I Declare War

Doing a movie with kids is pretty difficult. Only thing that is supposed to be as difficult is handling pets/animals. But this really holds the premise and the promise it is giving the viewer. The actors are young, but they are all really good. Thankfully the script is helping a lot, by not pulling punches and having those kids do things that you wouldn't expect (or maybe you would).

One of the twists is the "fantasy" bit, that you will grow accustomed to pretty quickly. It helps elevate the movie to another level too. Are kids different and what makes them act that way? Thankfully the movie is not blaming something in particular. If your fantasy and your character trades allow it, you will go a certain direction. Really nice movie with a very good story

It's summer time. Neighborhood kids play war in the woods. The guns look real and they seem to fire real bullets in what looks like real warfare. It's imaginary and it's a game. The rivalry heats up and the game turns into something more dangerous.

This is a Canadian indie. It's not really a kids' movie. It's closer to Lord of the Flies with one big difference. The premise of the movie is showing realistic gun fights with their imaginary game. It's an interesting idea, but it does need some work. The movie needs to show the difference between imaginary and reality. There are rules to this game. It needs to explain them. With more clarity, the story behind the concept could be smoothed out.

I really wonder where the comedy part actually was in this movie, as stated in the genre section by IMDb. I rather felt sorry for some of the leading playing figures. I think that P.K. and Skinner would be very interesting study objects for aspiring child psychologists, and eventually could use some proper psychological assistance.

On second thought I ended up watching 90 minutes at a cinematic display of a game played in the woods like scouts members still play. But in this case performed by a group of youngsters with a lot of dangerous imagination. It reminded me sometimes of "The Goonies", but without the pirate ship and without Chunk.

At times the acting was very annoying and amateurish. All the characteristics of a low budget film were there : the same location all the time, endlessly running back and forth in some local woods, no expensive action scenes or props. Personally, I thought P.K. wasn't exactly a textbook example of a leader. He'dd rather gather in the group of most bullied boys at school.

The concept is original. It shows how children experience the adult traits like hatred, jealousy, love, loyalty and friendship. In reality this could also lead to similar incidents, unfortunately. Only the effect is weak and makes this film a slow, boring and totally not emotionally touching film.

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If anyone compares this to stand by me I'd really like to know what they see as the comparison other than it has kids and one of them wears a red shirt that looks like the kid from stand by me shirt. The kids remind me more of south park characters with their style of foul mouth and mean demeanor. Yes there was swearing in stand by me, but it had actual context of bonding and horsing around. You had a sense the kids liked each other. This movie not so much. It's more of a south park effect. It lacks real character connection and any sort of philosophical point. In some sense I think they may have been better off running with more imagination of the war thing, almost like a pans labyrinth, than what they did. The characters were very cliché and over the top. I don't blame the actors for it, I think the kids did a great job, more the script they were handed. It makes the movie hard to watch at points, because the script writing just doesn't hold much reality to how kids really act, which I think was a real strength in stand by me. I wouldn't watch this with smaller kids. But if you are bored and got nothing else to do it's OK.

7.1 of 10. Far more entertaining than the average war film, and far more insightful. It's tempting, and would be too easy, to compare it to Lord of the Flies given the ages fo the combatants. It is a more realistic and more likely version of Lord of the Flies, something that could easily happen in bigger town or distant suburb, maybe South Park in the 6th or 7th grade or Kids (1995) 3 years earlier and a 100 miles north of New York City. Part of the enjoyment is that it does set itself apart from most of the common teen/child story lines.

Outside of some annoyances involving actions and characters that seem to be stretching reality or purely for sex appeal to naive tweens (the power bra wearing 13ish girl), it immerses and continues to keep you guessing as to the outcome. It's not a film to watch for the action of war as much as the mystery and intrigue, as if a spy game more than a war game.