Legítima defesa

I guess this film served some useful purpose, in that it turned out to be one of the only things the entirety of my house actually agreed on. It is awful. Its complete predictability, its hollow sentimentality, its absolute detachment from reality are all marvels to behold.

The 'bully' is one of the least intimidating characters I have ever seen on film. I completely fail to comprehend just how anyone could feel threatened by such a sweet looking young man. I couldn't give a monkeys whether the main character played baseball ever again and I found the lack of any lifelike character laughable and pitying. The most realistic thing about it was the language, and to all those who complained about this, the truth is out... Kids Swear.

I watched this film because it reminded very similarly of a favorite Canadian film of mine, 'The Boy's Club' starring Chris Penna and Devon Sawa. While I didn't care for the baseball elements, I still enjoyed it. It is about three teen boys who have a bully in their life and this bully goes and bully's each one of the boys, they find a gun and they think can solve their problems with it. The film is from 1996 but I still liked it. The acting is good and has a good script. The music is boring though so I wasn't a fan of that. Unfortunately, this movie is not on DVD in the USA or Canada and is only on VHS but if you can find it, I say go and watch it as it is enjoyable.

8/10 stars.

This movie is an excellent example of film-making on a low budget. Based on the structure of "3 Little Pigs" plus variation, it is well constructed and fairly well cast (the bully, Hayes, is well acted but not really believable. Joey's mother is not believable at all). The story provides excellent opportunities for exploring parental and teenage values. Those that condemn this little gem of a film have, perhaps, a great deal to learn about films and film-making. This is a very useful film in teaching first year students about a variety of aspects of film.

John Hill. Senior Lecturer, Film Video and Multimedia, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa

This is a terrible piece of film making. I was shocked at all the bad language. I was hoping to watch a enjoyable family film with a touching story but was outraged by the content. There was no touching story just a bunch of foul-mouthed kids who mess about with a gun. Shame on you Kirstie Alley and Gary Busey.

I think this movie was quite good and it was not 'false advertising', it was worthwhile and deals with some realistic issues. I guess some teenagers are over-protected and don't know much about the real world but they can't be sheltered for life, matey. Believe it or not, this happens somewhere.