Four Kids and It

Usual middle school & younger age appropriate hooks - wishes, magic, trouble ("There's consequences." - actually they're pretty tame.); brief romantic hook; feel good ending. Stereotyping of dysfunctional divorced families; kids want parents together the way they were. But, remaining male & female parent of each family have secretly developed a mutual relationship that is brought to light when both groups surprisingly show up at the same vacation spot; predictably, offspring of each don't get along with counterparts, but that'll change. Never found any of the characters likable or interesting; made even more tiresome with not-demanding acting. Bringing them all together was the usual nasty foil character as counterpoint. Oh, and the the wish granter (A well known actor voicing which sounded weird.).

It was decent. I have no conection to the source material. the idea is there but there lacked the focus. It could have been better, but it's not a new story and it does not improve compared to any story i know so far.

The characters are vile. Two of the girls especially are spoilt, uncontrolled brats who are horrible to watch. The parents should be ashamed of their parenting skills, and the awkward situation they put their children in. The CGI is really poor by today's expectations. A puppet would have been far more convincing than Caine's uncharismatic Psammead. It's a really poorly made movie which does the original story no justice.

And yet, my children love it (aged between 3-6). They've got the choice of masses of movies from various streaming services and they keep coming back to this. All of the greatest family friendly movies from the last thirty years, and they choose Four Kids and It. I'm not sure whether this is because my children have dreadful taste in films or whether it is genuinely engaging for a younger crowd. Either way, it clearly appeals to its target audience.

The movie had a good story to it, seemed cute, but I couldn't even make it to the end of it with one of the characters being such a despicable out of control character. And the mother of, "Smash" AKA Samantha had no motherly morals at all. Just because she was a single mother, doesn't mean her children needed to be such pricks. Couldn't Even make it to end of it

This movie is a flat adaptation wasting a great opportunity that the underlying story could have provided. It is presented without any real magic, chemistry between the characters or any sense of tension. What should be a warm, humorous family movie just comes across as cold, unfunny and cliched. Michael Caine's voice work is a highlight but his appearances are too brief. Russell Brand in contrast appears completely miscast in his role. Maybe young kids will love it, but in my eyes it doesn't have enough depth to work as film to be enjoyed by all the family.