TrueJoshNight
Truly Dreadful Film
BootDigest
Such a frustrating disappointment
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
Ali Catterall
Among the American Library Association's '100 Most Frequently Challenged (ie challenging) Books Of 1990 - 2001', Thomas Rockwell's classic children's novel 'How To Eat Fried Worms' sits at number 96.Quite why it was deemed fitting for the ALA's sinbin, alongside such horrors as 'Mommy Laid An Egg', 'My Brother Sam Is Dead' and the ever-popular 'The Boy Who Lost His Face', is mystifying. As a classmate observes in Bob (The Banger Sisters) Dolman's very loose screen adaptation, "normal people don't eat worms." Well, not normally, but if there's a matter of personal honour at stake, boys of all ages will do all kinds of impossible things.In Rockwell's original novel, our young protagonist Billy is dared by his pals to scoff 15 fried worms in as many consecutive days. Should he succeed, he'll win a mini bike. If he loses, he has to cough up 50 greenbacks, along with those masticated worm segments.Upping the ante, the screen version of How To Eat Fried Worms sees 11-year-old Billy (Benward) obliged by fifth-grade despot Joe (Hicks) to eat 10 of the squirming critters in one day - else take a shuffle of shame down the school corridor with his pants stuffed with live nightcrawlers. For Billy, a dweeb-magnet in a new school, the task is further complicated by the fact he's already got a weak stomach. What follows may cause those of a squeamish disposition to mislay the contents of their own.If you've seen one worm devourment, you've seen them all, so to hold the interest, Billy's slithery snacks are given the Nigella makeover, with dishes called things like 'The Barfmallow', 'The Radioactive' (steamed in a microwave) and 'The Fireball' (drowned in chilli sauce); a flair for home economics previously unheard of in rough-and-tumble fifth-grade boys.Will Billy win the bet? Well, there's so little suspense involved - after the first wriggler's taken the train to tummytown, Billy has little trouble polishing off the rest - that it's pretty hard to care. Plus, it's difficult to believe that by forcing down the unsavoury fare, poor Billy will win a new-found respect and cease to be called 'Wormboy'. If anything, the reverse would be the case. One imagines him starting his first day at the stock exchange, and a fellow trader saying, "Hey... aren't you the guy who ate the worms?" Naturally, this is all secondary to the real message, driven home with the subtlety of a chainsaw; that bullies are made, not born, and if we only took time out to understand their problems we could unite both sides of the Gaza Strip. We're in Stand By Me territory, with that movie's blend of gross-out humour and heartfelt adolescent bonding, and those elements don't always prove such a digestible mix here.That said, Dolman's a good director of kids, able, as Herr Lipp of 'The League Of Gentlemen' would undoubtedly say, to "put himself inside an 11-year-old boy". Hicks, as the bullying and bullied Joe, is standout. The frankly horrifying rumour that one punch from Joe's 'death ring' will lead to a belated death by perforated ulcer in the eighth grade is a fine example of adolescent psychosis. While exchanges like "His mind told his vomit to stay inside his stomach." "Impossible!" "Yeah, puke has a mind of its own," would fit quite comfortably in a 'grown-up' comedy.The best line, though, is the one about an old woods-dwelling woman who the kids are afraid of: "Some people call her the two-headed witch. Know why? Coz she had two heads once. But one fell off."
Robert_Hearth
"How to Eat Fried Worms" (2006) Directed By: Bob Dolman Starring: Luke Benward, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Adam Hicks, Austin Rogers, Alexander Gould, Clint Howard, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Ty Panitz & Thomas Cavanagh MPAA Rating: "PG" (for mild bullying and some crude humor) I had read "How to Eat Fried Worms" when I was younger, but I hadn't even thought about it for years. When I heard they were making it into a movie, I remembered reading it, but nothing else about it. I saw the trailer and, I must admit, that I didn't really get the feeling that this would be a good movie. In fact, the trailer made it look gross and, ultimately, just didn't make me want to see the movie at all. In a world where trailers often show the best parts of the movie, a trailer that makes the film look bland is never a good sign. When critics greeted it with a surprisingly warm reception (I expected it to be much, much colder), I actually got excited. Could it possibly be that the trailer was just a bad trailer for a good movie? It has happened before. When I finally saw "How to Eat Fried Worms", I realized that the trailer definitely was misleading, though not completely wrong. It is far better than its advertisements suggested, though still just an average kids' film. It will entertain the kids, though parents will probably be grossed out and, ultimately, it just isn't anything special. "Average" is a word I have had to use far too much lately and, unfortunately, it is the word that sums up "How to Eat Fried Worms" as well.Billy (Benward) is the new kid at school and is, automatically, the target of the school's bully, Joe (Hicks). When Joe switches Billy's lunch with a bunch of live worms, Billy, not wanting to let Joe think he is upset, pretends to love eating worms and thus a battle of wits ensues. Joe bets Billy that Billy can't eat ten worms and Billy accepts the bet. Whoever loses will have to come to school with worms in their pants. How many times have we heard a plot similar to this--the new kid at school becoming the target of the token bully? If there has ever been a more tired plot beginner then I have never seen it. But, this is not the only thing that is clichéd in "How to Eat Fried Worms"? The middle and the end have also been done before, leaving absolutely no room for imagination or surprises. We have seen this all before.The performances in "How to Eat Fried Worms" are about what you would expect from its young cast. They are by no means award-worthy, but they all serve their purpose well enough, I suppose. And besides, the target audience really won't be complaining about underwhelming performances. Luke Benward carries the movie, because he is in almost every scene. He does a nice job…no complaints here. Hallie Kate Eisenberg, despite having starred in a few big Hollywood productions, is probably best known for starring in a series of Pepsi commercials. Here, she really isn't given much to do, but she does with it what she can. Adam Hicks pretty much plays the same old bully we have seen over and over again, time after time. I can't blame him for this, because he is a fourteen year old actor who probably hasn't seen a lot of the performances from which his character was ripped off. The rest of the cast does a decent job. It all worked well enough."How to Eat Fried Worms" is a horribly unoriginal movie. It was so clichéd and stereotypical that there was practically no room for creativity or originality. Unfortunately, for everyone who has seen even a quarter of the movies produced by Hollywood each year, there really isn't much of a reason to see this…however, "How to Eat Fried Worms" was not made for these people. It was made for kids…and, for kids, "How to Eat Fried Worms" is a solid enough watch. It's a safe film, despite being gross and almost completely repulsive, but kids will enjoy it. Parents probably won't. "How to Eat Fried Worms" is made specifically for its target audience and that audience will like it. Did I enjoy it? Well, I'm going to recommend it, but it isn't a movie that I would go out of my way to watch again. If I am ever watching television one lazy Saturday afternoon and "How to Eat Fried Worms" comes on, then I would probably watch it again. Despite being glaringly obvious, it's a comical movie that kids will have fun with it…even if parents will find it to be rather dull and completely uninventive.Final Thought: Kids will like it…regardless of how clichéd it is.Overall Rating: 5/10 (B-)
xavier24
I have to admit I did not finish this movie because it was so amazingly stupid and not worth watching. I watched it with a room full of kids, who also were not laughing at the stupid and crude humor. The director, Bob Dolman, seems to be so obsessed with sphincters and genitalia that it overrides the real story that I grew up with. THIS IS NOT A GOOD FILM FOR KIDS! Besides the fact that the content is so crude, the movie is just stupid has bad flow and has no intelligence behind it. What a waste of a perfectly good story. If you read the book when you were younger and loved it, then don't waste your time watching a movie that so badly botches it that it makes you angry. Buy your kids the book instead.
mcgrawfan52277
Saw this today with my 8 year old. I thought it was cute. I agree with the other poster that it wasn't anything like the book that I can remember, but we still enjoyed it. All of the kids are pretty good and all in all pretty entertaining. Billy is the new kid who accepts a dare by the school bully to eat 10 worms in a day. If he loses he has to walk down the hall at school with worms in his pants. The beginning of the movie is set up to show that Billy has a VERY weak stomach and pukes at almost anything. Hilarity ensues with a bunch of different way to cook the worms. Good message about standing up to bullies and of course, a sappy happy ending.
