ramonproducoes2011 Review of Adventures in Appletown

Adventures in Appletown (2008 Video)

A good movie for a Saturday night

[8/10 · 16 February 2015]

When I saw the title of the movie and the main crew (Sprouse twins) I thought: "It's another teen movie, with two boys trying to solve a mystery, on Scooby Doo style". Yeah, more or less like this, but in some cases I made a mistake. "Adventures in Appletown" or "The Kings of Appletown" as it is know, it's a good movie of mystery, action and adventure.The cousins Will and Clay are very close, but it's clearly seen that Clay have troubles to follow his cousin. They are training to participate of a competition to "hold on the breath", on the local fair. But the boy can't hold the breath for a long time, even with so many trainings. In a good open scene, the director Robert Moresco try to create a connection between the characters and the public. Sequence by sequence we know the life on the small town of Appletown and his residents, and more important, the relation between the two boys. Unfortunately, the director do not tried create a screenplay where the public could discover the personality of the boys. At the first scene we can see the difference. This is a good and a bad thing. The public these days are very accustomed to a "compact screenplay" and have lazy to think. Will it's determined, courage, clever and always take the lead. Clay it's fearful, unsafe and has problems to trust himself. As he says: "I'm not good in nothing", while his cousin can do many things. Suddenly they see themselves in a criminal event occurred on amusement park. A murder occurrence followed by theft. Now as witness, the boys have to choose: tell or not. This is the central thing on the movie. Beyond of that, we know the life of Will and his aunt that constantly try to do Will paint the fence (I remember Tom Sawyer at this sequence – in fact, all the story remember the tale of Mark Twain). The boys decide to solve the mystery and save an innocent. What is more interesting on this film is the relation between Will and Clay. They help each other and Will, even that more clever and strong than his cousin, never give up of him. It's a good movie for a Saturday night and has to pay attention because the mystery is very complex and the resolution can be discovered in the dialogues. The sequence on the Coach's house is very tense and his mom is very scary (the rate gave a PG - and with reason). It's not a movie with complex special effects. No, it's a simple movie about friendship, loyalty and courage to do the right thing. The love interest of Will is other point. Normally on teen movies, the love interest is part of the screenplay but here, it's put on second place. We know he likes her, but this is not exactly a important thing and the movie do not end with a kiss (as normally happen). Congratulations for the director. "Adventures in Appletown" it's still a teenager film, but different from the major movies of this genre. And that was what made me like this film!