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Son of Rambow (2007)

tomatometer

73

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 116
Fresh: 85 | Rotten: 31

Undeniable heart and charming young leads save the film's nostalgic storyline from suffering at the hands predictability.

75

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 7

Undeniable heart and charming young leads save the film's nostalgic storyline from suffering at the hands predictability.

audience

79

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 60,845

My Rating

Movie Info

As the summer sun shines down on England in the early 1980s, two boys who couldn't be more different are brought together by a mutual love of cinema and a desire to emulate their favorite action movie icon. Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is a well-mannered schoolboy being raised in an ultra-religious community that deplores such corruptive distractions as television and seeks to maintain its purity by severely limiting contact with the outside world. In order to exorcise his creative inner demons,

PG-13, 1 hr. 35 min.

Comedy

Garth Jennings

Aug 26, 2008

$1.6M

Paramount Vantage

Cast

All Critics (117) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (88) | Rotten (32) | DVD (5)

Jennings is clearly having a wonderful time recreating the fantasies of his youth, but sometimes his perspective get a little too inbred, and the picture suffers for it.

May 30, 2008 Full Review Source: Film.com | Comment
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

We cringe and laugh at -- and are ultimately moved by -- their clumsiness and innocence. And it endears us to the Rambo films in ways we never could have anticipated.

May 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Son of Rambow is an inventive and amusing coming-of-age movie that deftly entwines elements of farce and fantasy, rebelliousness and sentiment, while paying seriously funny tribute to the transcendent power of art.

May 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | Comment
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

These two boys have, along with writer-director Garth Jennings, turned a coming-of-age story into a treatise on both the fragility of artistic vision and the danger of popular opinion.

May 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

After the movie, I imagined its writer-director, Garth Jennings (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) being more than a little like Will, and the movie uncannily similar to one of Will's comic epics.

May 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Sweet and sentimental, a bit racy to be a kids' film, a bit tame as grown-up entertainment, Son of Rambow is still a magical romp about childhood discovery and the birth of a lifelong love of the movies.

May 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Rambunctious UK boys remake First Blood.

December 8, 2009 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Funnier than anything in this vaguely dark comedy is the thought of [Sly] Stallone sitting through it.

August 24, 2009 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | Comment
Boston Phoenix

(...) Una mezcla de aventuras inocentes, historia de maduración y amistad, y comedia bizarra con mucho de nostalgia por aquellas travesuras de cuando éramos chicos.

March 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | Comment
Uruguay Total

Crammed tight with every kid-pic cliche you can imagine.

September 15, 2008 Full Review Source: Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus | Comment
Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

It's a fun idea, but quite awkwardly staged and, in the end, not particularly engaging.

September 12, 2008 Full Review Source: The Australian | Comment
The Australian

A feel-good family flick that doesn't pander to the younger members of the equation.

September 8, 2008 Full Review Source: ReelzChannel.com | Comment

This is a winner, a film to which you can safely take your kids and enjoy yourself.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: MovieTime, ABC Radio National | Comment
MovieTime, ABC Radio National

Waffles between heart-on-its-sleeve candor and winking self-awareness.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia) | Comment
FILMINK (Australia)

Though the film is primarily designed to appeal to viewers in the early-teen demographic, a maturity and intelligence is at work here that will connect with many adults also.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Herald Sun (Australia) | Comment (1)
Herald Sun (Australia)

The script is not so much written as assembled, anecdote by anecdote. As a result, you never quite settle in.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | Comment
Sydney Morning Herald

It's a mildly startling choice of subject matter, but Jennings takes for granted that even the most innocent cineastes have their sadistic side.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: The Age (Australia) | Comment
The Age (Australia)

This quite charming film does have a strangeness about it; you feel that not all the pieces fit comfortably together.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | Comment
At the Movies (Australia)

I was not so engaged as to be moved . . . and felt impatient at the lack of dramatic pace

August 29, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

It may not all work but Son of Rambow is a totally original and really sweet film with an ultra soft heart

August 29, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

In every frame of Son of Rambow you can see the writer-director trying to create something sweet, gentle, humorous, and uplifting, and not quite succeeding.

August 22, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Its heart is surely in the right place. Yet so much of it just doesn't work...that it's hard to get very excited about it.

August 22, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Son Of Rambow is an odd hybrid beast - a film about kids, for adults, that kids will enjoy, too - and so Optimum's DVD package has been sensibly designed to cater for both markets.

August 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Eye for Film | Comment
Eye for Film
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Son of Rambow

The movie only misses on a couple target but sure gets points for being fun. It of course gets sappy, but it is tolerable.

May 4, 2008
Tomassgringo

Super Reviewer

A super adorable and beautifully shot film about film making featuring schenanigins and wacky hi-jinks.

March 11, 2008
kenstachnik

Super Reviewer

    1. Didier: I will be star of your movie.
    – Submitted by Ingri A (5 months ago)
    1. Will Proudfoot: I'm not supposed to be your friend.
    2. Lee Carter: What? What's wrong with me?
    – Submitted by Ingri A (5 months ago)
    1. Mary Proudfoot: Promise me you'll put these things out of your mind, William.
    – Submitted by Ingri A (5 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Der Sohn von Rambow (DE)
  • Le fils de Rambow (FR)
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