Son of Rambow (2007) starring Neil Dudgeon, Bill Milner, Jessica Hynes, Anna Wing, Will Poulter directed by Garth Jennings Movie Review

Son of Rambow (2007)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Will Poulter in Son of Rambow (2007)

At Times a Ram-Bore

The closest Will (Bill Milner) had ever got to watching a movie was standing outside the cinema with his family and other members of their fundamentalist religion to read the bible. That is until one day Will finds himself being befriended by Carter (Will Poulter), a young tearaway who amongst his exploits makes pirate videos of the latest movies for his bullying older brother. When young Will sees a few seconds of a pirate version of "Rambo" he and Carter set about making their own Rambow movie with Will's imagination running wild as to what they can do. But soon others at school get wind of what they are up to including French exchange student Didier (Jules Sitruk) and then news feeds back to Will's mother, Mary Proudfoot (Jessica Hynes) who calls on the help of a friend to stage an intervention.

I sort of like "Son of Rambow" or to be more accurate there are a few things in it which work but then plenty which doesn't. It sadly means that whilst every now and then "Son of Rambow" would grab my attention and make me smile it wouldn't keep hold of my attention. But then in a way I am not surprised because I don't think "Son of Rambow" knows who it is for because in part it feels like it is made for adults who will enjoy a nudge to their memory to what they got up to as children but it is done in a child friendly way which doesn't quite work for adults.

Bill Milner in Son of Rambow (2007)

To put this in to context the whole story of Will and Carter making their own version of Rambo, or Rambow as they call it, reminded me of my young teenage years of pretending to be in "The Great Escape". But then the detail of Will and Carter's exploits especially with Will's fundamentalist mother didn't have enough going on to keep me entertained with just the occasional scene such as are introduction to young Carter sitting in a cinema smoking away whilst recording "Rambo" off of the screen making me smile. But for any child who watched this I don't think these things would make them smile because they don't have that aspect of nostalgia to make them work.

Despite this "Son of Rambow" is still entertaining and it is the occasional scene which will amuse you especially when it comes to Carter's exploits which alongside piracy include stealing charity collection boxes from outside shops and much more. The reason why these scenes work is down to Will Poulter who has this look about which says mischief maker. In fact whilst Bill Milner delivers a nice performance as Will and one which is right for his character it is Poulter who gives the movie its energy.

What this all boils down to is that "Son of Rambow" didn't wow me like it has others and ended up an uneven movie which seems like it was made for children but then featuring a nostalgic storyline which only older audiences might connect to. Despite this it is sporadically amusing with many of the best scenes involving Will Poulter.


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