A potentially disposable, tongue-in-cheek First Blood pisstake turns out to be a deeply effective, surprisingly touching tale of family and childhood friendship. If you only see one Rambo movie this year, make sure it’s this one.
Son of Rambow (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:115
Fresh:85
Rotten:30
Average Rating:6.8/10
Consensus: Undeniable heart and charming young leads save the film's nostalgic storyline from suffering at the hands predictability.
Theatrical Release:04-04-2008
Synopsis: Writer-director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith, who as Hammer & Tongs have made music videos for such groups as Fatboy Slim, Supergrass, Blur, and REM, follow up their 2005 film, THE... Writer-director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith, who as Hammer & Tongs have made music videos for such groups as Fatboy Slim, Supergrass, Blur, and REM, follow up their 2005 film, THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, with the charming indie SON OF RAMBOW, a love letter to the movies. A success at such festivals as Toronto and Sundance, SON OF RAMBOW stars Bill Milner as Will Proudfoot, a shy, reserved young boy who is different from the other kids because his family is part of the Brethren, a religion that shuns the outside world, not allowing him to have friends at school or to watch television. While in the hallway in school one day because he can't watch an educational film in class, Will gets into a fight with Lee Carter (Will Poulter), a tough kid who gets into trouble all the time. Lee forces Will to help him make a homemade version of the Sylvester Stallone film FIRST BLOOD, but after watching the original, Will is captivated by the movie and writes his own sequel, casting himself as the son of Rambow (he misspells the name of the character). Will and Lee use their imagination and lots of grit to get the project off the ground, bonding as only blood brothers can. But soon the entire school wants to participate in the movie, including ultra-cool French exchange student Didier Revol (Jules Sitruk), jeopardizing the integrity of the production as well as Will and Lee's growing friendship. Milner and Poulter, both making their feature-film debuts, are engaging as the lead characters. Jennings sets SON OF RAMBOW in the 1980s, before cell phones, digital cameras, and YouTube changed the way people communicate. Amid a soundtrack that includes music from such seminal period bands as The Cure and Depeche Mode, the two young boys learn about family and friendship, jealousy and ego as their carefully controlled worlds threaten to implode. [More]
Starring: Will Poulter, Bill Milner, Jules Sitruck, Charlie Thrift
Starring: Will Poulter, Bill Milner, Jules Sitruck, Charlie Thrift, Jessica Stevenson, Neil Dudgeon
Director: Garth Jennings
Director: Garth Jennings
Screenwriter: Garth Jennings
Producer: Nick Goldsmith
Composer: Joby Talbot
Studio: Paramount Vantage
Reviews for Son of Rambow
You'd have to be a bigger cynic than Richard Dawkins not to have your cockles warmed by this gem.
A bright and very silly film with solid, provocative themes that really stick with us.
Integrates its slapstick genre pastiche into a thoughtful story about peer pressure, neglect and yearning
If you, too, are a son of Rambow, or are from the era of The Lone Ranger or even the Power Rangers, this movie calls to you.
All part of growing up, an experience Son of Rambow portrays with genuine insight.
Son of Rambow maintains just the right tone throughout with its guileless, makeshift charm.
This quite charming film does have a strangeness about it; you feel that not all the pieces fit comfortably together.
Son of Rambow is half a great movie. At its best, it is a comic epic for half-pints.
(Son of Rambow) is definitely a movie out of left field, but it does have some pretty funny laughs and does make you feel really tingly inside.
Funnier than anything in this vaguely dark comedy is the thought of [Sly] Stallone sitting through it.
It’s cute and it’s funny and its comic view of adolescence as a series of changed alliances and curfew violations is, for the most part, refreshingly free of sentimental cant.
This Sundance hit is as clever and charming as you hope it will be, though, regrettably, not consistently so.
A delightfully eccentric fantasy, flush with laughs and displays of fantastical ink-stained escapism; an unforgettable triumph of heart and giggles. One of the few assuredly must-see films of 2008.
It's really a touching kids movie about youthful imagination and family values. That's not what I wanted!
It would be dishonest of me to say that it's more than an endearing, well-acted trifle with lovely intentions.
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