Review of Kids World (2001) by Mickey M — 21 Feb 2008

"Ryan Mitchell" (Blake Foster) is your typical 12-year old. He has a bully of a brother. his parents don't understand him. He is part of a small clique of friends called "The Cool Cats Club" and has a crush on the girl next door, who is a year older. He even has to deal with a taller bully (Todd Emerson).

One day, while running away from "Detloff" (Emerson) and his gang, the "Cool Cats" fall into an underground cave and find a mystical light that grants wishes. After being grounded for not wearing his bike helmet, "Ryan" sneaks out of the house and goes back to the cave and wishes that the adults, as well as the teens, would disappear.

The next day, the children are on their own. The adults and the teens, except for "Detloff", who has lied about his age because of his height. However, the strange man in the neighborhood (Christopher Lloyd) the majority of the children either are afraid or make fun of hasn't disappeared because he has the mental capacity of a third grader.

Now, "Ryan" has to take responsibility in taking care of his younger sister (Olivia Tennet) while helping out "Leo" (Lloyd), who can't take care of himself, while being a kid running amok in a world without adults.

This is absolutely a kids movie, and the comedy in it reflects it. I think I groaned at some of the jokes in this movie more than anything else. Adults might get pretty bored with this film because there is nothing that adults will understand more than the kids. All the jokes are for kids, and will probably make them laugh.

There is some good performances in this film. A lot of scenes when the kids are running amok after those over 13 disappear seem to be ad lib, as they seem to be authentically having fun. One performance that wasn't that great, probably because of the character's limitations, was that of Lloyd. He was pretty believable, but he really couldn't shine in this role.

The special effects, like the whole movie, are pretty low budget. For a movie that is only about seven years old, the special effects appear to be older. It was pretty obvious that the special effects for the strange things that come from the "Wishing Light" are obviously added in during post-production and are not blended into the scenes very well. It was also pretty obvious that there was a light bulb in the thing, and the "crystal" part is made out of some sort of plastic.

Cinematography is not that great in this movie. Many times it was obvious that they were using a handheld camera to capture the action. The camera angles were pretty average through the entire movie.

The music in this movie was pretty forgettable. There was no use of well-known songs in it. In fact, there was not one song performed by a well-known music artist.

Sorry adults, this one is passable for you. But, if there really isn't anything else at your local video store, this could be a fair rental for kids.