Admirable film.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The music was so corny I almost abandoned the video immediately. It was extremely bad and amateurish. It almost makes the film unwatchable, like something in a high school video project.The video is broken into 10-minute segments, each with opening and closing credits and a recap of the previous segment. This is tedious.The science is pretty shaky, but at one point went completely off the rails. They decide some stones point up permanently aligned with a star in Ursa Major. Vertical stones in England would never align so far north. Further, no English stones would be permanently aligned anywhere because the earth rotates and revolves around the sun.In general, the science is utterly embarrassing. It would be too silly even for an Austin Powers movie.I think the writer went to a math library and grabbed snippets and formulae at random to include in the script. Given that there is so much of this and that it is central to the plot, I think they could have hired a real (or at least student) mathematician to compose some plausible dialogue.The movie is carried by Matthew, a scientist's ten-year-old son. He is unusually intelligent, curious and spunky. He is a considerably better actor than any of the adults in the movie. The acting, in general, has a stagy feel with lots of contrived exposition.They show you something strange, then let you sit with it for a long time before giving their explanation. It does a good job that way of building suspense. The way they build unease is by showing you very ordinary things, but that just should not happen, like a giant stone appearing in a different place. There is almost nothing that would count as a special effect, other than possibly a dissolve.Despite all the negative things I said about the movie, it was engaging. I cared about the characters. It was creepy. The very last reel was high camp. I expected the villain to play Toccata and Fugue on an organ.

There is so much rubbish on children's television these days, much of it populated by good-looking American children. So to be able to stimulate one's children's minds a brilliant story from the 70s, fortunately still intact and available on DVD is a blessing.My own children thought that having to watch an 'old' programme was a terrible idea and would far rather have spent another few hours on their mind-numbing tablets, however I did manage to convince them to watch the first episode, and then if they didn't want to continue, they didn't have to.Well, they were transfixed and ended up thoroughly enjoying the story, the seven episodes divided up into three chunks.In my opinion, the great thing about the story apart from the notions of a mad high priest, normal people being turned into brain-dead zombies, people being turned to stone, and a narrow escape for the protagonists, is the idea of circular time, similar ideas having been exercised in Dr Who and Back To The Future to name but a few.It could and probably will, all happen again. And if you get the opportunity to visit Avebury (the location for the fictional Milbury) then pick a bright sunny day and do so. It took me right back....

I remember watching this series when it was first aired many years ago - In fact while I was still at school! I find it hard to believe its for kids, as the plot is a complex one that most young kids probably would not follow. The story is father & son visit milbury, (actually its Avebury, Wilts - Not far from Stonehedge), a village surrounded by a circle of stones. Once people enter the village they cant leave! Adam brake is the scientist who saves the day.The series was run mid 90's several times on the Childrens Channel. I managed to pick the entire series up on video a few years ago, now I want the DVD versions (somehow i dont think this will happen!!)Catch it if you can!

If ever any one ITV region was the head of the pack when it came to producing children's TV, then HTV West, on the merit of "Children of the Stones" alone, would be it.Broadcast in 1977, COTS is a 7-part fantasy series set in the fictional village of Milbury. Starring a pre-Blake's 7 Gareth Thomas and 70s telly stalwart Iain Cuthbertson, this delightful little series concerns a scientist and his son's attempts to discover the secret power behind the Milbury stone circle.This is an incredibly eerie sci-fi series and to call it a kids show is a bit of an insult. It is a well crafted tale, brought to the screen with some very adept direction and a remarkably haunting musical score.The performances from the cast are uniformly excellent and special praise must got to the talented youngsters involved.If you can get a hold of this tremendous series then I can highly recommend it. However, it has been deleted on video in the UK for some time.COTS is kids TV at its best - thoughtfully written, well acted, amazingly directed and a delightful, summery, eerie masterpiece. Because of its folksy score and pagan references COTS has been referred to as "The Wicker Man" for kids - it could be called a lot worse.