There have been countless screen versions of the famous Mark Twain novel on which this movie is based. I have even seen musicals, television series and a Russian version, to name a few. They have been of variable quality. I suspect, if you are not a Mark Twain fan and have never seen one of the classic movies based on this book, then you may find this movie acceptable. To be honest though, this has to be one of the worst versions of the book ever made.
That's hardly surprising, because it is obvious that this was chiefly made, not to bring the famous book to a new generation, but to cash in on the popularity of the two young stars. As a consequence, many liberties are taken with the plot - the most nauseating being the attempt to depict a romance between Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher, something that didn't exist in the book and which would have been unthinkable for the 'real' Tom. The makers are none-too-careful about keeping the dialogue correct for the time. Tom and Huck constantly refer to each other as 'buddies' and Tom constantly calls his friend 'Hucky'.
And then there is the acting. Joel Courtney is appealing as Tom and Jake T Austin is a bit wooden but acceptable as Huck. Both are miscast though. It is in the adults, however, that the most egregiously bad acting is seen. In fact, I will go so far as to say that there is not one good actor in the bunch. The only one you will have heard of is Val Kilmer who, under many layers of make-up, plays Mark Twain. The chap who plays Injun Joe sounds like a New York Gangster. The man who plays Tom's teacher is just awful!
One red flag I didn't see till the credits rolled was that this movie was written, directed and produced by the one person. That's often a danger sign, only exceeded by having the family members of this person in the case. It was certainly a danger sign in this case.
Like I said, if you've never read Tom Sawyer, if you have never seen any of the many, many better movies then you may find this acceptable. If you're not in that group, give this a miss.
