Greetings again from the darkness. The Sundance favorite is finally making the rounds and I found this to be a very entertaining and charming film, despite its relative simplicity.
A semi-autobiographical piece from writer/director Garth Jennings ("The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"),the film focuses on the escapades of two young boys making a movie. Along the way, many topics are addressed ... family, religion, friendship, loyalty, idol-worship, etc.
Bill Milner (as Will Proudfoot) and Will Poulter (as Lee Carter) are the newcomers who play the boys. Poulter is a near reincarnation of River Phoenix as Chris Chambers ("Stand By Me") as he carries so much bottled up emotion stemming from his longing for attention. Milner's character is the more sensitive, creative type being suffocated by his family's religion. Quite a pair.
As a commentary on film and celebrity, the two boy's world is rocked when their film-making is discovered. Now everyone wants a piece including the French exchange student, Didier, played hysterically well by Jules Sitruk. Character issues to follow!
The boys are so endearing that most kids would enjoy the film and certainly most adults who were still growing up in the 80's will get a kick out of it.
Son of Rambow
2007
Action / Adventure / Comedy / Drama / Family
Son of Rambow
2007
Action / Adventure / Comedy / Drama / Family
Plot summary
"Son of Rambow" is the name of the home movie made by two little boys with a big video camera and even bigger ambitions. Set on a long English summer in the early 1980s, "Son of Rambow" is a comedy about friendship, faith, and the tough business of growing up. We see the story through the eyes of Will, the eldest son of a fatherless Plymouth Brethren family. The Brethren regard themselves as God's 'chosen ones' and their strict moral code means that Will has never been allowed to mix with the other 'worldlies,' listen to music or watch TV, until he finds himself caught up in the extraordinary world of Lee Carter, the school terror and maker of bizarre home movies. Carter exposes Will to a pirate copy of "Rambo: First Blood" and from that moment Will's mind is blown wide open and he's easily convinced to be the stuntman in Lee Carters' diabolical home movie. Will's imaginative little brain is not only given chance to flourish in the world of film making, but is also very handy when it comes to dreaming up elaborate schemes to keep his partnership with Lee Carter a secret from the Brethren community. Will and Carter's complete disregard for consequences and innocent ambition means that the process of making their film is a glorious roller-coaster that eventually leads to true friendship. They start to make a name for themselves at school as movie makers but when popularity descends on them in the form of the Pied Piper-esque French exchange student, Didier Revol, their unique friendship and their precious film are pushed, quite literally, to breaking point.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
I'll Pray for you Lee Carter
A film about two very unlikely friends...and their movie.
"Son of Rambow" is a cute and enjoyable film. However, it's one that has an amazingly unlikely ending and it has a few loose ends...but on balance it is worth seeing.
Will is a young boy who appears to be about 8 years-old who is very sad and lonely. This is because his family are members of an ultra-religious sect and Will isn't allowed to do many of the things other kids do. However, oddly, his mother sends him to school with other kids....kids who are NOT from this same religious order. But being an oddball, he's mostly alone...that is until he meets Lee Carter, the kid who's been voted most likely to go to prison before he reaches puberty!
So what do these two boys have in common? Well, they both want to make a movie....a sequel to "Rambo: First Blood"...and making films and hanging with this 'bad kid' is a serious breech of the rules for Will. And, what does a weird French foreign exchange student have to do with all this?
The film has some charming moments and the child actors did a very nice job. But the final portion of the film, while enjoyable, makes no sense and seems more formulaic than intelligently made. Still, it's a cute little film....and there aren't too many like it.
Quietly emotional, and well-judged
SON OF RAMBOW is a light and engaging little rites-of-passage tale set in the 1980s. The youthful protagonists are a pair of mixed-up kids entranced by a pirate video of the Stallone hit FIRST BLOOD, so they decide to shoot their own version of Rambo in the woods. The story gets complicated by the intervention of various other oddball characters, including a flamboyant French exchange student and a Christian sect. I was pleased to see that as a buddy movie this has no needless romance tacked onto the story. It's best watched to enjoy the breakout talents of Will Poulter, who, as with THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, is the best thing in the movie and quite the superb actor even at an early age.