thomandybish

This film shows just how far the "faith-based" film has come. Four 13-year old friends venture into the Rockies in search of one friend's missing father, who was lost years before while flying his airplane. Of course, there are realizations about friendship and life. Yup, it riffs heavily (and shamelessly) on STAND BY ME, even to the point of one of the characters observing that their adventure is similar to the movie. The movie also suffers from some weak writing and acting, giving it an uneven feel. Despite these factors, the film does have some powerful moments, like one of the boys pulling a gun on his mom's abusive boyfriend and ordering him out of their single-wide, or a later scene by a river, when the same boy and the boy whose father they're looking for discuss their absent fathers. There's also some great cinematography of blue Colorado skies, mountain meadows, and craggy slopes--definitely one of the film's strengths. While it lacks the punch of STAND BY ME or other such films, FERN HILL is go for one go-round.

DEVIL TIMES FIVE suffers from barely-competent direction and editing so bad, you wonder if it was done by trained simians. What could have been a genuinely chilling movie about child psychotics victimizing a group of unsuspecting adults is sabotaged by some glaring continuity problems, most noticeably a minor character who is played by one actor in outdoor scenes and an entirely different actor in indoor scenes and Leif Garrett's famous goldy locks being natural in some scenes and a wig in others. Psycho children are scary, but we don't get any back stories to heighten our horror. Maybe that was the point. This flick has some pretty nihilistic adults, spouting soap opera exposition about failed marriages, infidelities, and non-committed relationships. It may be like trying to polish a cow pie, but it might be observed that the adults and their trashy grown-up "games" are a revolting counterpoint to the homicidal "games" of the junior wackos. Both are disgusting, but the adults and their "games" are socially sanctioned. I just wish some details were followed up on. Leif Garrett is shown engaging in some behavior that may have been filmed to establish a split personality element that the director abandoned or didn't explore. I won't detail what it is, but it's something that, given the theme of the movie and the fact that a pubescent boy is doing it, still serves to give viewers the creeps.