neiljones1981 Reviews

The Bad Education Movie (2015)

Not Bad But...

[6/10 · 13 September 2022]

I loved the TV show that was the inspiration for this spin-off. History will tell you that many UK TV shows that appeared on the big screen were lacklustre and had premises that didn't quite work.

Bad Education pretty much has the same thing really, a situation comedy in a school that goes "outside" on a field trip to Cornwall. Not all sitcoms have the ability/option to be stretched out into a 90 minute film.

The Bad Education Movie can use the premise of a field trip to go outside the classroom, which helped to make it a better film that it probably otherwise would have been had it been stuck in the confines of the classroom/school as the TV show was. So in a nutshell Alfie Wickers is the teacher described for the TV show as "the worst teacher ever to grace the British education system" - and he doesn't get any better here.

The first half of the film is your classic Bad Education format/formula. The second half it's fair to say probably isn't to a large extent. The whole saga of the Cornish Independence thing was quite dragging for a start, though it was interspersed with various things that wouldn't have looked out of place on the TV show ("Pube or Dare" being the obvious example here).

That being said, not a bad effort but you get the impression they ran out of ideas at the halfway point and had to pinch a few ideas from the TV show (by the time the movie came out the TV show had just finished its third and final series) to keep it going.

Rampage (1986 Video Game)

Rampaging Fun

[7/10 · 12 September 2022]

I played this on the 8-bits, specifically the Amstrad, and seeing it featured in 8-Bit Christmas (albeit on the NES) reminded me of it.

And I loved it. Who doesn't love at the age of eight thumping the crap out of anything and everything that moved? And to top it all buildings can fall down too if you thump them enough too.

Yes it was never as addictive as Pac-Man or going to be as cultural as Mario/Sonic/insert name of other major computing character/series here, but for a good 10/15 minute blast of fun you could have done far worse in the 1980s.

Okay the computer AI (particularly on the Amstrad version of this game) was a bit hit and miss in single player mode and sometimes it felt like you were the only one doing anything useful contributing to the rampage but at least you could thump them for doing something stupid, even if they never learnt :)

Airplane! (1980)

Looks Like I Picked The Wrong Week...

[9/10 · 22 April 2022]

Airplane! Is quite surely one of the best disaster spoof movies ever made. From the minds of the Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker trio (who also would go on to Police Squad and the spin-off Naked Gun films, as well as the two Hot Shot films), this is absolutely brilliant and appeals to my sense of humour. Okay it was near enough a total rip off of 1957's Zero Hour (even down to the dialogue!) with extra elements, but that's the benefit when the production company who made this also owned that.

Airplane stands up to repeated viewing not only for humour purposes but even though I've seen this more times than I care to remember and I'm always finding new visuals that I missed previously on the next viewing.

It was a twist of genius to take then serious actors like the great and much missed Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges and Peter Graves and have them play their characters straight while insane things were going on around them.

If you liked Naked Gun and Hot Shots, you'll love this, as its pretty much the same humour in a new environment.

And don't call me Shirley.

Atlantis Untold (2019)

Hmm...

[4/10 · 21 April 2022]

Not entirely sure what to make of this which has appeared on Amazon Prime recently.

Its not entirely clear what's going on or what's supposed to be going on, as the story seems a bit thin and has somehow managed to stretch to 110 minutes. It just seems to be a illogical disjointed mess of various effects (mostly done bad), flashbacks, random cuts and just general "what the deuce?" moments. Seems badly edited as well.

The use of green screen is painfully obvious in many scenes (particularly in anything that involves water). Green screen on its own is a legitimate technique to sell the illusion but here its done badly and it screams green screen the second you clamp eyes on it.

With a low production budget. It was obvious casting was going to run off to a local school somewhere and find children who's only acting experience was in the school play, and boy does it show here, with the same monotonous flat delivery on every line. Fine for the school play but otherwise...

If I had any idea what was actually going on here in this production. I may have said its a shot to nothing viewing wise. I could probably forgive all the film's other faults due to budget but the killer for me is the bad green screen used throughout. If it had been a handful of the key scenes I probably would have let it go. But as it affects all the green screen scenes, I can't.

