fourpuke

8-year-old Brent (Gemini Barnett) is sent off, for the first time, to the summer camp where his big brother, 16-year old Brooke (Scott Clifton), is a Counsellor. Brooke is at the age where girls are very important, but Brent is just a precociously confident, fun-loving boy who is also a master of the yo-yo. Both brothers are troubled by the same bullying Counsellor, Mike (Shane Van Dyke), and young Brent revels in getting the better of him. The film also stars Lee Majors in a laid-back role as the summer camp's owner / manager, Bug Hall appears as a Counsellor, and David Henrie (think Selena Gomez's older brother, Justin, in the TV series "Wizards Of Waverly Place") plays a bullying kid who calls himself "Bad" (an early victim is his own real-life younger brother, Lorenzo Henrie, playing Jerry). The uneven nature of the movie explains why it didn't get proper big-screen distribution in the USA, where it ended up as a DVD release (in the dreaded "standard screen" format) over two years after being made.

Apart from a minor thread about father-son bonding, the story is roughly split between focussing on big brother Brooke's problems dealing with the bullying Mike while competing for the same girl, Donna (Michelle Holgate), and also focussing on the mischievous, cocksure younger brother Brent protecting other kids his age and standing up to bullying from whatever direction. There lies the fault of the film, by trying to be both a teen and a kid's movie, it simply doesn't work, at least in one direction as kids will get bored during the extended, slower-paced "teen" segments. There are some good fun moments and maybe it qualifies as a family movie, overall it is good-natured enough, but don't be surprised if the youngsters get restless in places. Incidentally, Gemini Barnett was probably 13 at the time of filming, and certainly doesn't convince as an 8-year-old, although otherwise his performance is one of the stronger features of the production.

In England, in 1968, the Ford Motor Company employed over 50,000 men at its giant car factory in Dagenham, Essex, on the Eastern border of London by the River Thames. They also employed a few hundred women, many of them sewing machinists in the upholstery department, but paid less than the men for equivalent work skills. When management reclassified the women as "unskilled", they went on strike, and despite enormous financial, domestic and political pressure, including from their own trade union, they held out until they won their cause. The action also led to the passing of the Equal Pay Act, to help right the disparity between men and women's wages.

This is a very British, or rather English film, but so well made on a modest budget that wider audiences should be able to enjoy it. It manages to capture the flavour of the late 1960s through careful location shots, and the cast is superb, led by Sally Hawkins, very ably supported by well established actresses Geraldine James and Miranda Richardson, the latter contributing a star turn as Labour cabinet Minister Barbara Castle. On the male side, Bob Hoskins is perfectly cast (for a change) as a Trade Union Shop Steward, the reliable Kenneth Cranham plays the same, while John Sessions enjoys himself as the oleaginous Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Daniel Mays plays a long-suffering husband, and fans of the TV series "The Walking Dead" may just recognise Rick Grimes, actually Andrew Lincoln, as the dismissive school teacher at the start of the trailer. Despite being undoubtedly a "feminist" film, it owes its existence to an idea by producer Stephen Woolley, and it was written, directed and edited by men, all very sympathetically. I wholeheartedly recommend the film, which both entertains and tells a true story of perseverance.

Chase's father, a policeman, is wrongly imprisoned. A few month's later, during Summer break, Chase (Nick Whitaker) answers a call on a mislaid cell phone and an adventure begins, aided by his two pals, Mac and Jeremy (James Laub & Robbi Merrill). Conveniently for the plot, the owner of the cell phone is tied up with the baddies responsible for Chase's dad being in prison, and someone is desperate to get the phone back because of the incriminating information it can access.

This is a well-made children's comedy-action-crime-drama, well-paced, good acting (particularly young Nick Whitaker in the lead role), and some decent moments of suspense and tension. It is suitable as a family movie, otherwise it should keep a wide range of kids happy for the duration.