Son of Rambow (2008)

When I saw the title, I was as excited as I would bet you are.

Don't get me wrong, this movie is cool, but it wasn't what I was expecting.

The story starts at a British primary school, on a sleepy morning, I knew this was the setup, this school was about to be rocked by explosions, terrorists, commandos and their mothers.

Nope. It starts telling the story of this little amish-like kid and bully. It's kind of interesting, but I was wondering when the action was coming in, the blood, the ninjas, something. It kept my interest well enough to keep watching.

After a bit, I realized it wasn't going to come, no death and carnage raining down on the unsuspecting British people. But I was pleasantly surprised at the top notch acting, the subtle nuances of the bully, Lee Carter, played by Will Poulter showed acting chops well beyond his age.

In the end there was some satisfying acting, they make fun of the french (one of my favorite pastimes), and a pretty unique and fun story.

It gets an A (for a foreign film)

and an F for the serious lack of murder. It is easily the worst Rambo movie ever made.

Needs more ninjas,
Chad Worthington

Review: Happiness (1998)

Happiness is a movie directed by Todd Solondz and starring an impressive cast of well-known actors such as Phllip Seymour Hoffman (Mission Impossible 3) and Jon Lovitz (Little Nicky).

I was in a bad mood the day I watched this, I had bit my tongue and stubbed my toe at the exact same moment earlier that day, and I needed a pint of chunky monkey and some laughs.

How did things go so wrong.

Writer/Director Todd Solondz needs a dictionary. Happiness is an innapropraite title for this movie. It should have been called "Really Depressing and Morally Corrupt". I had to stop eating my chunky monkey after seeing all these terrible social deviants interact with each other.

I will not go into details, because the memory of this movie still haunts me. Why would anyone want a movie that made them feel bad? If it's not blowing up or making me laugh, it's really not worth my time.

Grade: F

Needs more ninjas,
Chad Worthington