Very silly, cute, but very silly, in thinking that they are a trilogy, and there are still 2 left, aiaiaia...
3 Reviews
Sully and cute...
RosanaBotafogo7 September 2020
Was made worse than it could have been
niceguy-737-81294016 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
TL;DR: Almost none of the things changed from the book were necessary or even contributing.
I grew up on Gordon Korman's books (I get the impression he's only a handful of years older than me), primarily the Bruno & Boots books (And this was only the first 4 books, I never realized he wrote 3 more in the series until a few years ago when I found them for my iPad). So when I saw that YTV was airing movies a few years ago I was so excited - except I saw the ad on a recording for a weekend airing when the weekend was about over. It took until this past weekend to FINALLY spot it on the schedule, I just watched it.
First of all, WHY do the second book first and the first second? I think I'm catching the other one next weekend, it remains to be seen if the viewing order matters at all.
Now, I recognize movie and TV adaptations must always disappoint because some material HAS to be lost, some has to be changed or updated, so I only excuse changes for 3 reasons: To fit the time available, to update it to current times, and for things that can't work outside of our imagination. Most of the changes don't fit any of these!
For example, only 2 characters have a physical description to match: Mr. Sturgeon/The Fish and Wilbur Hackenschleimer. Now, The Fish is perfect-looking, he really has the "Fish look" nailed as described. Very well cast. Wilbur, however, while not stated outright, is essentially Arnold Schwartzenegger but a teen. Similar German/Austrian names, same tall and bulky build. Wilbur seems easily mistaken for an adult he's so tall and bulky, and as a food addict it's clear that he's only saved from being fat by his likely workouts. In this very book he's described as being able to, and succeeding at, dead-lifting a piano for the talent show (which this movie skipped and swapped, more on that later). And with an apparent German/Austrian familial background, likely to be white. They CAST a skinny black kid whose only matching feature is being tall-ish. He is introduced lifting a barbell one-handed, but clearly seems like he'd be unable to do any of the things the literary version can, and is never depicted as particularly strong again. Now, I understand and support the drive to diversify the cast. They cast a darker skinned girl as Diane and it works great. But WHY pick the ONLY character where it makes a difference? Make Elmer someone not white, would work fine! (That kid who constructed a clock which was suspected as a bomb a few years ago, he had a GREAT look to be a non-white Elmer). Chris Talbot is artistic, that's it. He'd be fine as any race. Mark Davies - the newspaper guy/office page - appears completely absent, cast him! This change was unnecessary. And the actor appears minor, without a profile picture on IMDb, so not even some name to gain notoriety.
Since these movies are the wrong way around, we're missing the proper introductions to Elmer and George Wexford-Smythe III, again, unnecessary. And since I found out about the failed order I cannot find any explanation WHY they went out of order. They seemed to keep that George is a spoiled unpopular rich kid, but then make him a monitor! How does that make sense that a spoiled rich kid would CHOOSE to work? Seems to just be a cheap way to paint him as unliked, but that would be - and is - easily done just by showing his attitude.
Plus this adds that they wear uniforms and have a demerit system (at least, George hands out demerits, and has a "Monitor" sash suggesting they're legit), both of which being added being a major plot point of the fourth book, The War With Mr. Wizzle (which Korman seems to have unnecessarily renamed to The Wizzle War at some point), leaving not much to spark the titular War, which seems to be the third movie. Now, as a boarding school, uniforms make some sense, but it was still an unnecessary change.
Updating it with the kids having cell phones makes sense, but it does destroy a signature aspect of the series, the boys sneaking across the road at midnight to meet with Cathy and Diane for planning sessions. Now, okay, maybe they didn't want to portray such a hint at sexuality, maybe there's a writer from the 50s who doesn't want to portray a boy and girl together in a bedroom, but there was never any romantic interest anywhere between the students, including the main 4 (I'm on the fence about Diane's clear interest in Boots, makes sense but disturbs the innocence of the books).
Also, these visits, sometimes they'd get caught by Miss Scrimmage wielding a shotgun. Which means that when the shotgun came up as a plot point, they hadn't established it, so they changed it to a completely nonsensical morning star as an armed robbery weapon (which wouldn't work). Plus they changed the customer who bought it from a woman roughly matching Miss Scrimmage's appearance to a bearded guy for whom Miss Scrimmage couldn't possible be mistaken. Turning a logical wacky turn of events to an unbelievable mess, and for zero benefit, seemingly just to skip the shotgun!
