This film does depend too heavily on various "stink" jokes, but the performances are generally strong.
The father-son relationship is well portrayed, especially by Cuba's father (Richard Gant). It could use more convincing development of the motivation for the "loss" that haunts Cuba's character so many years later. However, Lance (L. Munro) is a good, bad-guy.
Paul Rae, who plays Cuba's sidekick is impressive. I've seen him called a John Goodman clone, but other than in general appearance, that isn't true. Rae gives a subtle performance that goes far beyond the usual fat-guy role.
Fred Savage does a good job with the kids. All of the are realistically cute, without being over-the-top. Tyger Rawlings is good as the "bully", but I worked several days on this shoot and Tyger is a natural comedian. He could carry a leading comedy role with ease.
A bit of trivia -- it was very cold and raining or snowing most of the days the competition scenes were shot. If you watch the trees, you'll see increasing numbers of leaves that have turned yellow or red from the frost. The scenes shot on a few days had to have low angles to keep the snow from showing.
The father-son relationship is well portrayed, especially by Cuba's father (Richard Gant). It could use more convincing development of the motivation for the "loss" that haunts Cuba's character so many years later. However, Lance (L. Munro) is a good, bad-guy.
Paul Rae, who plays Cuba's sidekick is impressive. I've seen him called a John Goodman clone, but other than in general appearance, that isn't true. Rae gives a subtle performance that goes far beyond the usual fat-guy role.
Fred Savage does a good job with the kids. All of the are realistically cute, without being over-the-top. Tyger Rawlings is good as the "bully", but I worked several days on this shoot and Tyger is a natural comedian. He could carry a leading comedy role with ease.
A bit of trivia -- it was very cold and raining or snowing most of the days the competition scenes were shot. If you watch the trees, you'll see increasing numbers of leaves that have turned yellow or red from the frost. The scenes shot on a few days had to have low angles to keep the snow from showing.