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Son of Rambow
Paramount Vantage


7.7

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 17 votes
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FILM:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some violence and reckless behavior

Starring Bill Milner, Will Poulter, Jules Sitruk, Jessica Stevenson, Neil Dudgeon, Anna Wing, Ed Westwick, and Eric Sykes

Son of Rambow is a hilariously fresh and visually inventive take on friendship, family, film heroes, and the death-defying adventures of growing up in the video age. The story takes place in 1980s Britain, where young Will Proudfoot is raised in isolation among The Brethren, a puritanical religious sect in which music and TV are strictly forbidden. When Will encounters his first movie, a pirated copy of Rambo: First Blood, his imagination is blown wide open. Now, Will sets out to join forces with the seemingly diabolical school bully, Lee Carter, to make their own action epic, devising wildly creative, on-the-fly stunts, not to mention equally elaborate schemes for creating a movie of total commitment and nonstop thrills while hiding out from The Brethren. When school popularity finally descends on Will and Lee in the form of, oui, the supercool French exchange student, Didier Revol, their remarkable new friendship and precious film are pushed, quite literally, to the breaking point. (Paramount Classics/Vantage)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Garth Jennings
DIRECTED BY:	Garth Jennings
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 26, 2008 Theatrical: May 2, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	96 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Perhaps the most ingeniously imaginative element in Son of Rambow, a film exploding with imagination (some of it scrawled directly over the film in animated expressions of Will's private world), is its very conceit.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Funny and sweet and guaranteed to flood you with good feeling.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

In many ways, Son of Rambow plays like a pint-size, even cheekier version of the recent Michel Gondry film "Be Kind Rewind." Both are stories about people making movies not because it's their job but because doing so brings a vast sense of play into their lives.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Watching skinny-armed little Will pretend to be the spawn of Sly Stallone in a series of botched feats of derring-do is a treat, as is much of this film.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Jennings's film, with its missing fathers, sometimes threatens to become cloying, but it's almost always righted by a healthy dose of slapstick or the spectacle of little kids posing as muscle-bound killers.

Film Threat Jamie Tipps

This year’s diamond in the rough, a small movie that is big in heart and promises to be big at the box office.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

A quirky charmer.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Don't be put off by the title. This is no sequel, but a surprisingly charming British comedy that is only tangentially associated with "Rambo."

Chicago Tribune Tasha Robinson

A quirk-heavy comedy that tonally reads almost exactly like "Millions," as executed by amateur actors having the time of their lives.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

As is the case with many English comedies, some of the film's slang is hard to understand. But Jennings' sprightly films proves that although England and America are countries divided by the same language, they are united by slapstick comedy.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

Few movies have captured the intoxicating effect of pop culture on kids better than Son of Rambow.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

For much of its frolicsome, rambling running-time, Son of Rambow is like a guarana-spiked soft drink: It goes down easy and delivers a kick.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The film is filled with scenes about scrappy, cut-and-paste filmmaking, and the movie-within-a-movie that drives the plot also ends up as the centerpiece of the hugely affecting final scenes.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A gentle story that involves a great deal of violence, but mostly the violence is muted and dreamy, like a confrontation with a fearsome scarecrow that looks horrifying but is obviously not real --- or real enough, but not alive.

Slate Dana Stevens

Son of Rambow bristles with the anarchic energy of late childhood and a genuine respect for the life-changing power of movies--even (or especially) the schlocky ones.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A crowd-pleasing combination of buoyant spirit and occasionally dark humor.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

A likable, lightly sticky valentine to childhood, the 1980s and the dawning of movie love, Son of Rambow was written and directed by Garth Jennings and produced by Nick Goldsmith, the duo behind the underappreciated fantasy "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

Village Voice Jim Ridley

At its most likable, Son of Rambow evokes the rush of discovery that turns budding cinephiles into lifers--that delight in finding a film that seems to express or coalesce some inchoate yearning, including a yen to share.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

My only regret is that the film could not somehow take a leap forward to 1988. I would love to have seen what Lee and Will could do with "Die Hard."

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The resulting tale of friendship and family touches plenty of crowd-pleasing buttons but comes across as more than a little derivative.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

An endearing, well-acted trifle with lovely intentions.

Variety Robert Koehler

A sweetly raucous adventure. Widely quoted comparisons to "Billy Elliot" and Tim Burton overstate the case for what is really a modestly eccentric entertainment.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Luckily, Son of Rambow, a comedy that's part kid-buddy flick, part valentine to filmmaking - and full of heart - has both.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The team who made "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" display plenty of whirligig energy, if not much control or lightness of touch.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The shooting of the movie-within-a-movie offers the brightest moments in Son Of Rambow, a testament to the innocence of the boys' creative impulse and the sheer unlikely pleasure of their friendship.

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

A hodgepodge of popular kids' elements crammed into a mishmash of a movie.

New York Post Kyle Smith

An '80s coming-of-age comedy with more energy than ideas.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

The super-hip style is groovy but doesn't mask the fact that Son of Rambow doesn't really go anywhere special or say anything much. For a film about falling in love with the movies, its insights on them are next to nil.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

If it happens to hit you right - that is, if you happen to catch its wavelength of tear-and-a-smile whimsicality - the movie will speak to you.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

a a gave it a0:
Quite possibly THE WORST movie I have ever seen. How child could sit though the agonizingly boring plot I don't know.

Tom M. gave it a7:
An unusual flick, to say the least. Initially, it took some doing to make head or tail out of what was going on, but eventually the thing charmed me right out of my seat, and despite the difficulties I had deciphering some very thick British accents.

Mannie F. gave it a2:
the movie is long and dull...and if it makes u laugh at some point, its because u r plain stupid

Jay H. gave it a7:
Sweet film that is wonderfully acted and has a very powerful and moving story. Garth Jennings direction is very loving and perceptive. Great job, memorable film.

Dan H. gave it a10:
Very funny. I was very surprised. It's one of the year's best.

Chad S. gave it a7:
The Brethren is a Christian group(sometimes known as Brothers and Sisters), or cult, whose ascetic members have been known to eat out of dumpsters, and own not a single worldly possession to their names. Will(Bill Milner) and his mother are full-fledged cultists, but they live in a house with all the trimmings of domesticity. That's because the Proudfoots are Christians masquerading as faux-Christians. That's why "Son of Rambow" gets away with positioning John Rambo as being a better influence on Will, than God. "Son of Rambow" is quiet, unassuming, but pay attention, and a revenge pic against the church will emerge out of the sentimental ether. Will defaces the Bible, and a bathroom wall, with his cinematic-inspired graffiti. "Son of Rambow", cheekily, equates the holy book with holy s***. Here is a film that's tired of the church blaming Hollywood for everything under the sun. The violence in "First Blood" doesn't turn Will into a killer. Since all religions are patriarchial-based, when the mother finally takes a stand against the "cult" leader, "Son of Rambow" reveals a second streak, a feminist streak, which is all part of the film's concentrated, but covert agenda to subvert the feel-good picture with a pointed attack on theology and its practicing religious institutions, by using a doleful, quiet boy as its agent, to create some post-punk anarchy in the U.K.

Clockwork_Satan gave it an8:
I loved ever single minute of this movie. It mostly avoids the traps of becoming overly sentimental or whimsical and delivers some brilliant belly laughs, the characters are very likeable and, most of all, it made me feel like a kid again.

Son of Rambow Paramount Vantage

Son of Rambow
Paramount Vantage