The
Stream (2013/Cinedigm DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C+ Film: C-
Though
the proceeds mean well (supporting the Boys and Girls Scouts of
America), Estlin Feigley's The Stream is a relentless rip off
of The Wonder Years (down to the dominant voiceover track) and
like watching a bad remake of The Little Rascals. Starring a
cast of amateur actors the script falls back on Star Wars
references, surprisingly taking some of John Williams' cues from the
original film and original soundtrack, and a bunch of typical
scenarios commonplace in coming of age stories. The filmmaking is
rough, the acting is rough, and while the core of the piece aims to
be heartwarming it ends up instead being corny and made-for-TV.
It's
summer 1981, and Ernest Terry (Jacob M. Williams) - like most boys
his age - is obsessing over George Lucas' Star Wars saga. In
the woods outside Ernest's neighborhood, capture-the-flag contests
escalate into sprawling Jedi battles, with bright yellow Wiffle ball
bats substituting for light sabers. But when a bully snaps Ernest's
already-damaged weapon in half, our hero and his friends accept a
mission: Follow a nearby stream to the town mall, buy a new bat and
return home before their parents realize they're missing. The
director Estlin Feigley, in essence, has made a family-friendly
version of Rob Reiner's Stand by Me or even Lucas' American
Graffiti but is far in superior to those films. Awkward pre-teen
characters wrestle with small crushes, big imaginations and
equivalent coming-of-age obstacles on a lazy summer afternoon. Even
the structures are comparable, with an older version of the main
character narrating our action as he fondly reflects on his childhood
memories.
Sound
and picture on the disc are average for DVD and nothing fancy
featuring a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track and a standard definition
anamorphic 1.78 X 1 transfer that would surely benefit to a Blu-ray
upgrade. English subtitles are also on the disc with a total running
time for the film clocking in around 85 minutes.
Special
Features include Meeting the Teen Filmmakers, Meet the
Celebrities, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts music video, PSAs, and
Trailers.
If
you are a fan of coming of age movies and pre-teen comedies then this
may be for you but for me personally, this film is a miss.
-
James Harland Lockhart V
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv
