I Declare War

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.

This is a difficult one. Great movie with great performances by the kids. But a tough one as the kids are playing with guns. Not real guns, they use sticks for that and use rocks as hand grenades, but through their eyes they are real. I hope that the recent violence and gun shootings don't put anyone off going to see this. It doesn't glorify violence in any way, in fact it gives an anti-violent stance. It reminded me of this generations Stand By Me meets Lord of the Flies meets War Games meets Son of Rambow. I really hope that it finds an audience. It deserves to. It made Ain't It Cool News' Top 10 list of 2012. It'll take some creative marketing to get people to watch it but in 10 years time we'll look back at it they way we look at Stand By Me now.

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

This film is surprisingly good. Very low budget with few sets or special effects and literally no adult actors, I Declare War nonetheless scores extremely high on the thought provoking barometer. It forces us to examine the real nature of friendship and perhaps to realize that true friendship is sadly extremely rare.

A group of about a dozen boys play out a war game in the local woods. There are strict rules of engagement and death is established through a direct hit with small balloon filled with red dye. No one is meant to get hurt but, as with all wars, rules are broken and the passion of the moment has its own momentum.

But this is not just a plot about the corrupting effects of aggression and power over victims. A whole series of relationships exist amongst these boys. The leader of one side has a 'best friend' whom he protects above the safety of others whilst the opposing commander, a dreamy eyed beautiful youth, is befriended by a besotted girl who will stop at nothing to impress him. There are ex-friends who have become enemies, jilted friends who wish to regain their standing and just normal mates who hang out with each other under the guise of friendship.

Each of these relationships is put to the real test and each is exposed for what it really is. In the end there is only one true friendship amongst them all and the stark reality of our own lives is chillingly revealed. This is not a film about war but actually about love. It is well worth seeing for all age groups.

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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