Radio Flyer (1992)

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Good movie, mostly kind of sad but also kind of happy in a symmetric kind of way. And Frodo has always been a good actor.What annoys me is the way the movie, and Hollywood in general, put the blame of child abuse on men and alcohol. But the cause is rampant divorce and feminist extremists' denial of biology.Biological parents care more for their own children, and feminists expect their new partner to ignore that primal instinct. Children living with one parent and unmarried partner are more than 8 times more likely to be abused.Divorce is about individual freedom, and I get that, but people ignore that it leads to unhappy lives, it often bankrupts the biological father, and the children lose a parent, and in bad cases, children are beaten and even die because of divorce.Hollywood should paint a more realistic picture, but I understand that they are in the business of selling emotions, not education.

While this may not be a children's movie, it IS a movie about children and childhood. Talk about real childhood here, what the real childhood is and should be. This is from a time when childhood really was the age of innocence. Sadly the kids of our generation are totally different. Kids today seem to want to stop being kids way too soon, it's as if they wanna grow up too soon, acting and talking like teens or even adults, which just seems so wrong and inappropriate. This is a movie that can put a smile on the face of those who are able to enjoy it for what it is (without minding much about its unreal ending). At the same time, it is an important movie because it deals with abuse of children. This is a story of two really adorable and cute brothers (Bobby and Mikey) who have a tender relationship. They live a wonderful life for children, but Bobby is also cursed with the aggression he often suffers at the hands of his drunk stepfather "The King". And both often suffer at the hands of a group of bullies. That is so hard to see! Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazzello illuminate the big screen with the perfect naturalness so characteristic of children from the past, back when kids acted with the biggest naturalness of the world thanks to that innocence quality which no longer exists on today's kids. This results in wonderful performances.Tom Hanks has a minor role as adult Mikey. It's true that it is very odd the idea of Elijah Wood growing up to be Tom Hanks, but in most cases the actors chosen to portray the adult version of kids don't look similar to the kid actors who portray those kids.Overall, it's a wonderful movie, wonderfully filmed with a magical quality to it and gorgeous cinematography. A forgotten, misunderstood and underrated classic.This should definitely be on Top 250.

Back in the dark days of 1990, the hoped-for Heir to the Spielberg Throne (after the failure of supposed whiz-kid Phil Joanou) was mistakenly believed to be pretentious Spielberg wannabe David Mickey Evans. Evans managed to fleece the studios for over a million dollars, suckering baby-boomer executives into believing his screenplay -- a combination of nostalgic, 1960s references and a disturbing drama about child abuse -- somehow equaled good storytelling, and a decent film. As Rod Stewart once sang, "look how wrong you can be."But the novice's artsy-fartsy, "E.T."-inspired script convinced enough people he was the next Chosen One -- the New Spielberg -- and so a deal was struck to not only buy the script for more money than 99 percent of the world's population will ever see in their lifetime, but for Evans to direct the film as well -- even though he'd had never directed anything in his life. Hey, how hard can it be to be another film-making genius, after all?Two weeks into the shoot, Columbia found out. His dailies were called "totally unusable" by the studio -- or at least those level-headed enough to not to have fallen under the E.N.C. (Emperor's New Clothes) spell. All his footage was scrapped and recycled into guitar pics.So what's a studio to do after sinking 10 or 20 million dollars into something they still believed represented the Resurrection of Steven Spielberg? Hire Spielberg himself to save the day? Columbia probably tried that.Enter old pro Richard Donner. Hey, he may not be a cinematic genius, but he gets the job done. "Superman" wasn't too bad, after all -- and the first "Lethal Weapon" was pretty good.So Donner steps in and grabs the directorial reins. Fortunately he manages to convince Columbia that the worst of the film's insipid fantasy sequences -- which would have played out like a ten year-old's acid trip -- have to go. Unfortunately, he leaves in the Crying Buffalo (ooh, how poetic) and the ridiculous, pseudo-Spielberg fantasy ending, complete with Clueless Mom perfectly content for the rest of her life to get postcards from her missing son as he circles the globe in his red wagon. Right.But Donner did manage to get a decent performance out of Elijah Wood. And Lorraine Bracco as the Idiot Mom wasn't bad either. Maybe Donner should be reevaluated. Maybe he's not such a phony Hollywood hack as everyone has always believed.The only reason I'm giving this over-baked misfire a 2 rating is that someone was smart enough to cast the great John Heard (but in the wrong part, of course). The kids do okay... though Tom Hanks' horrible, overly-explanatory narration nearly destroys every scene it intrudes upon.One might think that after the David Mickey Evanses and Phil Joanous and Troy Duffys of the world, the studios might finally wise up. One might hope that these hype-driven film-making debacles might prevent the Emperor's New Clothes syndrome from ever rearing its ugly head again.Doubtful!

You got it right! Bobby was Mike's imaginary friend through the whole movie, even at the beginning when on their way to California. His mother knew of Bobby and didn't discourage Mike leaning on Bobby since imaginary friends are common with young children.That's why they both got stomach aches at the same time. That's why the boys' were so close.At the end Mike was letting Bobby go. The "King" was arrested. Mike could go on without Bobby. It's also why Mike's mother didn't seem disturbed when Mike received the postcard (Mike had written & mailed) from Bobby the Ol' West tourist stop and the other postcards from all over the world. You noticed Mike's mother turned the first card over and looked at the postmark. What a great mom doing the best she could in the late sixties.A 9 out of 10 for me. Brought back memories...