Sorry. Better luck next time.

Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (2016–2017)

Delightful

[7/10 · 16 February 2022]

This was waved at me on Amazon Prime and was a wonderful treat to see.

I haven't seen the original 1970s series (though I dare say there are ways and means in the 21st century), so I don't have anything to compare this to but on its own.

Basic premise boils down to two boys meet a loveable little sea creature by the name of Sigmund (hence the title) and things basically boil down to their pulling out all the stops so that Sigmund (and the rest of his dysfunctional family) are not discovered by sea-monster obsessed Captain Barnabus.

Sigmund himself is ridiculously adorable (when the whole suspension of disbelief thing has done its job for a while) and the show therefore should have lasted longer than seven episodes. But on a positive note, its nice to see actual physical costumes for something like this - it would be so easy to CGI Sigmund, his family (and most things here actually) so kudos for that.

Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)

Wow. Just.. Wow (and not in a good way)

[4/10 · 12 November 2021]

And here we go again. So-called "Home Alone 6", the franchise that keeps being added to for reasons that nobody can remember.

Released on so-called "Disney+ Day" as a Disney+ Original, Home Sweet Home Alone to give it its actual title does what it says on the tin - a boy is left home alone by accident (through parents having made a hash of planning/leaving/rounding everybody up and then not noticing for quite some time they're missing a body. Meanwhile said kid ends up having to to booby trap the whole establishment to inflict some pain on some intruders.

Regrettably if this is designed to entice people into Disney+ then you can probably be forgiven for thinking Disney+ is full of this sort of material, the rehashing of "classics" and the butchering of archive material. But that's for another day.

Archie Yates gets the mantel for the lead character in a Home Alone (titled) film (probably off the back of his appearance in JoJo Rabbit), and does a decent effort with the material he's been served, but realistically even if Macaulay Culkin was still ten years old today he'd struggle to do much with this as well. I dare say any child actor who was cast would create a miracle out of the script.

Unfortunately adding John Williams' Home Alone score and music cues doesn't make it a Home Alone movie, neither does sticking booby traps in a house, some bad guys and an insane amount of pain. No there has to be something else. This doesn't have it, and so it'll just be the latest in the line of dreary Home Alone wannabes without any concept of what made the first (and second) film work.

On the positive side, this is still better than the fourth film (which is hardly difficult), but it sits in my eyes quality wise between the fourth and fifth film. I believe I said in a previous review (for the fifth film) something along the lines of "this doesn't get anywhere near Home Alone 1 and 2 and I'll be surprised if any future additions to this franchise get anywhere near them". So I was right then :)

Might be worth a watch to see what all the fuss is about but be warned: its a painful slog.

Tom and Jerry (II) (2021)

Probably Closer To The Original Cartoons, But Still Quite Good On Its Own

[7/10 · 4 September 2021]

There is no denying it, Tom & Jerry is one of the greatest cartoons ever made. Originally made in the 1940s and 1950s, the original cartoons are probably some of the most violent variations on "cat chases mouse" ever made. Of course as time goes by, efforts are made to tone down the violence and make the duo more family friendly.

With every new variation, the characters move from tormenting the crap out of each other with axes, knives, dynamite and whatever else, toward what can probably be better described as organised chaos and who can make the bigger mess. We saw it in the Gene Deitch cartoons, the Chuck Jones cartoons and every later cartoon tamed them back.

This new 2021 movie is closer in terms of the basic Tom & Jerry "chase" formula that worked for 160 odd episodes in the 1940s/50s, but Is the 2021 film better than the 1992 film ? Easily. That tried to be clever, and failed miserably. Here the cat & mouse duo can have their fights, their chases, their whatever else and it doesn't look too far out of place from the original cartoons. Yes they look different (how could they not?) and know social media but they still feel familiar.

Yes in the movie Tom might not attempt to chop Jerry in half with an axe and Jerry might not feed Tom through a clothes mangle (kids, ask your parents or grandparents :)), but then again this is 2021, they were never going to do that anyway. The new style antics are very slapstick, never terminal (but then they weren't first time round either) but still fun.

