Richard Smothers

The comments in all the negative reviews I'm seeing seem to indicate a widespread lack of sophistication or imagination, and an absence of appreciation of subtlety, in the viewers. Those who have some liking and experience of Art House cinema will most likely really enjoy it. Those who liked The Hangover probably will not.

Cheaply shot, poorly edited, and doesn't even include the end of the trial or the verdict. Whoever the filmmakers were, they didn't put together anything in the way of a solid story or narrative, just pieced together some interviews, showed some clips from the courtroom and suddenly ended it with the suicide of the kid that blew his face off. What did they want us to take away from it? That the kids were unhappy and their parents were idiots? Ok, I got that. Not much of statement, though. In summation, it's an amateurish bit of work that, in the hands of more competent filmmakers, could have been presented far more powerfully.

The highlight of the film for me was the epic pirate ship battle in act 3. The way the dinosaurs moved and looked was an example of some of the best stop-motion animation since Apocalypse Now. But the real star of this movie was Danny DeVito, as Billy Wick, John's Mormon, Tarot card-reading father. Fun stuff.