Movie Review - Son of Rambow (2007)

***Available on DVD***

starring Bill Milner, Will Poulter, and Jules Sitruk

Written and directed by Garth Jennings

The premise in this one is incredibly simple.  When Will (Milner), a young boy whose strict religion does not permit him to watch tv or go to movies, meets up with bad boy Lee (Poulter), they decide to make a movie inspired by Rambo: First Blood.  The odd pairing starts off on shaky ground, but they soon discover that they quickly become friends and have more in common than they'd thought.

I went into this little British comedy with high expectations for some reason and it unfortunately didn't live up to them.  It's certainly not because of the actors.  Both young stars Milner and Poulter are quite good...Milner in particular.  A simple smile from Milner made me laugh.  

The problem is that there's really not much to the film.  It's cute, but there's nothing there.  There's very little conflict here to drive the story and it makes the quick 90-minute film drag.  While there are certainly some very creative scenes in the film (particularly when Will's imagination is "displayed" on screen), for the majority of the running time, every shot is too simple.  It just is there...kind of blah.  And blah is exactly how I felt when it was over.

If you want an excellent British flick involving kids, check out Danny Boyle's Millions...there's a winner.  Son of Rambow, not so much.

The RyMickey Rating: C-