Pinewood Derby taken to an extreme...a hilarious extreme!
Added 8/10/2009
When Pinewood Derby time rolls around, the fathers of the troop go into competitive overdrive, seizing the car kits, and setting out to create the fastest car in the pack. Indeed, they lose all sense of proportion, and go to any and all lengths to win. But, it turns out that one father has a real edge - it seems that he quite literally wrote the Pinewood Derby Bible, and he made the all-time fastest Derby car. Argh! What can they do? What won't they do!
I must say, I found this to be a very funny movie. I wasn't a Scout as a boy, but my son was, and I saw some pretty strange things at Derby time. (No tales out of school, though.) So, I really see the humor in this movie. Yes, it does take it to an extreme...a hilarious extreme!
As a father of a Scout, I found the movie to be very funny. If I hadn't been a part of Pinewood Derby, I would maybe not find it quite so funny, so there is that. But, I did find the characters to be funny (especially Big Jimmy!), and the situation. I do not hesitate to recommend this funny and extremely clean family movie to everyone!
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great movie for all ages
Added 2/17/2009
My husband and I showed this movie at Cub Scouts one night and we all loved it. Such a cute family movie. Our Scouts are about to work on their Pinewood Derby Cars so it gave them an idea of what all goes into it and to keep the Dads out of it as much as possible. I recommend this movie to all Cub Scout Packs. Clean language with a great message.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Down & Derby
Added 1/6/2009
Purchased this because we have two cub scouts. They loved this. We had to share it with our Troop and pass it around to different families to watch.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Low Budget Movie
Added 12/9/2008
This was obviously a low-budget movie and it seemed almost as if the story was written with budgetary limitations in mind. That is, it's almost as if the director and writers worked hard to come up with a plot and set of circumstances that would allow the filming of the movie to be convenient and inexpensive. If this was the case, then they did a reasonably good job of working within their budgetary constraints because the movie is somewhat entertaining and reasonably well produced. However, a major flaw of the movie is that the fathers become unrealistically involved in a Pinewood Derby competition and pretty much squeeze their kids out of the contest and out of the movie. This plot twist was probably included mostly as a way to expedite the filming of the movie. That is, it is quicker and easier to film scenes with adults than with children and so it seems that the director took a bit of a short cut here. In many ways this movie is similar to "Kicking and Screaming" in this way. The key difference is that while the adult actors in "Kicking and Screaming" were able to compensate for this deficiency, the actors in "Down and Derby" would have been better suited to the role of supporting a plot that emphasized the kids a bit more! That's not to say that the adults lacked talent, but their performances (and the script they were supplied with) weren't enough to make up for the awkward nature of the story. All that being said, I still rate this movie at three stars!
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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This is such a dumb movie!
Added 1/6/2008
I've been involved in cub scouting for years as a mom and leader and have seen a fair share of pinewood derbies. I know this movie is supposed to be a farce but it is so over the top as to make it stupid. No dads are this selfish. It's clean for the most part (still, there are some mom's with plenty of cleavage showing) but it's just too stupid for words. If you really want to buy it don't waste a lot of money on it, buy it used or from a discount outlet.
2 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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