I will admit I thought I was going to be disappointed with this. I'm glad to say I wasn't. Tom & Jerry has never really suited a long form storyline and I suppose its one of those things that there will never be a perfect script for them. But this wasn't bad.

Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed (2021)

Certainly Not A Happy Little Accident

[6/10 · 25 August 2021]

The new Netflix documentary on Bob Ross landed recently, and upon viewing comes across as being a little bit dry and revealing little that we didn't already know about the man.

The Joy of Painting ran for over 30 seasons - 400 episodes - in the 1980s and 1990s, although most of them were back to back. The show ended in 1995 after the passing of Bob Ross.

The problem with the documentary format is you have to have an interesting subject to start with, and if its about a person, there has to be some form of "twist" that crops up. The Bob Ross story basically boils down to former military man starts painting on TV in a whispering style, becomes effectively an institution and the legacy after he passes remains.

While the legacy does remain, its not uncommon unfortunately for deceased famous people (or their estates) to become embroiled in problems years after their passing so I'm not entirely sure what the "twist" is here.

The documentary is interesting for some back story on Ross and the Joy of Painting series, but beyond that, you're left with the impression from the documentary that there's a story that has to remain untold.

We Can Be Heroes (II) (2020)

Typical Rodriguez Fare

[6/10 · 28 December 2020]

For reasons that are lost to the mists of time, I've ended up sitting through various Rodriguez productions (including the entire Spy Kids series, the later Sharkboy film and then this that was waved at me on Netflix) and to be honest they all blend into one after a while. They're all obviously cheap and cheerful green screen productions with some CGI thrown in for good measure and this appears to be a Rodriguez trend - make them quickly, cheaply and get them ready before the promotions department has woken up. This may have a place in some areas but whether its right for the target audience for younger Rodriguez films is up for debate.

So We Can Be Heroes is now available to view on Netflix. Its more straight than Sharkboy was, let's put it that way. I think you need to go into these sort of films with an open mind and be realistic as to what you're going to get out of it. Its not a bad film, its a bit of light hearted fun and you could do far worse. Its a relative unique thing to have somebody like Rodriguez who writes, produces and directs his own films, so if nothing else they're probably closer to the Rodriguez vision than your normal production cycle of somebody writes it, somebody else directs, somebody else produces, somebody else does this that and the other and the need to compromise tends to mean you end up with something that works, but doesn't please everybody.

Tooted as a sequel to Sharkboy, it has about as much connection to Sharkboy as I have to quantum physics. There is little here that you haven't seen before considering the target audience, but I would say if you liked Rodriguez's other child-friendly films like Spy Kids and so on, you'll probably like this.

Dolphin Kick (2019)

Pretty much what Bernie The Dolphin/Dolphin Tale would look like on the cheap

[4/10 · 12 November 2020]

Recommended by "the algorithm" at Netflix, Dolphin Kick follows the story of a family missing the mother and a boy who has stopped swimming because of that. Boy meets dolphin, dolphin gets boy back into water . Fairly predictable where its going to go next.

On a budget of next to sod all, it looks pretty if nothing else. The location shots/establishing shots are nice, but realistically at this budget point pretty much everything has to give. The script and plot is underdeveloped, the acting relatively ropey and you get the impression everybody has walked out of stage school into this, their first professional role and made a complete hash of it in the process.

On the positive side, the dolphin was adorable and easily the star of the show (cheap to cater for as well). Not a total disaster of a film but realistically you get what you pay for in the end product. It could have been better. No, it should have been better.

Antboy (2013)

Interesting

[6/10 · 9 October 2020]

I'll be honest, I don't give a monkeys about the mainstream "superhero" films, such as those in the so-called Marvel Universal and the DC Universe. I fail to see the appeal myself, but they seem to be in favour at the moment and generate bucketloads of cash at the Box Office so what do I know?

Outside of this mainstream sphere, we have everybody else and lesser known superheroes. Such as Antboy. Which could be described as a total rip-off of Spiderman even down to how the kid gets his Ant powers. Based on a Danish comic of the same name, this Dutch production is clearly as cheap as chips but yet managed to look like it had a bit of money thrown at it. It's not a bad little production for what it is, American productions on similar budgets manage to look cheap. This doesn't.

Anyway they must have done something right as this generated two sequels. On Amazon Prime its been dubbed into English. I dare say there may be a version with subtitles floating around too somewhere. It's an interesting slightly quirky take on the superhero genre. I quite enjoyed it. Nothing new here but it was different, if nothing else.

Wonder (I) (2017)

One Of My Favourite Films

[8/10 · 27 August 2020]

Wonder tells the story of Auggie Pullman, a boy born with a a rare medical facial deformity who up until the film begins has been home schooled but the need to go to a real school becomes too great. There we follow the events in Auggie's life as he meets new people, makes new friends and everybody learns acceptance, patience and tolerance.

Like so many films, this is based on a book - the wonderful R J Palacio book of the same name (its a brilliant read and probably available at your local library) - and also like so many films that were based on books, changes were made. Sometimes this is inevitable, because what works on paper doesn't always work on screen and there are perfectly valid reasons for this, but it serves to underline why the book should be read before the film, and not the other way round.

The book describes Auggie's deformity in such a way that it probably looks and sounds worse than it ever could have done in the film. I will admit I was, not "disappointed" as such but I suppose underwhelmed is a better term, compared to the book. But I suppose there was always going to be an element of artistic licence when converting literature to film and you can't please everybody.

This is not a bad adaption of a book compared to some I've seen. It stands up pretty well on its own regardless of whether you've read the book or not beforehand. The message from it though is clear - you can't blend in when you were born to stand out.

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (2020)

Not Your Normal Disney Fodder

[6/10 · 14 August 2020]

Timmy Failure:Mistakes Were Made was the first thing that was waved at me on Disney+ when I took advantage of an offer for the first year at a discounted rate.

Compared to a lot of films aimed at this target audience, this is relatively more intelligent, the tale of a boy the "head" of a detective agency and his companion, a massive polar bear.

An interesting script and a relatively breezy pace makes it worth a watch. A few laughs here and there but there were a few occasions where I wasn't quite sure whether what was going on was Timmy's reality or in his head, so this may be an issue. That aside, not a bad little effort.

Undercover Kids (2004)

Spy Kids On The Cheap. The Very Very Very Cheap. Peanuts In Fact

[2/10 · 6 August 2020]

Actually this makes Spy Kids look like a masterpiece but it was the closest comparison I could think of. Your mileage may vary.

Basic premise boils down to a spot of vandalism and somebody else gets the blame, even though it wasn't them and some smart-arse decrees that this is worthy of his "undercover" agency's time to go and investigate, with the help of telepathic twins and some "gadgets".

While I'm prepared to accept some drop in standards over a full movie due to this being a TV movie/straight to video/DVD (this is par for the course unfortunately since these are tainted with a cheap-and-cheerful reputation at the best of times), this has clearly been cobbled together either very quickly or very cheaply. Or both, and so this results in writing that wouldn't look out of place if it had been done by a Year 10 student for English coursework. The script is full of clumsy dialogue and one gets the impression nobody on camera wants to be here.

Might be one of those "kids under 10 may like it" jobs, but everybody should pick another movie.

Four Kids and It (2020)

Should Have Been Better

[6/10 · 10 April 2020]

Based on Jacqueline Wilson's book of the same name (which was based on E Nesbit's Five Children and It), Four Kids and It is the big sreen adaption of this deriative.

Aside from sounding like a budget version of Five Children and It with one kid missing, it attempts to update the story to a modern standard. Which is all very well but this still comes across as being a bit half-baked.

Like most "issues" with a lot of films, suspect the budget has more of a say than anything else. The "wishes" are lacklustre, flat and as for Russell Brand, well, cliche if nothing else. The kids carry the bulk of the film between them, relatively successfully.

