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Arizona Summer (2004)
A Collision of Genres - Teen Movies & Kid Movies Don't Mix
8-year-old Brent (Gemini Barnett) is sent off, for the first time, to the summer camp where his big brother, 16-year old Brooke (Scott Clifton), is a Counsellor. Brooke is at the age where girls are very important, but Brent is just a precociously confident, fun-loving boy who is also a master of the yo-yo. Both brothers are troubled by the same bullying Counsellor, Mike (Shane Van Dyke), and young Brent revels in getting the better of him. The film also stars Lee Majors in a laid-back role as the summer camp's owner / manager, Bug Hall appears as a Counsellor, and David Henrie (think Selena Gomez's older brother, Justin, in the TV series "Wizards Of Waverly Place") plays a bullying kid who calls himself "Bad" (an early victim is his own real-life younger brother, Lorenzo Henrie, playing Jerry). The uneven nature of the movie explains why it didn't get proper big-screen distribution in the USA, where it ended up as a DVD release (in the dreaded "standard screen" format) over two years after being made.
Apart from a minor thread about father-son bonding, the story is roughly split between focussing on big brother Brooke's problems dealing with the bullying Mike while competing for the same girl, Donna (Michelle Holgate), and also focussing on the mischievous, cocksure younger brother Brent protecting other kids his age and standing up to bullying from whatever direction. There lies the fault of the film, by trying to be both a teen and a kid's movie, it simply doesn't work, at least in one direction as kids will get bored during the extended, slower-paced "teen" segments. There are some good fun moments and maybe it qualifies as a family movie, overall it is good-natured enough, but don't be surprised if the youngsters get restless in places. Incidentally, Gemini Barnett was probably 13 at the time of filming, and certainly doesn't convince as an 8-year-old, although otherwise his performance is one of the stronger features of the production.
Made in Dagenham (2010)
The Best Of British ... Acting
In England, in 1968, the Ford Motor Company employed over 50,000 men at its giant car factory in Dagenham, Essex, on the Eastern border of London by the River Thames. They also employed a few hundred women, many of them sewing machinists in the upholstery department, but paid less than the men for equivalent work skills. When management reclassified the women as "unskilled", they went on strike, and despite enormous financial, domestic and political pressure, including from their own trade union, they held out until they won their cause. The action also led to the passing of the Equal Pay Act, to help right the disparity between men and women's wages.
This is a very British, or rather English film, but so well made on a modest budget that wider audiences should be able to enjoy it. It manages to capture the flavour of the late 1960s through careful location shots, and the cast is superb, led by Sally Hawkins, very ably supported by well established actresses Geraldine James and Miranda Richardson, the latter contributing a star turn as Labour cabinet Minister Barbara Castle. On the male side, Bob Hoskins is perfectly cast (for a change) as a Trade Union Shop Steward, the reliable Kenneth Cranham plays the same, while John Sessions enjoys himself as the oleaginous Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Daniel Mays plays a long-suffering husband, and fans of the TV series "The Walking Dead" may just recognise Rick Grimes, actually Andrew Lincoln, as the dismissive school teacher at the start of the trailer. Despite being undoubtedly a "feminist" film, it owes its existence to an idea by producer Stephen Woolley, and it was written, directed and edited by men, all very sympathetically. I wholeheartedly recommend the film, which both entertains and tells a true story of perseverance.
Message in a Cell Phone (2000)
A nicely paced Family & Kids Comedy-Action-Crime-Drama movie
Chase's father, a policeman, is wrongly imprisoned. A few month's later, during Summer break, Chase (Nick Whitaker) answers a call on a mislaid cell phone and an adventure begins, aided by his two pals, Mac and Jeremy (James Laub & Robbi Merrill). Conveniently for the plot, the owner of the cell phone is tied up with the baddies responsible for Chase's dad being in prison, and someone is desperate to get the phone back because of the incriminating information it can access.
This is a well-made children's comedy-action-crime-drama, well-paced, good acting (particularly young Nick Whitaker in the lead role), and some decent moments of suspense and tension. It is suitable as a family movie, otherwise it should keep a wide range of kids happy for the duration.
Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn (2014)
Mark Twain's classic story destroyed in a train-wreck of a movie
I love the Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn stories, and have collected as many filmed versions as possible, including updated ones. When this DVD appeared, I had high hopes of its content because of the presence of Jake T. Austin & Joel Courtney, both likable and very capable young actors. Oh dear, what a mess it turned out to be, adapted and directed by Jo Kastner from Germany, and filmed in Bulgaria. It was clear from the start that Kastner had little cultural grasp on Mark Twain's small town, mid-West American world in the middle of the 19th Century, nor any grasp whatsoever of pace and depth in presenting the characters and story. It is an express train journey through "Tom Sawyer", with a bit of "Huckleberry Finn" pointlessly stuck on the end, with no time to explore or indulge in the unfolding scenes. The inclusion of Val Kilmer (doubtless for "star" appeal) portraying the author Mark Twain wasted valuable time which should have gone into the main plot.
Whilst Joel Courtney did his smiling best in the role of Tom Sawyer, Jake T. Austin played Huckleberry Finn at best with detachment if not actually in a continuous sulk, perhaps aware of the poor material he was made to perform and unhappy being in Bulgaria, a backward Eastern European country far away from the Mississippi. Katherine McNamara was a poor choice as Becky Thatcher, and the rest of the casting was a mess, not least an insipid Injun Joe. The 2011 German language "Tom Sawyer" film is infinitely more enjoyable, even with the language barrier, and if you want a highly watchable and authentic telling of "Tom Sawyer", the 1938 film starring Tommy Kelly holds up very well, as does the semi-musical version from 1973 starring Johnny Whitaker. In short, avoid this German/Bulgarian disaster movie like you would food poisoning.