GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

dld-12881 SPOILER ALERT! - I was mesmerized by the acting of the two young boys who maintained such innocence and vulnerability throughout the movie. Some scenes were hard to watch, especially when the boys both got stomach aches and ran home to find their wonderful dog dead, or we're led to believe he's dead for a few seconds, but he's actually wounded and bleeding at the hands of the abusive stepfather. After being puzzled by the ending where the younger brother, Bobby, flies away in a home made flying machine, I had to go back and rethink the movie. Conclusion - I think the boys did build a flying machine. A flying machine that in reality was not capable of flying having been built by school age boys in 7 days. I think Bobby died going down the hill in his flying machine right after he said "I'm going down". It was Mikey's imagination that gave the Flyer the ability to soar and take Bobby off to safety. I think inside both boys knew that he was going to die but it was his only escape from the abuse he was suffering, since Mom didn't have what it took to protect her sons. The older brother Mikey had to believe that somehow Bobby made it and was still alive out there somewhere. But in reality a boy Bobby's age,if he had flown away, wouldn't have made it through a week without being discovered by someone who would have alerted authorities. I don't think Bobby was a figment of Mikey's imagination. My conclusion is based on the following: Bobby made the statement a few times in the movie "that it won't be long now" and you got the feeling that somehow he was going to be free from the abuse or that he knew he was going to die. And there was the scene at the gas station when they were filling the flyer up with gas and the gas station attendant was a young guy with a limp who had also tried to "fly" and his injuries which caused the limp had made the newspapers. To me that was an indication that realistically things were not going to go well. The really sad part is that in the end, Mikey is still trying to protect his weak mother when she still can't face what is really happening. Mikey sends her postcards that he wrote to look like they were from Bobby. Postcards that arrived after Bobby's death to assure her that everything was alright. Extremely BRAVE boys played superbly! Horrible mother! Wonderful dog! GREAT story told with sensitivity! Outstanding directing! The ambiguous ending drives home the point that there is no nice, tidy, happy ending in an abusive situation. The damage caused by domestic violence is deep and lasts a lifetime, destroying the ability to truly trust anyone.

luke5119 This movie is absolutely amazing. I first saw it when I was in Junior High and still love it to this day. There are so many wonderful elements about this film, that its impossible to pick just one. While there are a few "Yeah,..right" kind of scenes, if you really watch this film. I mean REALLY watch it and look at the point of the film, you'll understand. Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello really show their talent as young actors, and have amazing chemistry as brothers, even if they look nothing alike, lol. While I don't want to spoil anything, there are scenes that are difficult to watch. What I love is how unapologetic and real Donner was with this film in how he held nothing back. He wanted to shock the audience and be in their face real with certain elements of this film and for that I applaud him. He didn't sugarcoat it, that's for sure. Once you watch this film you'll know what I'm referring to. This is what you'd call a hidden gem of top grade cinema. Oh, and for those of you thinking of seeing this strictly because you saw Tom Hanks is in it, I think it's only fair to tell you that he is only a narrator for about 95% of the film and has only brief screen time.

Atreyu_II While this may not be a children's movie, it IS a movie about children and childhood. Talk about real childhood here, what the real childhood is and should be. This is from a time when childhood really was the age of innocence. Sadly the kids of our generation are totally different. Kids today seem to want to stop being kids way too soon, it's as if they wanna grow up too soon, acting and talking like teens or even adults, which just seems so wrong and inappropriate. This is a movie that can put a smile on the face of those who are able to enjoy it for what it is (without minding much about its unreal ending). At the same time, it is an important movie because it deals with abuse of children. This is a story of two really adorable and cute brothers (Bobby and Mikey) who have a tender relationship. They live a wonderful life for children, but Bobby is also cursed with the aggression he often suffers at the hands of his drunk stepfather "The King". And both often suffer at the hands of a group of bullies. That is so hard to see! Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazzello illuminate the big screen with the perfect naturalness so characteristic of children from the past, back when kids acted with the biggest naturalness of the world thanks to that innocence quality which no longer exists on today's kids. This results in wonderful performances.Tom Hanks has a minor role as adult Mikey. It's true that it is very odd the idea of Elijah Wood growing up to be Tom Hanks, but in most cases the actors chosen to portray the adult version of kids don't look similar to the kid actors who portray those kids.Overall, it's a wonderful movie, wonderfully filmed with a magical quality to it and gorgeous cinematography. A forgotten, misunderstood and underrated classic.This should definitely be on Top 250.

jt1999 Back in the dark days of 1990, the hoped-for Heir to the Spielberg Throne (after the failure of supposed whiz-kid Phil Joanou) was mistakenly believed to be pretentious Spielberg wannabe David Mickey Evans. Evans managed to fleece the studios for over a million dollars, suckering baby-boomer executives into believing his screenplay -- a combination of nostalgic, 1960s references and a disturbing drama about child abuse -- somehow equaled good storytelling, and a decent film. As Rod Stewart once sang, "look how wrong you can be."But the novice's artsy-fartsy, "E.T."-inspired script convinced enough people he was the next Chosen One -- the New Spielberg -- and so a deal was struck to not only buy the script for more money than 99 percent of the world's population will ever see in their lifetime, but for Evans to direct the film as well -- even though he'd had never directed anything in his life. Hey, how hard can it be to be another film-making genius, after all?Two weeks into the shoot, Columbia found out. His dailies were called "totally unusable" by the studio -- or at least those level-headed enough to not to have fallen under the E.N.C. (Emperor's New Clothes) spell. All his footage was scrapped and recycled into guitar pics.So what's a studio to do after sinking 10 or 20 million dollars into something they still believed represented the Resurrection of Steven Spielberg? Hire Spielberg himself to save the day? Columbia probably tried that.Enter old pro Richard Donner. Hey, he may not be a cinematic genius, but he gets the job done. "Superman" wasn't too bad, after all -- and the first "Lethal Weapon" was pretty good.So Donner steps in and grabs the directorial reins. Fortunately he manages to convince Columbia that the worst of the film's insipid fantasy sequences -- which would have played out like a ten year-old's acid trip -- have to go. Unfortunately, he leaves in the Crying Buffalo (ooh, how poetic) and the ridiculous, pseudo-Spielberg fantasy ending, complete with Clueless Mom perfectly content for the rest of her life to get postcards from her missing son as he circles the globe in his red wagon. Right.But Donner did manage to get a decent performance out of Elijah Wood. And Lorraine Bracco as the Idiot Mom wasn't bad either. Maybe Donner should be reevaluated. Maybe he's not such a phony Hollywood hack as everyone has always believed.The only reason I'm giving this over-baked misfire a 2 rating is that someone was smart enough to cast the great John Heard (but in the wrong part, of course). The kids do okay... though Tom Hanks' horrible, overly-explanatory narration nearly destroys every scene it intrudes upon.One might think that after the David Mickey Evanses and Phil Joanous and Troy Duffys of the world, the studios might finally wise up. One might hope that these hype-driven film-making debacles might prevent the Emperor's New Clothes syndrome from ever rearing its ugly head again.Doubtful!