At the end of the day you can't help feeling this is a wasted opportunity. It could have and should have been so much better. Not a total disaster, those who've read the novel (or the original 1902 book) may be disappointed, but those who just jump into films and read the book later if at all may get more out of it.

The Adventures of Jurassic Pet (2019)

Cheap Cash-in But Has A Slight Charm

[5/10 · 6 August 2019]

Jurassic Park had a larger influence on society than ever we expect. Since the 4th Jurassic Park film hit the cinema there's been a wave of other dinosaur themed productions with all kinds of budgets, stories and whatever else banded around since 2015. Dinosaurs are clearly back in fashion.

So we have here the story of a boy who gets given an egg which ultimately turns out to be a dinosaur egg. Boy decides to hatch the egg and the story develops from there, culminating in a basic chase to hide the dinosaur from "bad guys", including (for some reason) hiding it in a forest. Yes its a stereotypical kiddie plotline centered around a dinosaur. Not particularly unusual but not I suspect the last in a chain of cheap dinosaur films while Jurassic Park is pumping out new additions to its franchise.

Unfortunately its been proved before that cheap budgets and CGI dinosaurs do not mix. Films produced on a budget can be semi decent but all too often they're let down by lousy writing and/or lousy acting. Kyler Beck is a relative newcomer and does quite a decent little job steering this vehicle with the material he's given but one gets the impression from the way he "strokes" and "interacts" with the dinosaur that the location of the CGI was either an afterthought or they couldn't make it quite work with the budget they had... Still Beck looks like he's having fun and has been trained well, could be one to look out for in the future.

I have ploughed through a portion of the family films available on Amazon Prime and seen a whole bunch of stuff far worse than this IMO. You could do far worse than Jurassic Pet. Don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed.

3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain (1998)

And Another Franchise Fizzled Out...

[6/10 · 28 June 2019]

I loved the 3 Ninjas franchise when it was new in the early 1990s. The first film was brilliant and the actors actually knew martial arts and what they were doing, all having done it from a young age.

Unfortunately the second and third films were released the wrong way round so you get ninjas with new heads in the second film and the original heads in the third film, and both films were financial disasters.

Despite this somebody for some reason now lost in the mists of time decided they wanted another 3 Ninjas film and the result was 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain. It was filmed in 1996 but not released until 1998, and because kids have this annoying habit of growing up, the characters needed new actors.

Unfortunately the plot was ridiculous. A theme park that's been hijacked and everybody else apart from those paid to speak continue to wander around aimlessly and quietly from ride to ride, as if nothing was up. A common trend in kid movies is bad guys who are blatant morons, yet somehow get themselves attached to an evil overlord who puts up with all this and then wonders why their evil plan falls apart.

It perhaps stands to reason why many films decide a trilogy is enough. By the time a fourth film comes along the concept has usually been milked to death and/or has been handed to writers and cast who have no concept of what went before and try to reinvent things, usually with limited success. While it was plausible that the older Ninja would decide one day that kicking ass wasn't "cool" any more, it wasn't plausible that the middle one would lose in a fight with a lawnmower and end up with that haircut!

Unfortunately the presence of Hulk Hogan, Jim Varney and a brief cameo from Victor Wong can't fix what was always going to be somewhat depressing compared to what came before. The best actors on the planet can't save a bad script. It's not completely unwatchable, it was bearable but ultimately disappointing because it could have been so much better, all of the 3 Ninja sequels could have been. But we are where we are so... Oh well.

Dude, Where's My Dog?! (2014)

What on Earth is Going on?

[3/10 · 28 June 2019]

Dude, Where's My Dog? seems to be the tale of a boy who begs for responsibility, is given an opportunity to show it (by being tasked with taking the dog to the vet and back), blows it and then returns home with a dog that has become invisible because it, um, ate a cheeseburger that happened to become covered in some red liquid that causes this.

Apart from being a ridiculously thin plot stretched out to 82 minutes, it doesn't have a lot else going for it. There must have been something gone wrong somewhere in recent years because you can give film professionals a few million dollars and they produce something like this, whereas I can go on YouTube and find a whole load of amateur productions made on a budget of next to sod all that are much better written. Not always better acted (goes with the territory) but usually better written and sometimes better edited.

