Bogus

Quite a good movie, describing the case of a traumatized child who makes up a "secret friend" to help him survive in an unfriendly world. Having his foster godmother Harriet Franklin start to see and hear Bogus, the invisible friend, is harder to accept...despite the fact that she too was once a small child with (presumably) a similar burden.

Placed next to all the cliff-hanger world-threatening scenarios of many blockbuster movies, the story of a small child's trying to come to grips with his mother's death may seem somewhat trivial. But unlike those other flicks, it has the redeeming feature of being true to life. Despite the make-believe title character, the story itself is very down-to-earth (with only the exception noted above).

What a sweet movie! It makes you wish that you were a kid again. I would gladly be seven years old once more if it meant welcoming Bogus in the form of Gerard Depardieu into my life! He was fantastic. The relationship he has with the little boy is touching without being overly sentimental, and he gives the boy exactly what he is looking for - warmth and friendship and is everything a friend (imaginary or otherwise) should be. It brought tears to my eyes one minute and made me giggle the next!

In my opinion, this film is equally entertaining for adults as well as young children, since it reminds us adults that imagination is such an important part of our lives! This film is perhaps reminiscent of "Drop Dead Fred" which sees a grown woman being comforted by her childhood imaginary friend in a time of crisis. But this movie is far, far better done if you ask me.

So for all you hardened adults out there, lighten up! This movie will help you to embrace the child within!

There have been critics that dismiss Bogus as overly-sentimental cods wallop, but after seeing it for myself I actually disagree. While sometimes univolving in terms of story, this fantasy film about a young lonely orphaned boy befriending a seemingly-imaginary man never fails to be pleasant and charming. It is beautifully filmed, with lush cinematography and lovely scenery. And I liked the music as well. The direction is pretty solid, and there are some very poignant moments. The performances are not at all bad, Haley Joel Osment undoubtedly gives the strongest one of the lot, while looking extremely cute he does convince in the delivery of his lines and in his face. Gerard Depardieu gives a very pleasant and whimsical characterisation as the imaginary friend, however if his character was perhaps more complex he would've been more memorable. Whoopi Goldberg gives her usual standard of performance, a woman with attitude, yet with a soft side to her, and that is exactly what her character Harriet is like. However, the film while nicely performed and meaning well, is weighed down by an uninvolving story and a sometimes weak script. And there are some problems with the pace, I found the middle half rather slow for my liking. All in all, undemanding but pleasant and charming, and in some ways misunderstood too. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I can't believe there are bunch of people saying this movie is not really good. I thought it was original and its casual self. It didn't need to be changed in any way. It was funny, bright, happy, and a crowd-pleaser. It can make anyone smile and there was never a chance I would say this movie is bad. It has imagination, reality, and everything mixed in. The ingredients are good and well done the actors were really good and had a sense-of-humnor. You can tell nobody forced them to be like that and you can actually see they are their own self. Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost) does a good preformance and Haley Joel Osment, future Oscar nominee (The Sixth Sense) was also really good. And whoever played Bogus, Gerand .... was also really good and I find him funny and would like to know more about him cause he's got talent and I bet he knows it! I like this movie and this is actually a very fresh and funny film for family movie night and it's a very good selection. When you go to Blockbusters someday, try to look for Bogus!

It is extremely rare that I stop on any movie while channel-surfing. This one caught my eye because of Haley Joel Osmont...this kid was amazing even at five years old! And of course Whoopi is great as always. I even liked Gerard in this one...he generally just rubs me the wrong way in his other movies for some reason. He was perfectly cast as Mr. Bogus.

This movie will be magical for those who remember (or who need to remember) those imaginary friends which got us through various growing pains. It is sweet, light-hearted, and rates 10 out of 10 on the "warm-fuzzy" factor. Even my husband thought it was cute, and he's not normally into these kind of movies. Loved it!