins the Loch Ness monster myth into a gentle family film about a Scottish boy (Alex Etel, of Millions) and his secret pet. Besides that, the story revolves around a British naval company whose commander seems to think a small village might become a major front in the second World War, the boy’s recently widowed mother (Emily Watson), and a mysterious handyman who helps out both mother and child. Despite all that, and the beast given life via 21st-century effects, the movie is at heart an old-fashioned tale of a time and place where a summer, even during wartime, would allow a young boy time to while away freely.
IMDB link
reviewed 1/11/08
IMDB link
reviewed 1/11/08
Friday, October 5, 2007
The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (*3/4)
Adapted from the second in a series of novels by Susan Cooper, this awkwardly titled fantasy casts little-known Alexander Ludwig as a 14-year-old boy unexpectedly asked to save the world by conducting a five-day scavenger hunt. The Dark Is Rising novel won a Newberry medal, but the story here is condensed into an unconvincing, standard tale of good vs. evil (Light vs. Dark) whose elements seem randomly thrown together. The boy, who lives with his large family in an English village, is American for no apparent reason other than the commercial.
IMDB link
IMDB link
Friday, February 16, 2007
Bridge to Terabithia (***1/2)
? Katherine Paterson’s Newbery Medal-winning novel, published in 1977, is the basis for this story of pre-teen misfits (AnnaSophia Robb and Josh Hutcherson), who become the king and queen of a magical world of imagination. Paterson’s son David, an inspiration for one of the main characters, is one of the two credited screenwriters.
+ The preview for this movie makes it appear to be a pure fantasy movie in the manner of The Chronicles of Narnia. While the imaginary world is explicitly inspired by the C. S. Lewis classic, the story is less about escapism than the need to escape. It’s mostly set in the real world, where suburban middle-schoolers look down on a poor farm kid and a brainy tomboy type. These two main characters are beautifully realized, the sort of precocious kids that nonetheless manage not to seem merely like the miniature adults that you too often see in lesser films. As in last year’s Monster House, this is a story that looks at the middle period of childhood as a time when kids first grapple in a serious way with such issues as religion, loss, jealousy, and guilt. The casting is solid, and Robb (of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Because of Winn-Dixie) particularly stands out as the next-door neighbor who’s the free-spirited daughter of writers who don’t own a TV.
- The fantasy sequences are nice, but perhaps too few.
= ***1/2 A wonderful movie that’s great for parents to watch with children (but not ones much younger than the two main characters, given the subject), or even if they’re not around.
IMDB link
reviewed 2/23/07
+ The preview for this movie makes it appear to be a pure fantasy movie in the manner of The Chronicles of Narnia. While the imaginary world is explicitly inspired by the C. S. Lewis classic, the story is less about escapism than the need to escape. It’s mostly set in the real world, where suburban middle-schoolers look down on a poor farm kid and a brainy tomboy type. These two main characters are beautifully realized, the sort of precocious kids that nonetheless manage not to seem merely like the miniature adults that you too often see in lesser films. As in last year’s Monster House, this is a story that looks at the middle period of childhood as a time when kids first grapple in a serious way with such issues as religion, loss, jealousy, and guilt. The casting is solid, and Robb (of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Because of Winn-Dixie) particularly stands out as the next-door neighbor who’s the free-spirited daughter of writers who don’t own a TV.
- The fantasy sequences are nice, but perhaps too few.
= ***1/2 A wonderful movie that’s great for parents to watch with children (but not ones much younger than the two main characters, given the subject), or even if they’re not around.
IMDB link
reviewed 2/23/07
Friday, November 11, 2005
Zathura: A Space Adventure (***)
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In this adaptation of a book by children’s author Chris Van Allsburg, two brothers play a board game that takes
them on a real-life journey into space. The side story is that the brothers
don’t get along, and the game brings them together even as it threatens to kill
them. This could be corny, but I liked that they seemed like real kids. The
younger one has to ask the older one for help reading the instructions, for
example.
The game is mostly an excuse to present the boys with all manner of
happenings and/or special effects. If it were a real board game, it wouldn’t be
a very good one, and the space world presented in the movie doesn’t represent a
coherent vision. But that’s a quibble. Overall, it’s an appealing fantasy,
reminding me of 1980s movies like Flight of the Navigator and The
Last Starfighter.
circulated via email 11/17/05 and posted 9/25/13
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