A baby is born with no immunity. His mother is overprotective and literally tries to keep him in a bubble for his entire life. Sounds like an arty farty foreign film…actually that was “Dogtooth”, a Greek Oscar awarded film, copied in turn from another similar film. Overprotective parents and the sick extents to which they go some times is a familiar theme.
Except this one is all the fun without the dark, sinister obscure references. Other than the basic premise, which it doesn’t dwell on much, it is straightforward family fun and action. OK, weird at times. Boy in the bubble falls in love and the rest is just one big crazy series of entertaining events. Nothing to disturb or worry anyone, plenty grown up jokes included in between the gags for the kids; everyone has fun.
Come to think of it, why bother making a dark, grown up version? This was much happier and if anyone wants to think about overbearing parents, they can do it afterwards on their own time, can’t they?
5/10 if you’re a film critic (or lower), 7/10 for most families looking to laugh for an hour or so.
The old guy from Tibet is neither Jackie Chan, nor some martial arts guru. More like a regular guy you might want as a neighbour. The young guy is a New York pick pocket, smart kid but not falling into any easy pidgeon holes either. None of those overdone slow motion stylistic shows action movies on a budget often fall for. If our hero needs to take out ten bad guys, OK, he does some fancy stuff, but he gets on with it.
Plot is the normal thing. We all have to protect some ancient scroll with the secret to ultimate power. Twist is that some Nazi has been chasing it since the second World War. Yeah, we have heard that before too. But it really doesn’t matter, the take is fresh. My kids watched it straight after the Spiderwick Chronicles, same story, protecting a book from evil, but they didn’t mind at all.