Son of Rambow (PG-13, 2008)

SON OF RAMBOW is inspired by filmmaker Garth Jennings' adolescence as an amateur action-moviemaker in mid-1980s England (see his juvenile work as DVD "extras"). The American action hit First Blood and its hero, Rambo, win some hardcore fans in a UK school, primarily class rascal Lee Carter (Will Poulter), whose parents are divorced and who lives/works largely unsupervised at a nursing home. There he copies bootleg VHS tapes of popular movies for his older brother and aspires to enter a BBC junior-filmmaker contest. Lee cons a quiet, shy schoolmate, Will (Bill Milner), into joining his videotape effort as an actor-stuntman in a backyard takeoff on Hollywood action-war flicks. Will also lost a dad -- to a fatal aneurysm -- and by styling himself as "Son of Rambow," he experiences empowering joy in performing and letting his imagination go wild. But Will and his widowed mom belong to a small, strict Christian community, who forbid his "outsider" friends and antics.

This comedy has a boisterous, high-energy narrative that occasionally morphs into Will's secret daydreams and handmade comics about evil scarecrows and flying dogs. The kids are later able to make these elements "real" in the movie-within-a-movie, showing both a child's joy in exploring filmmaking and imaginary worlds, and a scrawny boy's delight in transforming into a self-sufficient muscleman commando like Rambo.

Still, things get rather hard to follow at times, and a subplot involving a wildly caricatured French exchange student and his sycophants will leave some confused; Is this happening, or is it all in Will's head? While the young actors turn in terrific performances, Will's character seems a little overdone in his childish naivete, and parents in religious households might not like the negative depiction of the latter-day puritans here. Movie puritans, meanwhile, might fume with hellfire and damnation that some of what these boys pull off just wasn't possible with 1980s VHS-tape technology, especially at the ending.

Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director: Garth Jennings
Cast: Bill Milner, Jessica Stevenson, Will Poulter
Genre: Family and Kids
Run time: 96 minutes
Theatrical release: April 4, 2008
DVD release: August 25, 2008
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA explanation: some violence and reckless behavior