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Film Title: Son of Rambow

 Best for ages: 13 and up.

Movie Website: Click Here

Year Released: 2008

Rated: PG-13 (US)  PG (CANADA)

SYNOPSIS

Click Here When a a boy named Will loses his father, his mother decided to join a brethren of people who believe they are God's chosen one's, they pretty much cut themselves off to people who don't believe in their cause and Will is not allowed to be friends with any of the children outside of the brethren.  But fortunately for Will his mother sends him to a public school. Will for some reason can't watch any kind of television even if it's an educational video in school so he's told to sit in the hallway while the rest of the class watches on. While in the hallway he see's a boy get kicked out of class, Lee Carter the school bully. Lee and Will soon become friends when Lee tells Will he will get him out of trouble after the two broke a fish bowl in school. Will follows Lee back to his house, where he learns of Lee's older brother's bootlegging operation. Because Lee does not want his brother to know he's bought a friend home, he makes Will hideout in a boat in their building, while hiding Will is subjected to a bootleg copy of "First Blood" (The first Rambo film). Will loves the film and begins to write a story called Son of Rambo, with a video camera in hand Will and Lee set out on an adventure to make a their first film "Son of Rambow", but the two will have problems along the way as they struggle with their family life and their friendship.

VIOLENCE/GRAPHIC CONTENT/language

   I'm going to be honest with all parents who are thinking about letting their kids watch this one. While on the top it looks like a fun filled film, it is a film that I think might be a bit to much for kids over the age of thirteen. For the many reasons listed below, I'm sure you will understand why.

   Son of Rambow does have it's fare share of violence, not so much with the kids in this film but with the interlaced shots from the film "First Blood", but  I really shouldn't let Son of Rambow get away because it does have plenty of things that can be deemed a violent, such as little fist fights, and pushing and shoving here in there, plenty of bullying, some make pretend guns fights, kids driving and crashing jeeps, and even a scene where a piggy bank is shot with a cross bow while it's sitting on top of Will's head.

 Beside the many scenes that include your basic children fights, the character in this film all do a lot of things that we all know are not right. Such things include stealing, trespassing, disobeying our parents, treating other adults with disrespect, and your basic bullying and making fun of other kids.  Stealing plays a big role in this film as both the boys, especially Lee steal a lot of things from a general store to help with their production of their movie. Lee also pick pockets a few of the teachers at school, and also lies to Will when he tells him he will get him out of trouble if Will gives him his watch. Lee also sneaks into movie theaters with a video camera and records movies, so his brother and him can make bootleg copies and sell them. There is also a scene where one of the French exchange students is heavily kissing all the girls in the school in a attempt to find the perfect girl.

   As far as bad language goes; pretty much every curse word you think of except the "F" word is used in this film, so yes there is some of swearing, but it's not used excessively.

  There is a lot of things in this movie that make it a film that might not be suitable for kids under the age of thirteen, I'm sure there are plenty of more things that I might of have even missed above that can be added, but this is a film that does have it's fare share of violence, graphic content and bad language.

OVERALL VIEWS

   Son of Rambow I found to be an outrageously fun and entertaining movie. Watching this film reminded me a lot of the trouble my friends and I used to get into when we were kids. I grew up in the eighties, and this film take place during that time period. War movies were big back then and many of the films like Rambo, Commando and Platoon where the movies all us kids used to mock, while playing army in the local woods. It's a throw back for any guy who as a kid used to play army in the woods.  The thing about this film however is that it is a bit over the top with many of the things listed above. While I know kids these days are very much like the ones in the films, (And so were we for that matter.) I don't think it's a movie for young kids to watch. This is more of a film for teenagers and adults to enjoy, a movie that makes you feel like a kid again, while throwing in a good story with plenty of great laughs and fun moments. I will however advise that the film does a have a great ending, an ending that does show that even though the boys in the film are always getting into big trouble, the ending of this film brings things full circle and ends on a good moral high note. Overall it's a fun filled film with a great bit of comedy, fantasy and adventure.

   The DVD will be available on August 26th 2008 from Paramount Home Entertainment. The DVD has a few special features such as Commentary by the director, producer and the cast, "Aron" the original short film that inspired "Son of Rambow" A featurette about the making of the film and a lot more... Son of Rambow is a film for teenagers and adults who want to relive the fun days of their youth when nothing mattered but getting dirty with your friends and doing all the things that young boys do.

BUY THIS MOVIE.