"Son of Rambow" is a hilariously fresh and visually inventive take on friendship, family, film heroes and the death-defying adventures of growing up in the video age. The story takes place in 1980s Britain, where young Will Proudfoot is raised in isolation among The Brethren, a puritanical religious sect in which music and TV are strictly forbidden. When Will encounters his first movie, a pirated copy of "Rambo: First Blood" his imagination is blown wide open. Now, Will sets out to join forces with the seemingly diabolical school bully, Lee Carter, to make their own action epic, devising wildly creative, on-the-fly stunts, all the while hiding out from The Brethren.

When school popularity finally descends on Will and Lee in the form of, oui, the super-cool French exchange student, Didier Revol, their remarkable new friendship and precious film are pushed, quite literally, to the breaking point.

Filmed in a creatively mad-cap, homemade style with a mostly amateur cast and a wry, comic-tinged nostalgia, creative visionaries Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith, a.k.a. Hammer & Tongs ("Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"), manage to capture both the agony and the giddy ecstasy of a camcorder childhood with humor, poignancy and a rousing dose of cinematic panache.

MOVIE REVIEW

Men have been graced with not one but two Rambo movies this year. The simply titled Rambo bulldozed its way into theaters earlier this year, much to the delight of fans looking for some mindless, gruesome fun. It was the explosive, bloody thrill ride I wanted it to be. Jump ahead a few months and we have the second Rambo film, aptly titled Son of Rambow Unfortunately, it is not the action-packed adventure one might suspect, but a childhood film inspired by First Blood.
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