I managed to find this one netflix, and immediately the ratings told me that it wasn't going to be fun. While I don't think it's all that good, I can tell they tried to get the audience transfixed.
One thing I do not understand is how it goes from Jimmy losing his mother to him getting involved in the prohibition movement without his knowledge? How does this transition, exactly? The two events don't correlate to me and I didn't find it all that intriguing. That and it doesn't help that the acting isn't all that good. Sometimes the dialogue makes me cringe, especially when it comes to exclamations the characters give towards other characters, especially when Shorty was in the reform school. It just felt soooo scripted and unorganized and it was disappointing to see how little attention was put into how the dialogue was constructed.
One thing that I thought was kind of interesting was the friendship between Shorty and Jimmy. A lot of the interactions between the boys in the reform school was corny in general, but these two were the icing on the cake. That and I couldn't help but laugh whenever Shorty called him Big Boy. I'm sorry, but there is innuendo written all over this relationship and it's funny as hell. Being gay isn't funny, but combined with the corny dialogue and poor acting, it made things like that ten times more hilarious than they should be, especially when certain scenes intended to be moving. That isn't good.
I also had an issue with the Jimmy character. He's 15, and yet he acted much younger than he did; much too polite (that sounds awful, I know), too gullible, and very childlike. The actor was young himself, and died tragically two years after this film, but his work here wasn't very believable to me. He played off a kid pretty well, but maybe played it too well. Ironically the actor had a male lover before his death; it speaks VOLUMES. He stands just a little too close to other male actors and the whole time I am just begging for someone to kiss him--Mr. Kelly, Shorty, somebody! Give this poor boy some sugar!
I'm being generous with this and giving it a 6 out of 10, but I wasn't too crazy about this, despite my humor. I felt like they had a lot of wasted potential by spending so little time on filming it. A shame. I felt the topic would have made it similar to I Am A Fugitive In A Chain Gang. Awe well...
One thing I do not understand is how it goes from Jimmy losing his mother to him getting involved in the prohibition movement without his knowledge? How does this transition, exactly? The two events don't correlate to me and I didn't find it all that intriguing. That and it doesn't help that the acting isn't all that good. Sometimes the dialogue makes me cringe, especially when it comes to exclamations the characters give towards other characters, especially when Shorty was in the reform school. It just felt soooo scripted and unorganized and it was disappointing to see how little attention was put into how the dialogue was constructed.
One thing that I thought was kind of interesting was the friendship between Shorty and Jimmy. A lot of the interactions between the boys in the reform school was corny in general, but these two were the icing on the cake. That and I couldn't help but laugh whenever Shorty called him Big Boy. I'm sorry, but there is innuendo written all over this relationship and it's funny as hell. Being gay isn't funny, but combined with the corny dialogue and poor acting, it made things like that ten times more hilarious than they should be, especially when certain scenes intended to be moving. That isn't good.
I also had an issue with the Jimmy character. He's 15, and yet he acted much younger than he did; much too polite (that sounds awful, I know), too gullible, and very childlike. The actor was young himself, and died tragically two years after this film, but his work here wasn't very believable to me. He played off a kid pretty well, but maybe played it too well. Ironically the actor had a male lover before his death; it speaks VOLUMES. He stands just a little too close to other male actors and the whole time I am just begging for someone to kiss him--Mr. Kelly, Shorty, somebody! Give this poor boy some sugar!
I'm being generous with this and giving it a 6 out of 10, but I wasn't too crazy about this, despite my humor. I felt like they had a lot of wasted potential by spending so little time on filming it. A shame. I felt the topic would have made it similar to I Am A Fugitive In A Chain Gang. Awe well...