Now, I must say, outside of Wilbur the casting is great. They all play their roles well, and casting Caroline Rhea - the only person I recognize, except I keep seeing Cathy lately including the reboot of Reboot - as Miss Scrimmage was a GREAT move, she's so great for the role (except that book-Scrimmage is very old and frail). They changed the name of her school from Miss Scrimmage's Finishing School For Young Girls to The Scrimmage Academy For Education And Awakening. Changing old-fashioned nonsense for new age nonsense feels a LITTLE more up to date, and fits a younger Scrimmage (the original idea seeming to be that Scrimmage was so old she still clung to outdated concepts of Finishing, now with this later AND her younger that's more of a stretch) but I remain on the fence about this change.
Another COMPLETELY unnecessary change: In the book, Boots finds out by letters that his parents don't like the underwhelming P. E. program, largely that they don't have a pool and York does, despite that Macdonald Hall is the top school academically. Bruno has Boots flood his parents with letters raving about the school to show how happy he is. After all their fundraising efforts Sturgeon shuts them down for being only motivated by jealousy, only to later find out that York has been poaching students, including Boots, making Sturgeon realize they had been trying to save their friends. HERE Boots mentions the possibility of leaving in FRONT of Sturgeon right at the beginning, telling Bruno at the same time, totally removing this later revelation, they merely guess that a pool will help, the mail campaign is replaced by a website and Bruno flooding them with emails about it, and they state that Macdonald Hall is only #1 in attendance, implying it's NOT a top school academically, a frequent source of pride in the books. The only GOOD change here is that changing mail for a video chat/website is much smoother and more fitting to modern day. Other than the electronics, NONE of these fit the criteria for an acceptable change. They don't save time, they don't modernize, and the book version is completely film-able.
One thing they kept was the Toll Road idea. But in the book the school was rather rurally located but on a fairly useful road so having regular traffic, they covered both directions, and their first "customers" were Mr. Sturgeon and his wife, so they were shut down before committing an actual crime. Here it's a suburban neighbourhood - not isolated enough for such a stunt - Bruno is doing ONE direction by himself, and Bruno states he has already collected $200 (40 cars @ $5), so he already broke the law.
Speaking of this moment, Mrs. Sturgeon - Mr. Sturgeon's softness and kindness conscience - is completely missing, putting a hint of her influence into his secretary Mrs. Davis. This works in the books because she is the one important person in his life not under his command, while Mrs. Davis is his employee, she can only realistically exert so much influence. Also it turns out Chris has been always silent, a point not truly sold until the obvious silence gag of having him speak at a crucial moment to everyone's surprise. Making him silent doesn't add anything except this cheap gag, which fell flat due to not properly selling the silent bit in the first place. As a secondary character only seen occasionally, it's simply not terribly noticeable (only that in the planning session he draws his suggestion, which just felt like it was selling that he's an excellent artist). In the books part of his character is that he has developed his art to the point where he is impressively business-like about it, like after graduating he'll slip into having an art business with ease.
Also the entirely co-operative team effort of Miss Scrimmage's and Macdonald Hall is turned competitive, quite destroying the wonderful united front they always have in the books, and nonsensically turning them into destroying each other's best effort in the name of competition - when the talent show was switched to a bake-off and Bruno and Cathy both turn to sponsorship - despite that they're both raising money for the same goal and sabotaging each other will cost the project money as a whole.
Finally, the final big fundraising, getting George's help to finish, is brought up completely flat since again we're missing the first book where it was established he's majorly informed about the stock market, so they change what's barely shy of guaranteed insider trading - seemingly almost zero risk - with a very risky bet on a long shot, making the move horribly irresponsible. They even KEPT THE STOCK NAME "Lorelei" and that it was lucrative! George's friend thanked him for the Lorelei tip!
This movie is so problematic, in ONE viewing I found and added 5 Goofs - as in stuff that's so wrong it's not personal opinion - without even trying.
So much missed opportunity here. Do better, please.
I grew up on Gordon Korman's books (I get the impression he's only a handful of years older than me), primarily the Bruno & Boots books (And this was only the first 4 books, I never realized he wrote 3 more in the series until a few years ago when I found them for my iPad). So when I saw that YTV was airing movies a few years ago I was so excited - except I saw the ad on a recording for a weekend airing when the weekend was about over. It took until this past weekend to FINALLY spot it on the schedule, I just watched it.
First of all, WHY do the second book first and the first second? I think I'm catching the other one next weekend, it remains to be seen if the viewing order matters at all.
Now, I recognize movie and TV adaptations must always disappoint because some material HAS to be lost, some has to be changed or updated, so I only excuse changes for 3 reasons: To fit the time available, to update it to current times, and for things that can't work outside of our imagination. Most of the changes don't fit any of these!
For example, only 2 characters have a physical description to match: Mr. Sturgeon/The Fish and Wilbur Hackenschleimer. Now, The Fish is perfect-looking, he really has the "Fish look" nailed as described. Very well cast. Wilbur, however, while not stated outright, is essentially Arnold Schwartzenegger but a teen. Similar German/Austrian names, same tall and bulky build. Wilbur seems easily mistaken for an adult he's so tall and bulky, and as a food addict it's clear that he's only saved from being fat by his likely workouts. In this very book he's described as being able to, and succeeding at, dead-lifting a piano for the talent show (which this movie skipped and swapped, more on that later). And with an apparent German/Austrian familial background, likely to be white. They CAST a skinny black kid whose only matching feature is being tall-ish. He is introduced lifting a barbell one-handed, but clearly seems like he'd be unable to do any of the things the literary version can, and is never depicted as particularly strong again. Now, I understand and support the drive to diversify the cast. They cast a darker skinned girl as Diane and it works great. But WHY pick the ONLY character where it makes a difference? Make Elmer someone not white, would work fine! (That kid who constructed a clock which was suspected as a bomb a few years ago, he had a GREAT look to be a non-white Elmer). Chris Talbot is artistic, that's it. He'd be fine as any race. Mark Davies - the newspaper guy/office page - appears completely absent, cast him! This change was unnecessary. And the actor appears minor, without a profile picture on IMDb, so not even some name to gain notoriety.
Since these movies are the wrong way around, we're missing the proper introductions to Elmer and George Wexford-Smythe III, again, unnecessary. And since I found out about the failed order I cannot find any explanation WHY they went out of order. They seemed to keep that George is a spoiled unpopular rich kid, but then make him a monitor! How does that make sense that a spoiled rich kid would CHOOSE to work? Seems to just be a cheap way to paint him as unliked, but that would be - and is - easily done just by showing his attitude.
Plus this adds that they wear uniforms and have a demerit system (at least, George hands out demerits, and has a "Monitor" sash suggesting they're legit), both of which being added being a major plot point of the fourth book, The War With Mr. Wizzle (which Korman seems to have unnecessarily renamed to The Wizzle War at some point), leaving not much to spark the titular War, which seems to be the third movie. Now, as a boarding school, uniforms make some sense, but it was still an unnecessary change.
Updating it with the kids having cell phones makes sense, but it does destroy a signature aspect of the series, the boys sneaking across the road at midnight to meet with Cathy and Diane for planning sessions. Now, okay, maybe they didn't want to portray such a hint at sexuality, maybe there's a writer from the 50s who doesn't want to portray a boy and girl together in a bedroom, but there was never any romantic interest anywhere between the students, including the main 4 (I'm on the fence about Diane's clear interest in Boots, makes sense but disturbs the innocence of the books).
Also, these visits, sometimes they'd get caught by Miss Scrimmage wielding a shotgun. Which means that when the shotgun came up as a plot point, they hadn't established it, so they changed it to a completely nonsensical morning star as an armed robbery weapon (which wouldn't work). Plus they changed the customer who bought it from a woman roughly matching Miss Scrimmage's appearance to a bearded guy for whom Miss Scrimmage couldn't possible be mistaken. Turning a logical wacky turn of events to an unbelievable mess, and for zero benefit, seemingly just to skip the shotgun!
Now, I must say, outside of Wilbur the casting is great. They all play their roles well, and casting Caroline Rhea - the only person I recognize, except I keep seeing Cathy lately including the reboot of Reboot - as Miss Scrimmage was a GREAT move, she's so great for the role (except that book-Scrimmage is very old and frail). They changed the name of her school from Miss Scrimmage's Finishing School For Young Girls to The Scrimmage Academy For Education And Awakening. Changing old-fashioned nonsense for new age nonsense feels a LITTLE more up to date, and fits a younger Scrimmage (the original idea seeming to be that Scrimmage was so old she still clung to outdated concepts of Finishing, now with this later AND her younger that's more of a stretch) but I remain on the fence about this change.