The script consists primarily of fart jokes (understandable to an extent considering the target audience but is ultimately a lazy cop out with these sort of movies), clumsy dialogue and some lame characterisation - stereotypically "thick" adult sidekicks with a leader with only slightly more brains than everybody else, but they can all be subdued by somebody doing a really eggy fart and they're all out for the count.

A few interesting ideas here but realistically this just boils down to 82 minutes of nothing happening. I can see that any time I like by looking out of a window at home. Some children may get a small kick out of the fart jokes but I suspect they're going to lose interest very quickly. Still, each to their own. It takes a lot for me to decide that a movie is terribly bad and I have seen worse than this. Far far worse.

The Demon Headmaster (1996–1998)

Deliciously Dark Children's TV

[9/10 · 16 March 2019]

I loved this when I was younger, the central premise of a headmaster character that we didn't like as children resonates with us all. The fact it has now been pushed out on DVD is excellent. Okay it was made in the 1990s so the special effects and some of the props look a bit dated these days (there is sight of a Docking Station in one episode, which were relatively common at the time but would later fall out of fashion as laptops became more sophisticated).

Of course one has to bear in mind that the first two books date originally from 1982 and 1985, so the TV show had to update the technology a bit, and of course time now makes this look old and clunky. Still its retro which is in at the moment so...

Anyway it was a great TV show, so dark and moody, the show was relatively faithful to the books, and Terrence Hardiman was fantastically wonderful as the Headmaster.

Having originally read the books, all bar two of them were adapted for the TV show. The current book coverings paint over all knowledge that there was ever a TV adaptation in the first place. The "Hunky Parker" book was not adapted, probably because it was such a surreal and strange concept in the book it just couldn't work on TV.

Very well recommended. Will be checking out the rebooted version later in 2019 which will probably not stand up to this but we shall see.

Slaughterhouse Rulez (2018)

Misses The Mark

[7/10 · 10 March 2019]

Having followed the social media postings and rave enthusiasms of a couple of cast members from this, I took a gamble and pre-ordered the DVD. In a sign that the postal service isn't a complete waste of time, I got a film on a Saturday that wasn't due out until the following Monday. So that made my day.

Having been filmed in 2017 but not released into cinema until late 2018, Slaughterhouse Rulez was painted by said cast members as being the best thing since sliced bread. The basic principle which as it turned out became relatively topical is the supposed dangers of fracking under buildings. Whether one agrees with such a principle and the methods is for them to decide; news events at the time of writing suggest that fracking is responsible for mini earthquakes. Slaughterhouse Rulez suggests otherwise that the principle disrupts a network of underground "monsters" from an underground labyrinth underneath the grounds of the school featured in the film and so things sort of go from there really.

Unfortunately we have problems already because that principle only covers the last 45 minutes or so of the film. We seem for some reason to have two films stuck together, one of life at Slaugherhouse, the other of getting eaten by monsters at and around Slaughterhouse. The first half of the film supposedly builds up these characters and the fracking and the back story, while later a bunch of monsters come out to play while everybody screams the place down and runs like hell in the other direction.

The pacing and editing of the film particularly in the first half seems to leave a bit to be desired; it comes to something when I can find stuff that's better edited on YouTube by people who do it on a cheap laptop in the back bedroom. I get the feeling something's missing but I'm not sure what it is; some of the subplots were underdeveloped, maybe that was it. The bullying and mentoring of Wootton in particular seemed thrown in for the heck of it. Kit Connor must have drawn the short straw because he spent the first half of the movie having the crap severely bullied out of him, but his character Wootton (and most of the others as well) went to waste later and Connor seemed to just be floating around in his character's wellies of all things trying not to get eaten. That's not Connor's fault, he just did what he was asked to, that's a fault of the writing and/or editing. Asa Butterfield seems to be "in" at the moment, if only for the fact he can still get away with looking like a 14 year old in stuff like this.

