Very well executed

Overrated and overhyped

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

You like magic? Imagine a bored parent who writes a school play and then decides to film it with random people in their neighborhood reciting a few lines, followed by cheap effects they threw in on their PC at home. That's about the level of magic here.When I looked this "movie" up, I was astonished to see that there is a sequel. However, considering that it appeared to have been made for free, then they shouldn't have had a hard time coming up with the money for another one. What's equally disturbing is the fact that it took no less than THREE people to write this, and yet another to work on the "screenplay".Rowdy Roddy Piper, if you can believe it, completely outshines the rest of the cast. You can't really blame unpolished child actors for not being very good, but with any level of decent input from a director or an acting coach (even a grade-school theater teacher) you would have gotten better performances. Since everyone else seemed to just walk in and read a couple of lines, we can't assume they wanted any level of "performance".As other reviewers pointed out, everything else about it was equally amateurish. The camera work, effects, costumes...probably all provided by the people in the movie, who hopefully didn't get paid for much of anything other than residuals from DVD rentals. As the end credits rolled, I saw that a number of the extras had the last name "Gregg." For his sake, I hope that they aren't related to Clark Gregg, the hilariously dark genius involved in Choke and Avengers, because that would be pretty embarrassing.Still, the kids were cute, if not good actors, and I disagree with others about letting kids watch it - if they're really young, like mine, it will still entertain them, mostly because they haven't learned how to differentiate this from anything good. I'm giving this 3 stars because Roddy and the hot mom gave fairly decent performances, and the kids did better than the rest of the adults, especially with the obvious lack of any kind of training or direction. Hopefully, if they attempt any sort of careers in the performing arts, they will look back on this movie and see the need for a bit of training (any amount would be better than none) before forging ahead.

It's hard to make a fun, enjoyable "bad" movie. I've seen a wide selection of b-movies, cheesy plots/writing, stiff acting, cheap effects. Some are good fun to watch. Others are painful to force yourself through without MST3K. This is one of the fun ones, filled with laughable content and easy to watch without outside riffing, one reason I gave this 3 stars.The plot moves along nicely enough, filled with bad lines (i.e. "The strongest bond between friends is friendship"), stagnant acting from most, and topped off with Roddy Piper's accent - a mash-up of Tom Waits and Christian Bale's "Batman" voice. Any fan of b-movies should add this to their must-see as a blatant Harry Potter knock-off with parts Narnia, parts Goonies, and parts SyFy Thor with extra cheese.

If I could give his a minus review I would give is a -10. Even with the synopsis I saw on my in home viewing service, I felt this was a Harry Potter rip-off. I was right to a degree.You shouldn't watch this movie it just not tolerable. Had the acting been better it would have been something to watch.Well this is NOT a movie/video on how NOT to make a movie as one review had stated it is one that shows you the actors should get a script long enough before the actual film date so they can be believable.A lot of the details are filled in by voice over from the "Know-it-all" girl (Hermiony Granger rip-off from Harry Potter)but in an annoying manner. While in HP, Hermiony at least is shown to get her knowledge by reading book. This "Know-it-all" girl just seems get her facts out of thin air and though are factual they come across as annoying.I couldn't watch it threw the end. I am glad I am not charged for each thing I watch on my in home viewing service.This is one to skip.

Amateurish in every respect. Not watchable. This movie was a big disappointment for my wife daughter. We sat down for an evening together and ending up annoyed and feeling cheated. The movie would be useful for anyone interested in how not to make a movie. A well made movie is seamless and the viewer is not distracted while watching to wonder about he skills of those who made the movie. Conceivably a viewer might be forgiven if they thought that anyone can make a movie. This movie is a sure cure of such delusions. Just watch this and get reminded of how much effort it takes to develop a coherent plot, to have words for the characters that don't make them sound repetitious and insane and to set up shots where viewers can actually see what is going on.