Another COMPLETELY unnecessary change: In the book, Boots finds out by letters that his parents don't like the underwhelming P. E. program, largely that they don't have a pool and York does, despite that Macdonald Hall is the top school academically. Bruno has Boots flood his parents with letters raving about the school to show how happy he is. After all their fundraising efforts Sturgeon shuts them down for being only motivated by jealousy, only to later find out that York has been poaching students, including Boots, making Sturgeon realize they had been trying to save their friends. HERE Boots mentions the possibility of leaving in FRONT of Sturgeon right at the beginning, telling Bruno at the same time, totally removing this later revelation, they merely guess that a pool will help, the mail campaign is replaced by a website and Bruno flooding them with emails about it, and they state that Macdonald Hall is only #1 in attendance, implying it's NOT a top school academically, a frequent source of pride in the books. The only GOOD change here is that changing mail for a video chat/website is much smoother and more fitting to modern day. Other than the electronics, NONE of these fit the criteria for an acceptable change. They don't save time, they don't modernize, and the book version is completely film-able.
One thing they kept was the Toll Road idea. But in the book the school was rather rurally located but on a fairly useful road so having regular traffic, they covered both directions, and their first "customers" were Mr. Sturgeon and his wife, so they were shut down before committing an actual crime. Here it's a suburban neighbourhood - not isolated enough for such a stunt - Bruno is doing ONE direction by himself, and Bruno states he has already collected $200 (40 cars @ $5), so he already broke the law.
Speaking of this moment, Mrs. Sturgeon - Mr. Sturgeon's softness and kindness conscience - is completely missing, putting a hint of her influence into his secretary Mrs. Davis. This works in the books because she is the one important person in his life not under his command, while Mrs. Davis is his employee, she can only realistically exert so much influence. Also it turns out Chris has been always silent, a point not truly sold until the obvious silence gag of having him speak at a crucial moment to everyone's surprise. Making him silent doesn't add anything except this cheap gag, which fell flat due to not properly selling the silent bit in the first place. As a secondary character only seen occasionally, it's simply not terribly noticeable (only that in the planning session he draws his suggestion, which just felt like it was selling that he's an excellent artist). In the books part of his character is that he has developed his art to the point where he is impressively business-like about it, like after graduating he'll slip into having an art business with ease.
Also the entirely co-operative team effort of Miss Scrimmage's and Macdonald Hall is turned competitive, quite destroying the wonderful united front they always have in the books, and nonsensically turning them into destroying each other's best effort in the name of competition - when the talent show was switched to a bake-off and Bruno and Cathy both turn to sponsorship - despite that they're both raising money for the same goal and sabotaging each other will cost the project money as a whole.
Finally, the final big fundraising, getting George's help to finish, is brought up completely flat since again we're missing the first book where it was established he's majorly informed about the stock market, so they change what's barely shy of guaranteed insider trading - seemingly almost zero risk - with a very risky bet on a long shot, making the move horribly irresponsible. They even KEPT THE STOCK NAME "Lorelei" and that it was lucrative! George's friend thanked him for the Lorelei tip!
This movie is so problematic, in ONE viewing I found and added 5 Goofs - as in stuff that's so wrong it's not personal opinion - without even trying.
So much missed opportunity here. Do better, please.
so many kids
SnoopyStyle5 April 2024
It's the misadventures of Bruno Walton, Melvin "Boots" O'Neal, and all their friends at the all-boys school MacDonald Hall headed by Principal William "The Fish" Sturgeon (Peter Keleghan). Their great rival is York Boys Academy run by Headmaster Hartley (Scott Thompson). Then there are the girls from the all-girls school across the street run by Eugenia Scrimmage (Caroline Rhea).
This seems to be the first of three TV movies. I would think that this would be better as an episodic teen show but they don't seem to have one. A TV series would be more fitting. It would narrow the focus to a few characters instead of spreading it around. All these kids are interchangeable and forgettable. I couldn't name anybody except two of them are in the title. I do recognize the adult actors here, but they shouldn't matter. This is about the kids and they're not popping.
This seems to be the first of three TV movies. I would think that this would be better as an episodic teen show but they don't seem to have one. A TV series would be more fitting. It would narrow the focus to a few characters instead of spreading it around. All these kids are interchangeable and forgettable. I couldn't name anybody except two of them are in the title. I do recognize the adult actors here, but they shouldn't matter. This is about the kids and they're not popping.
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