Rulez doesn't quite know what it wants to be or what it wants to do. Now I appreciate the cast members I followed were always going to sing this thing's praises to the heavens and back but from an independent point of view this needed more work, it was half baked in many areas. Best piece of advise I would give is to go in not expecting much and you can never be disappointed. If you overlook the flaws and the crap editing and take it for what it is, its quirky and offbeat and it is watchable, its not a total trainwreck.

Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street (2014–2016)

Seriously Impressive

[9/10 · 31 August 2018]

There comes a point in most TV viewer's life where mainstream TV just decides it doesn't want to cater for you any longer. Either you got too old or you've finally wised up. Or you want something different.

One could be forgiven for assuming Gortimer Gibbon is presented as another run-of-the-mill children's show with an improbable plot/sequence of events and a load of incredibly irritating characters who don't talk but shout at each other across some garish looking set (ie any recent Nickelodeon production). Your worries are unfounded because in Gilbert nobody's irritating, the sets are vast majority exterior and any indoor sets are quite nice looking. And the plots are improbable (but grounded in reality) and wouldn't have been too far out of place in Eerie Indiana anyway.

While I am reminded of Eerie Indiana, Gortimer isn't quite as dark as Eerie was, not quite as surreal in various areas as Eerie was and is clearly not trying to be Eerie in new colours. Gortimer at least ties the premise and location down to a street or a specific town maybe, as opposed to Eerie which effectively suggested the entire state was off its trolley.

I hadn't realised when I first wrote this review that this show is not a series of self contained episodes, but each episode runs on after the other with references to past events. Therefore the characters develop beautifully with the programme as they absorb details of whatever happened to whichever kid this time. The three main leads are written from the off as having been best friends forever and a day and it shows here in the writing. No spoilers but the relationships of the kids are regularly tested throughout. One event in one episode in particular (I won't say which one) in any other mainstream show would have ended up in a major bust up that would typically last 90% of the episode. Here it was given something different - a beautiful heartfelt resolution that didn't take up anywhere near that amount of time.

This is not a bad little production, this is the sort of live action stuff Nickelodeon used to churn out in the 1990s, so its nice to see there is still a place for something like this. I must sum up with what creator David Anaxagoras wrote as a comment on his blog in 2016 that I agree with for this show: "I never thought of it as a kid's show. I wrote it for the kid in all of us".

Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)

Quite Enjoyable

[8/10 · 8 July 2018]

Caught the film entirely by accident on TV one day and discovered it to be a good fun adventurous yarn similar in style to Jumanji.

Effectively described as Jumanji in space, the basic premise is an all powerful all knowing board game that one has to play to the end in order to undo everything it does damage wise. In Zathura the game is discovered in the basement with no back story as to how it ended up there, whereas Jumanji had a back story and suggested its chain of events had been going on for well over a hundred years. However the books suggest Zathura was found in a park and it carries on from Jumanji, though the film presents this as an entirely standalone story.

The two lead boys, here a young Josh Hutcherson and Jonah Bobo, carry the film between them easily, naturally and effortlessly. Character wise, Hutcherson and Bobo appear to both bond and wind each other up as brothers do but this relationship and their bickering and arguing becomes a key focal point later in the movie.

Effects wise, much of it works pretty well, though your suspension of disbelief will get shattered if you think too hard about what's going on in the plausibility stakes, especially once the kids open the front door while they're in space, but it's fair to say there is probably more to the powers of Zathura than is let on - possibly a forcefield of some sort that allows them to breathe and for gravity to apply? Wouldn't be unusual in the context of the film, after all Zathura can't be played to completion if its players can't breathe!

Is it better than Jumanji? In some ways, yes. In others, no. Jumanji was financially successful at the box office (and later rebooted) but received crap reviews, whereas Zathura flopped at the box office but received better reviews and will probably not get rebooted.

In summary, I liked this. More than I was probably expecting if truth be told. Very watchable, stands up to repeat viewing and has a genuinely likeable cast to tell its story. Very well recommended.

Santa Hunters (2014 TV Movie)

Doesn't Know What It Wants To Be

[4/10 · 24 March 2017]

Santa Hunters is the story of a boy who gets given a pipe that allegedly belonged to Santa and can't convince people the fat jolly man with the white beard is real. So he and his cousins and nieces go off to try and prove it.

The film starts off looking like it wants to be The Blair Witch Project with plenty of speeches to camera, then later suddenly decides it wants to be Spy Kids (with all the technological gadgets) meets Home Alone (when they glue the windows shut and set up various traps) meets Paranormal Activity (locked off cameras everywhere including for some reason in the fish tank). Every little knock, every little vibration sets off the lead kid to investigate them. They do get their hands on some "proof" but can they use it? As you'd probably expect for the film's target audience there are poo and fart jokes (including an extended scene in the bathroom that combines these two) and some OTT acting which seems to be compulsory for these sorts of films.

If the kids still believe in Santa, they'll be happy. If they don't, well they might get a kick out of Santa falling out the tree-house. Beyond that it's an obvious cheap and cheerful Christmas flick that won't be a classic by any stretch of the imagination but the film isn't particularly bad but not particularly good either.

Against the Wild 2: Survive the Serengeti (2016)

Decent Little Family Adventure

[7/10 · 16 November 2016]

Having had been a Cub Scout leader for four and a half years, I was "introduced" to the world of kids/family films, which for chilling out purposes at the end of stressful days can be a Godsend. Something to watch that I can follow fairly easily over my evening meal. On occasion films in this genre will do the head in of anybody over the age of 12, but Wild 2 isn't one of them.

I will admit I've only seen the trailer for the first Against the Wild film, but looking at that this second film appears to be broadly similar except set in Africa. I'm not sure really if it can be classed as a sequel because the first film's trailer gives me the impression that Against the Wild 2 appears to be a remake of the first film.

Anyway, Wild 2 is the story of two kids (John Paul Ruttan and Ella Ballentine) who have gone out and crash-landed in a plane somewhere in Africa and end up having to survive, as the title says, Against the Wild.

It may not be an original idea but the film is fairly likable, has lots of lovely scenic shots of South Africa and some natural looking scenes of the kids with the elephants. A quick Google will tell you whether the animals are real or not. The ending is pretty much as you'd expect really - the kids either get trampled by an elephant, starve to death or get found by their parents. I made two of these outcomes up. :)

While the two children are likable, the dog (which I understand is the same dog/character from the first film) seems pointless as he/she runs off, leaving the kids to fend for themselves for a large chunk of the movie. Also I suspect the kids (as their characters) are more clued up than they let on with regards to surviving in the wild - but all too often in real life a lot of kids are more knowledgeable about stuff than they let on - certainly the case with the Cubs I worked with a year or two ago, and I'm sure they'd have loved this.

A recommended film. I liked it. Not the greatest film in the world but a great example of a smaller independent film made on a limited budget.

Ghosthunters: On Icy Trails (2015)

Quite Enjoyable Ghostly Adventure

[8/10 · 25 May 2016]

Must admit, I quite enjoyed Ghosthunters: On Icy Trails. Probably more than I was expecting to but there you go.

This is basically the story of a boy who meets a ghost and ends up part of some secret arm/offshoot of the government that basically plays at being Ghostbusters, with the underlying aim to banish the ghost from this world. Or dimension or whatever. The problem is the boy has befriended the ghost and pulls out all the stops to stop his new friend being banished.

Milo Parker plays Tom, the boy who meets and befriends the ghost. He's a brilliant young actor (and I'm not just saying that because he's British like me) and is one to look out for in the future. Here Parker provides a solid performance along his co-stars and the computer generated ghost.

This film, looking at other external links and reviews, doesn't seem to be liked. Seriously, it isn't that bad in my view - if I'm in the minority for this film then so be it. To reuse a phrase from another reviewer on another film I also reviewed: Leave your expectations at the door when watching, don't think too hard about what you're watching (this is often a key requirement if you're watching family/kids movies outside of their target audience) and you'll be fine.